The Book of Hours

At 4.17am on 6 February 2023, the countdown began in the search for survivors of the earthquake in Türkiye and Syria. Each hour that passed diminished the chances of finding any more survivors. And yet the rescuers kept finding people alive, young, old, and in-between. There are poems to be found in the stories of those who survived, those that searched for them, those that rescued them, those who waited for their return, those still waiting. Their lives are to be celebrated as much as the lives that were lost are to be grieved. Survival brings its own challenges as they stand among the rubble and detritus of the lives they had built and now must build again. These poems gather together many of these stories and pay tribute to the people to whom they belong. Perhaps the poems may go some way to helping these people reconstruct their lives, to continue the act of survival in a world destroyed. All profits from this collection will be donated to the UNHCR to assist the more than 300 000 people who have been displaced by this disaster.