About the book

Once upon a time, in a world that was both too small and too cruel, a young girl dreamed of escape. She was made of words and wishes, of ink-stained fingertips and melodies unsung, and she longed to become someone of her own making. But the past clung to her like shadows at dusk, whispering that she would never truly be free.

And then, she met him.

He was not a prince, nor a knight, nor the kind of hero that stories are usually written about—but he was kind, and he saw her. In his eyes, she was not the girl who ran from ghosts, but the girl who could create magic with nothing but a pen. And so, they became friends.

Oh, but it was never just friendship.

There was something in the way they spoke in half-sentences, in the way silence between them hummed with all the things they did not say. A love that never quite became, but never truly faded, either. For decades, they danced around it, apart but never gone, tethered by invisible threads and the poems she wrote in his name. He was her muse, whether he wished to be or not.

But life has a way of stealing things. And when her world turned dark, he could not bear to watch. She fought her way back into life, but by then, he was only a story she told herself in the quiet hours. And still, he was a part of the world in which she became herself. Until, one day, he was gone.

And something inside her broke—then mended, then took shape in words she had carried for a lifetime.

This book is a farewell. A love letter to the boy who was never hers, to the poet she became because of him, to the years spent weaving dreams into verse. It is a story of love and loss, of the ghosts we hold close, and the echoes that remain long after the last goodbye.

DELAY is a story told in fragments, in melody, in memory.
It explores grief, longing, transformation – and the kind of friendship that leaves marks long after it's gone.

Review of Delay: Growing Down

“Delay: Growing Down is more than a book of poetry. It is a song itself – unflinching, graceful, and deeply human.” (Kim Paluch)

As straightforward as a song, with delicious imagery and absolute honesty, JC Spark’s book of lyric poetry brings to life the poignancy of our existence. Her lyrics-turned-poetry shares her quests and questions, observations and experiences. Her growth and the grace with which she ultimately rises above the painful parts of her life are heartening and heart-warming. She shares the beautiful and the painful with equal honesty, and In doing so she offers us insight not only into her own soul, but into the nature of who we are as human beings.

Each page of the book is associated with a short descriptor in the table of contents, either a single word or phrase. Each page the home of two poems, different yet connected. Delay: Growing Down is more than a book of poetry. It is a song itself, its melody nothing short of the alchemy of Spark’s own life. Unflinching in her self-awareness, she is equally brave as reveals snapshots of her story -- who she was and who she’s becoming. In doing so she gifts us with the emotion and music that carried her through it all.

Her words carried me through a whole range of emotions. I have my own favorites among these pages. I can only recommend you read it yourself to find which moments are your own favorites. This is a book I definitely recommend.

Kim Paluch