In talking to, and listening to Sasha's poetry you'll be met by a deep poetic knowledge and understanding of the natural world, and the challenges it faces. I always learn something when I talk to Sasha, about identity, the body, the planet. Gentle lessons about rain, (or the lack thereof) in Antarctica, that the metallic smell of blood is a complex hydrocarbon and not metallic at all, or, that animals have an intrinsic understanding of their biology and habits and don’t need to be described by pronouns, Sasha included. When we met for the portrait shoot in Hyde Park and I mentioned the rock and tree sculpture, Sasha had already written a poem about it while waiting for me - “We put the bones of the planet up to the sky, I feel so choked, I am going to die…”. Later in the shoot we were cleaning up some broken glass and we had an idea to use it. I love the shot, for me it captures just a little of the enigmatic nature of Sasha. At the root of Sasha's writing is teaching, love and an imploring to take better care of each other, our planet and all the beings that inhabit it. I'll often receive messages from Sasha that say things like: “I hope that you are well today. Remember that freedom for all sentient beings lives inside your heart”. Carry that thought with you as you read on.
Please be mindful WSR content can be thematically sensitive.
I began writing when I was young; about ten years old. I wrote to express the greatest and deepest truth that I knew to be true: that I was not human, and that I simply existed in this human body.
I went through a lot of interpersonal trauma: physical, emotional, cognitive, and other kinds of abuse that had been pervasive through my entire life. It was only natural for me, as an adult, to turn to abusing my own self to fill the hole I felt in my life. I was trying to escape that which was familiar to me – the intense negativity bound to my own self-image. I turned to substances. There I stayed for seven years, daily use of anything that would take me away from what I was feeling.
When it finally came time to get clean, I was at the lowest point I’d ever been in my life. I had significant others who had abandoned me; they needed to escape me for their own safety. I didn’t have any relationships to turn to for reflection, and the idea that I could somehow be saved felt misguided. [I felt as though] I had nothing and no one but myself to blame, and so I began my journey with only two questions to guide me:
“What is a person?”
“Is this loving?”
Due to the sensitive themes in my work, it is intended exclusively for adults. I explore trauma, mental illness, neurodiversity, gender, and sexuality in relationships with authentic portrayals of their structure and function.
Altered State
Awake in a dream like ketamine twilight
The sun overhead like the moon at night
Don't fight - drift. That rift
is the soul
Wholly dark and massive, stark and passive
Serene
Unreactive
Dreaming awake like reality's fake
The moon below like solar glow
Shout and scream - that abyssal ravine
is NOTHING you've ever seen
Except in dreams
Except when awake
Life's at stake
It doesn't mean
ANYTHING
hole's a hole
and sleep is sleep
Don't keep running - naught shall ye keep
Don't keep shunning - pain shall ye reap
This truth of nature, sooth in stature
The gaps and what we lack
are ALL WE HAVE
to build, to yield, our sword and shield both
Let me sleep, let me rise
I walk the skies and seas
I run with beasts, unpoliced but for the
STRENGTH of my conviction
No contradictions lie inside
Paradox? Assuredly
And worriedly naked, I my fear forsake
To brave the day
the depths
the moon
It will be over soon.
On Writing
Relationships matter. It starts from a bedrock of utterly unshakable honesty. When I can lie to myself, I do lie to others. When I hide things from myself, I hide them from others. I don’t do it from intention; I do it because when I practice dishonesty as a habit, it becomes a habit, and it becomes a habit I can hide… because “hiding” is the habit.
From this position, I write about everything that has happened to me. My writing is mostly long fiction in the form of character novels. I love to explore the “inner world” of my characters from their perspective. I adore watching them grow and take on lives of their own, changing, struggling, overcoming, falling in (and out of) love, and truly becoming the people they want to be.
I think of myself as a wordsmith and psychic cartographer. I make maps of the mind and use words to tell people about these journeys that my characters are on. I don’t use AI for any part of my creative process. The ideas I have come from the experiences I’ve lived. I’ve also heard it said this way: “Why would I bother to read something someone couldn’t be bothered to write?” The journey for creative expression comes as a means of sharing growth and exploring what it looks like in all of its stages, from abject failure to utter ecstasy and everything in between.
I believe creativity is a trainable skill. Practice makes perfect, and learning how to start, sustain, and stop this skill is all it takes.
Favourite poets, poetry nights, books, or other resources
I don’t consume a lot of other people’s poetry, though Charles Bukowski comes to mind as some of the most poignant material I’ve read. More profound have been the authors and books that reflect my deep interest in personhood, identity, and consciousness. Authors such as Alastair Reynolds, David Brin, Isaac Asimov, Charles Stross, and Ada Hoffman (mostly science fiction authors) fuel my transhumanist beliefs – that being a person does not depend merely on the body they happen to be wearing.
I recommend The Wisdom of Wildness by Ren Hurst as an examination of how the process of “Self-domestication”, meaning to tame oneself to live in huge communities, is a source of trauma for human beings.
Music is also incredibly inspiring to me, especially when I have time alone to engage with it. Starset, CHVRCHES, and The Flashbulb (Benn Jordan) are my emotional noise in the background. Engaging with the endless ebb and flow of emotions inside me gives me the strength and capacity to channel it into making things of my own.
Follow Sasha
My work is exclusively for adults, and as such, is marked on a webpage with a consent warning.
You may support my creative lifestyle on my Patreon. All of my work is currently available for free, including my first novel which I’m publishing at around 2,000 words per day: New Horizons. I accept subscriptions and donations via Paypal if you believe my ideas are worth continuing to produce. There will be paid content in the future; I have about 865,000 words of material beyond this novel to get into shape!
May I remember the end of suffering in my life, and may I extend that to all emotional, experiencing beings.
Write Speak Recover, in collaboration with TheNeverPress is an open, free collection of original portraits of poets using their art to find strength in their recovery journey from any form of dis-ease.
We invite you to follow Write Speak Recover on Instagram and to reach out to Tim Foley at WSR or us directly at the zine to learn more, or put yourself forward to be featured in this initiative.
If you need support, here are some resources:
Samaritans
Alcohol Change
Recovery Dharma
Alcoholics Anonymous
Be kind. Stay present. One moment after the next.
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