Abandoned Gardens Still Grow

What if the parts of you you buried weren't dead-just waiting to bloom?

Abandoned Gardens Still Grow is a soul-stirring debut poetry collection by Will Rhem Jr., rooted in healing, identity, and becoming. Told in four phases-The Soil, The Seeds, The Water, and The Light-this book takes readers on a lyrical journey of transformation through the forgotten, neglected, and sacred spaces within ourselves.

With raw honesty and lyrical grace, Rhem writes into the heart of Black queer identity, reclaiming the parts of ourselves we've been taught to hide: the pain we inherited, the joy we denied, the versions of us we abandoned to survive. Each poem is both confession and offering-tender, bold, and deeply human.

These pages ask: What if the shame you carry could soften into self-love? What if survival wasn't the end-but the beginning of your bloom?

Abandoned Gardens Still Grow is not just a collection. It's a permission slip to feel, to grieve, to grow. For anyone who's ever felt invisible, this book is your mirror. A reminder that even in your most overlooked places-you are still sacred. You are still growing.