Beneath the Masks of Love: Love is Something That Reaches Deep Down Inside Us and Rattles Whatever Lies Dormant Too Long ... for with Love Comes Illusions, Despair, Joy, Ecstasy, Liberation and More.

Beneath the Masks of Love is an anthology of poetry written over a 8 year period of my life. Originally I wrote it as a long love letter to a woman I had met during my evangelist years and fallen in love with, it was rejected by her. Thus heartbroken I continued and restructured it to fit a different audience. My second audience was the gay community itself, because so many people consider being homosexual a lifestyle or experimentation which to me it is not. Later I learnt more about gay rights and activists and their fight for equality, and I considered that there is really no equality gained from it but more separation in separate cruise ship holiday guides, spas, churches and more. My third audience, after more restructuring of the book became EVERYONE. This book is an anthology of poetry and sketches based on the theme of the ways in which the madness, passion and nostalgia of love are personified, presented and portrayed in our daily lives. It tells a personal story of my own journey to look within and find myself and an identity that is not based on religion, tradition, culture or sexual orientation. The point of restructuring this book for everyone is to create an understanding that regardless of the limitations set by moral precepts, perceptions and laws based on religion, tradition, culture and / sexual orientation we ALL go through similar conciliative lessons and vexations to learn to love unconditionally without understanding. Love transcends all boundaries. This book is an expression of my own personal journey which can guide you, comfort you or put words to the thoughts and feeling you cannot express. Personally it led me to a discovery of my own nature and relation to what I consider to be spirituality as well. This book includes some of my work published by The International Society of Poets, The Christian Poetry Association, and The Poetry Institute of Africa.