Publisher's Synopsis
The Boy Still Trembling Inside of Me is a devastatingly raw, lyrical, and unflinching poetry collection that chronicles a survivor's journey through childhood trauma, abandonment, and the long, harrowing path toward reclaiming self-worth.
Written not from ambition, but necessity, these poems emerged like breath through broken teeth - the remains of silence too long endured. With visceral imagery and aching vulnerability, Ian Barrow confronts the wounds left by betrayal, bodily violation, and spiritual erasure, offering readers a brutally honest map of survival drawn from the ruins.
This collection is divided into four thematic sections - The Unmaking of Innocence, The Rooms Where Silence Lived, Remnants and Reckonings, and Inheritance of Light - each tracing the emotional architecture of trauma and the flickering resilience that endures even in devastation. Some poems arrive like elegies, others like exorcisms. None are softened. None are censored.
More than a recounting of abuse, The Boy Still Trembling Inside of Me is a fierce testament to survival, a reclamation of the body, memory, and voice. It speaks to the sacred resilience of those who were forced to bloom in darkness and names what was once unspeakable.
If you carry a trembling of your own - if you have ever smelled danger in the softness, or tasted grief in the clean - this book is for you.
You are not alone. You never were.
This is not just a book. It is a war cry - a defiance.
It is proof that survival is not silent, and that healing, though jagged and unfinished, is a light that refuses to be extinguished.
Content Note:
This collection contains themes of childhood sexual abuse, bodily violation, trauma, coercive control, and spiritual displacement. It was written not to shock, but to honour the sacredness of survival and the courage of those who continue to stand.
