THE RELATIONSHIP EXPERT - Joshua Seigal Releases Debut Pamphlet of Poetry for Adults. And it's free

Since the end of 2025, I have been working, near enough solidly, on a pamphlet of poetry for adults. I am best known as a children's poet, but this has been the direction in which my creative energies have been taking me. A handful of the poems in the collection have found their way into 'heavyweight' publications - a big shout out especially to Poetry Wales - but I was left with the question of what to do with the collection as a whole. I started off thinking I would submit it to some big publishers. I tried my luck with Faber (no word from them), and there are any number of smaller presses I could and perhaps should have considered. 

In the end, I decided the self-publish it. Not in print, but as a freely downloadable digital document, under a Creative Commons license, meaning anyone is free to download it onto their devices, in order to keep and share it with others. I don't know if this decision is very brave, or very stupid. Maybe both. Maybe I should have waited until some editor with a PhD decided in his bounteous munificence to publish what I have to offer. But I'm not really part of that world. More to the point, I have deeply personal reasons for doing it this way. My way. I could expound at length on these reasons, but for now I will say only this: life is short. Traditional publishing is a cumbersome process and we never know how long we have. The world is a precarious place. The future is not secure. I want my little document out there, in the world, for everyone. I want it to bring a tiny little bit of joy to a small fraction of people. I think it is the best body of work I have ever produced. 

Here it is, available to download for free, on this link: https://archive.org/details/the-relationship-expert-by-joshua-seigal

Here is a sample poem, below. It's one of the poems from the book I'm most proud of: 

Grandpa David 

He agrees to meet on Hampstead Heath – 

a rainy Tuesday, the branches bare. 

He unfurls his umbrella for us to share. 

I become aware of the hip flask in his pocket, 

the packet of fags lying close to his breast.

As we synchronise steps, he tells me 

it wasn’t easy. None of it was easy – 

letting his fiancée’s family believe he had

a degree; getting up every morning

and donning a suit, to pretend to my grandma

that he had a job. It wasn’t easy walking

the streets every day until the sun

went down, then returning to a woman

who he knew didn’t love him anyway.

Can you understand why I drink now?

Can you understand why I smoke?

Look, I’m sorry, he says – I’m touched that

your middle name is David. And I’m sorry

I died before you were born. Shaking

rain from brolly, taking fag from mouth,

we part ways by the gates at Kenwood House, 

and glancing back – I couldn’t swear

but I think – he reaches for the hip flask

to have just the one more drink.

Joshua Seigal

Sending big love to all!