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A Mix of Emotions

Nathaniel Terrell Author Interview

Is There Not a Cause? is a raw and unapologetic collection of poetry, songs, stories, personal reflections, and scenes of life that explore faith, pain, and personal development in a way that leaves the reader feeling raw and alive. What inspired you to write this particular collection of poems?

This collection was initially published in 2021. This re-release has over twenty-five new poems. My inspiration to write this collection came from time and experiences, loss, growth, pain, love, social climate around the world, faith, and more.

How do you approach writing about deeply personal or emotional topics?

I approach it the same way I do most of my pieces. I also do spoken word, so the majority of my poems are written from the perspective of me speaking to an audience or myself. For whatever reason, that makes it easy for me to share and or express deeply personal or emotional topics.

How did you go about organizing the poems in the book? Was there a specific flow or structure you were aiming for?

The beauty of the book is that there is no form or structure. The poems/stories/songs flow almost at its own pace, creating a mix of emotions, thoughts, concerns, and anthems.

How has this poetry book changed you as a writer, or what did you learn about yourself through writing it?

I learned how to truly lock in. This past year was a challenge in many ways. All in all, it made me a better writer, speaker, and performer. Writing this book was a great challenge in not depending so much on rhyming and rhythm. Allowing me to put greater effort into storytelling and free verse.

Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | X (Twitter) | Website | Amazon

“And while the journey gets harder my story continues with a steady flow.”
Published in numerous magazines and online, esteemed poet and wordsmith Nathaniel Terrell re-releases his first collection of unapologetically raw and honest reflections. If you are someone who prefers to experience life and savor its moments – sacred, painful, and true – you will find favorites in this collection that you will return to. The works will touch your soul in the way poetry should.

IS THERE NOT A CAUSE? by Nathaniel Terrell is a collection best taken one page at a time and is a collection worth savoring and rereading. Each poem is replete with the wisdom and enlightenment gained from someone who experiences life and savor its moments. His words are sacred, painful, and true, and his works will touch your emotions and will find their way into your soul, just as good poetry should.

This re-release is a powerful debut collection containing songs, stories, personal reflections, and scenes of life, with some new poems highlighting growth and maturity. Written from the perspective of a passionate, creative black man working hard to share his voice with the world, each poem paints a vivid picture of the soul of an artist. It grapples with topics such as life and death, racism, faith, anger, social injustice, division in the nation, and getting up after failure. These poems are meant to encourage and to provoke and desire, and will take you on a journey that starts fast and hard and dives deeply into the human condition.

Contemporary culture seeks to define us and forge our identities. Things are never that black and white. The real human condition is a personal journey through pain and ignorance as we seek hope, inspiration, and enlightenment. Each poem conveys important messages about the capacity to pry open our hearts and be connected with our true nature. His warm, inspirational words will encourage and provoke you to take a journey that will start fast and dive deeper. It’s an invitation to mindful presence where the words and artistic expressions compel you to find peace with yourself and the world.

For more on Nathaniel Terrell’s works, visit him on social media at natej.story or at http://www.natejstory.com.

Is There Not A Cause? (2014-2025)

Reading Is There Not a Cause? felt like diving into eleven years of someone’s life all at once. The book moves through storms, heartbreak, faith, rage, pride, fear, temptation, joy, reflection, and rebirth. The poems hit like quick flashes of memory, then long moments of confession, then hard truths about a broken world. The author brings God, struggle, trauma, race, desire, loyalty, and self-accountability into view and spins them around until they blur into something raw and human. I finished it feeling like I had witnessed someone fight through their own darkness and keep getting back up, no matter how messy the fall.

As I worked through the poems, I kept feeling this heat in my chest. The writing is straight from the gut, no filter at all, and sometimes it shook me because the voice is so exposed. There are moments when the author talks about faith with steady hope, then in the next breath, he crumbles under frustration. That mix felt real to me. Life flips like that. I appreciated how he never pretended to be perfect and never tried to make his pain sound pretty. Some poems burned hot with anger. Others were soft in a way that caught me off guard. I liked that unpredictability. It made the book feel alive.

The book hits you with one emotion after another. I admired that intensity. It felt like the writer refused to hold anything back. The honesty gave the work its power. I also enjoyed the wide swing between personal reflection and social commentary. One page dives into relationships that fell apart. Another page calls out violence, corruption, and spiritual decay. It is chaotic at times, but the chaos felt intentional. It mirrors the world we live in.

I walked away feeling like this book is for readers who want truth more than comfort. It is for anyone who has battled themselves, prayed for change, fallen hard, gotten back up, and kept moving even when life hit them from every angle. If you like poetry that talks plain and feels heavy and relatable, this book will speak to you. And if you are in a season where you need to feel seen, this collection has plenty to offer.

Pages: 128 | ASIN : B0FP76VCCM

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