Urban - Nature-Urban Symbiosis 1
Formats: E-Book, Paperback
Ages: 16-18, 18+
Where wild nature edges into the everyday, and the ordinary holds unexpected grace. Urban explores the delicate dance between built environments and the quiet life that persists within and around them. These poems move through streets and spaces with a watchful eye, unearthing the poetry in a cityscape fox at dusk, a shop shutter’s sigh, or ivy pressing through pavement cracks.
What began as one poet’s conversation with the city soon became a collection that resonated far beyond its concrete roots. This volume is grounded in stillness and movement, memory and moment. There’s nostalgia here, but also sharp presentness a sense of noticing what’s often passed by.
These are verses shaped by shadow and light, where man-made lines blur into the natural world. A child’s chalk drawing, a corner shop’s hum, Urban invites you to stop, see, and feel. The result is both contemporary and timeless. If you’ve ever paused at a traffic light and caught a glimpse of something beautiful, fleeting, and real this collection is for you.
Reviews
5 Stars - A gorgeous collection of urban verse This is a beautifully crafted poetry collection. It is akin to the lovingly penned odes to nature that were so typical of the Romantic Poets but King has dedicated his verse to urban cities and environments. "Groaning sound of cobbled streets/vehicle tyres it gently meets" In between poems are art and images which is a lovely touch and at the end of each poem is a note where the verses were inspired. Particular favourites for me are on P.12, about the urban fox, P. 26 about traffic and needing to fly away and P.54, Tollcross. The poet has a neat, structured style, with quiet percussive imagery. He is not trying to pretty up the environment that he writes about: he paints it just as it is. This is the poetry version of Orwell, say. The beauty lies within the simplicity of it.A gorgeous collection of urban verse This is a beautifully crafted poetry collection. It is akin to the lovingly penned odes to nature that were so typical of the Romantic Poets but King has dedicated his verse to urban cities and environments. "Groaning sound of cobbled streets/vehicle tyres it gently meets" In between poems are art and images which is a lovely touch and at the end of each poem is a note where the verses were inspired. Particular favourites for me are on P.12, about the urban fox, P. 26 about traffic and needing to fly away and P.54, Tollcross. The poet has a neat, structured style, with quiet percussive imagery. He is not trying to pretty up the environment that he writes about: he paints it just as it is. This is the poetry version of Orwell, say. The beauty lies within the simplicity of it. - Mirien Silowendë
5 Stars - King weaves poetic magic Urban is gritty, real, and oh, so beautiful as King weaves his poetic magic on every page, leaving the reader believing all manmade structures and features in our world grew in place like nature herself. An amazing accomplishment! If you haven't read King's work before— start right here. - Julie Kusma
5 Stars - Bringing the poetic to the familiar Derek King leads us on a poetic journey through a familiar landscape viewed through fresh eyes. A touch of the silent observer pointing out the forgotten, disregarded or ignored. The repetitive thought in my head 'I've never thought about it like that' inspires us to seek the poetic in the ordinary like the poet himself. - Lily Lawson
