Love is Not to Be Sold

By James Amuta

Love Is Not to Be Sold is a contemporary poetry collection about what remains after desire sheds its illusions.

In these poems, James Amuta writes from the quiet aftermath of longing - where love is no longer fantasy, transaction, or performance, but something heavier, more honest, and harder to hold. Written with lyrical precision and emotional restraint, the poems explore intimacy, masculinity, memory, and moral reckoning.

First published as Enigma: Beyond the Poet, this revised collection moves through imagined love, misdirected devotion, obsession, betrayal, heartbreak, and survival. Alongside these personal reckonings are reflections on nature, society, mortality, and time, grounding the personal in the universal.

Influenced by the cadence of hip-hop and soul, yet firmly rooted in literary tradition, Amuta's poetry speaks to love as labor rather than reward, intimacy without possession, and desire tempered by dignity.

This is modern African poetry for readers drawn to emotionally intelligent work - poems that resist easy answers and linger long after the final page.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9786843827
• ISBN13: 9789786843827
• Release Date: February 2026
• Publisher: James Amuta Company
• Length: 122 Pages
• Weight: 0.33 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.5" x 8.5"