LONE: Poetry In A Year of Lockdown

by Jasmine Che

LONE is a book for every one of us. We have all experienced a life-altering year during this pandemic, with isolation from our loved ones, communities and the spaces we would frequent. Many of us feel as though 2020 was a year lost, one we are still struggling to integrate and learn from.

LONE is a collection of fifty poems and reflections, paired with vibrant illustrations by the author, Jasmine Che. In this memoir, she shares her experience of navigating a year-long lockdown, spent shielding her sister Bunny. The poems shed light on the rich, wild and colourful array of emotions we as humans can experience.

The collection captures moments and realisations, ranging from joyful, to anxious, to melancholic and curates these findings to help us reflect, glean treasures from the pandemic and nurture ourselves. In processing the trauma from the year, we become more skilful with our emotions, see the beauty that arises when we sit with them and are able to embrace significant change.

Jasmine has gone through multiple career changes and house transitions, became a full-time carer and experienced heartbreak and reconciliation. Despite this loss and change, she has found greater alignment across all areas of her life: health, well-being, romantic and familial relations, prosperity, community and deeper personal joy.

As well as poetry, she shares her practices for kind ways to relate to ourselves, boost mental well-being and a SOS tool-kit - fundamental anchors for turbulent times, that she used to navigate this period and recommends as an expert in the field.

The LONE collection culminates into a reservoir of self-love, self-therapy and candid poetry, where the freedom we seek is found through the body, the present moment and our mind's state.

Immerse yourself in these raw, honest and heartfelt poems and hand-illustrated visuals, that from start to end has been self-therapy and catharsis in action.

Genres: Poetry

98 pages, Paperback

Published July 8, 2021

About the author

Jasmine Che is the author and illustrator of the poetry collection 'LONE - Poetry In A Year of Lockdown'. She is an artist, poet, meditation teacher, and a multiple award-winning mindfulness, emotional intelligence and leadership expert. With her spare time she advocates for better mental well-being in schools as ambassador of the Federal Association of Emotional Intelligence, and co-hosts the Awake In meditation podcast.

She shares a flat with her younger sister, 117 needy houseplants and can be found starting new projects and businesses, or engaged in cooking experiments.

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jasmine shares her lockdown experience with such tender vulnerability in these poems. Her experience as a meditator shines through in the equanimity with which she recounts the ever-shifting conditions of her body, mind, and heart. Reading these poems brought me back to my own highs and lows during lockdown, and reminds me of the fact those feelings, those shifts, are not exclusive to lockdown, but merely the price we pay for living as a fully awake human.

[Natalia Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m thoroughly enjoying going through each poem. Each one is a journey of emotions which everyone collectively felt through the last couple years - from proud unity to eerie loneliness. Jasmine perfectly captures this period of self-reflection and to top it all off, beautiful illustrations accompany each delightful read.

[Eszter Fuhl · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is me, this book is you, this book is all of us.
It was an exciting journey to read it. I relived and recognized so many emotions.
I highly recommend this book to everybody, even if you don't like poetry, try it, it'll change your mind.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

A refreshing and inspirational take on the shared experience of our collective and personal worlds plunged into isolation. Jasmine has a gift in communicating authentic emotion and is surely a young poet to watch for the future! Thoroughly enjoyed!

[Angela Waweru · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved reading this book felt as if Jasmine took the words from my mind and wrote a book with them. I enjoyed reading it and actually prolonged reading it faster because I didn't want it to end. There was a lot of wisdom nuggets and practical tips that can be applied in everyday life that I have taken from the book and I shared with others too. I look forward to reading more of her books.
To all those that purchase the book... Happy Reading!

[Denise Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thoughtful compilation of poems with universal appeal. The reader is immediately immersed into intimacies of thoughts and emotions that are entirely relatable and enable one to feel that they are accompanying the author along the road she has journeyed and negotiated through the Lockdown period.

The illustrations, created by the author, are the perfect accompaniment to the poems; evocative and poignant, they give the effect that they are embracing her thoughts.

[Viviana Wu Liu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful work, beautiful poems. It was an alleviating read after the lockdown where many emotions were evoked. I’m sure anyone will be able to tell many more stories of their own experiences after reading this book!

[Mom King-Hunter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful thought provoking poetry

This poetry opened my mind and stirred my soul in such a way that I pulled out many passages to revisit and enjoy. A gifted writer.

[Thai · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve yet to finish the book but was compelled to leave a review. Quite an easy read. Yet not ground breaking , I find some poems refreshing like an amuse-bouche.

[Adele Adams · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the illustrations