Conversations with My Shadow is a poetic excavation of the self?twenty-four intimate poems chronicling a surreal, sometimes brutal, dialogue between a boy and the shadow he once feared. The Hatter, cryptic and chaotic, dances through the wreckage of trauma, grief, and identity?but somewhere in the madness, something shifts.

Through riddles, reflections, and raw truths, the voice once dismissed as madness begins to speak clearly. At first evasive, poetic, mocking?eventually, he drops the masks. Just once, he answers plainly. And that moment changes everything.

This is not a book of tidy verses or easy healing. It is a descent and return. A reckoning with the parts of ourselves we were told to ignore. These poems do not offer comfort?but they offer truth. And through that truth, the beginnings of wholeness.

If you've ever wondered whether the voice inside you is an enemy or ally, this collection invites you to ask deeper?and listen harder.

Is a poet whose work explores survival, self-acceptance, and the beauty hidden within madness. Born in Colorado and shaped by adversity from an early age, he has transformed hardship into powerful storytelling, weaving personal experience into every line he writes. Now residing in Iowa, Michael crafts poetry that speaks to the lost, the dreamers, and the resilient. His debut collection, The Hatter's Crown: A Journey Through Wonderland and Shadow, is a testament to the healing found in confronting pain, embracing one's fractured parts, and daring to create meaning from chaos.