Coming Soon
Reality and Romance will be available for purchase on the bookstore shortly.
Publish with FriesenPress
Learn how you can publish your book with the world’s only 100% employee-owned publishing services provider.
Reality and Romance
by
Gay Beaumont
When a devastating head injury turned her world upside down, Gay Beaumont found herself separated from her beloved son and forced to rebuild her life from the haze of a coma. Amid the confusion and pain, she discovered an unexpected lifeline: writing. Reality and Romance is the culmination of twenty-five years of raw, heartfelt poetry and prose born from this struggle and recovery. Beaumont invites readers into the vivid landscapes of her mind, where daily pain mingles with memories of love, travel, laughter, and freedom from illness. She shares moments both simple and profound: raising a glass “to all the living and deceased”; seeking warmth and sisterhood as women share “the seeds of life, the grapes of time”; confronting the altered reality of her mind; and balancing chronic pain with fleeting glimpses of her old self, writing, “There are still spheres in my eyes / Gems in each breath, nevertheless / Electricity starts my heart.” Through unflinching honesty and lyrical wordplay, Beaumont transforms suffering into art, capturing the thorny coexistence of reality’s hardships and poetry’s timeless romance. For anyone living through trauma or chronic illness, Reality and Romance offers kinship and a gentle reminder that words can help carry us through life’s most challenging moments.
Gay Beaumont is a poet, memoirist, and lifelong explorer of the human spirit. Retired from a decades-long career in hospitality, she draws deep inspiration from her love of travel, history, and world cultures. After surviving a life-altering brain injury, Gay turned to poetry as both a refuge and a means of healing, documenting twenty-five years of resilience and reflection in her work. She is the author of Dinner With The Dead (2024) and Reality and Romance (2025). Gay volunteers at Brantford General Hospital, and she is an active member of the Royal Canadian Legion and the YMCA. She lives in Brantford, Ontario, with her husband. Connect with her and discover more of her writing at wonderfulwords.ca.
Contributors
- Author
- Gay Beaumont
- Artist
- Tina Barkhouse