The Silence of Melting: Fragments from a Dreamscape

By Derek Oldfield

Memory is slipping, fragments of life dissolve into dream and silence.

In Derek Oldfield's The Silence of Melting, a restless speaker moves across moors, cliff-top benches, hospital wards, and Tangier avenues, collecting small, stubborn moments: a bird at a frost-edged window, a mint-crystal table under jasmine petals, a lamppost that leans awkwardly.

Each lyric tries to name what's fading-love, grief, and the outline of a self-using plain, uncanny images and spare, urgent lines. Interleaved throughout are Derek's own photographs and illustrations, turning the collection into a visual as well as verbal archive. If these fragments fail to hold, memory thins and identity blurs into emptiness; the poems make that risk immediate and intimate.

For readers who like Simon Armitage's clear lyricism and visual-driven collections, Oldfield offers a debut that feels domestic, strange, and quietly urgent. Can the careful keeping of small things-image by image, line by line-rebuild a life that is already starting to dissolve?

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0H6RD4XCS
• ISBN13: 9798951390981
• Release Date: June 2026
• Publisher: Book Publishing Plus
• Length: 88 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.0" x 8.0"