BASKING IN THE CROOK OF MY ARMS

A Decade of Heart on Paper

Basking in the Crook of My Arms is more than a poetry collection – it's a chronicle of becoming.

From his teenage years at seventeen to the present, The Antagonist-Ari has crafted a collection that reads like a diary of the heart. Dedicated to Chineze Anigbogbu "for everything," this debut collection takes readers on an emotional odyssey through seven carefully curated sections.

The journey begins with Contemporary Poems, where sharp wit meets social observation in pieces like "Politics" and "Checkmate," before diving into Love and Reflection, where the intoxicating rush of new affection collides with the wisdom of lived experience.

But it's in the Heartbreak and Hurt Chronicles where Ari's voice truly breaks open raw, aching poems like "I So Can't Let You Go" and "Forgive Me for Dreaming" lay bare the devastation of unrequited love and the courage it takes to keep loving anyway.

The Inez Chronicles stand as the emotional heart of the collection – a profound tribute to a dearly departed mentor, muse, and friend known simply as "Writer." Through pieces like "Ode to Inez (Writer)" and "Inez and the Moon," Ari memorializes the woman who taught him that "poetry is not written – it's lived, felt, lost, and resurrected."

The collection closes with My Favorite Everything and Ari Be-Wilding, sections that celebrate the simple joy of loving and being loved, of finding home in another person's presence, of basking in the crook of their arms while the world spins on.

With influences ranging from James Arthur's music to the chemical reactions of love itself, Ari's poetry bridges the contemporary and the timeless, the digital age and eternal human longing. His voice – sometimes playful, often pained, always authentic, speaks to anyone who has ever loved too much, hurt too deeply, or hoped too hard.

This is poetry for the romantics and the realists, the heartbroken and the hopeful, the ones who know that sometimes the only way through pain is to write it down and set it free.