In an era of fleeting attention spans and disposable content, poet and veteran Victor Stringer's debut collection, Lingering Light: 80 Poems, offers a counterweight: eighty poems written over twenty years, each one an attempt to capture what it means to hold onto the moments that shape us. Published by American Publishers Empire on July 19, 2026, the book is now available worldwide on Amazon in Kindle, Paperback, and Hardcover editions.
The collection's title encapsulates its central theme: some feelings do not leave when the moment does. They stay, resurface, and linger in the body and memory. Stringer, who has described the book as built around a single voice rather than a single message, moves between the confessional and the philosophical, treating ordinary moments—a first kiss, a child's question, a night on a battlefield—with the same weight usually reserved for the extraordinary.
Organized into seven thematic sections, Lingering Light traverses the landscapes of human experience. It opens with Love & Romance, featuring poems like "Being With You," which journeys through Central Park, the Eiffel Tower, and a Montego Bay sunset in search of what it means to belong completely to another person. The subsequent section, Loss, Heartbreak & Emotional Darkness, confronts love's aftermath, as in "Two Sides of a Broken Heart," where a man returns to a shared beach, holding both halves of a broken heart charm.
Fatherhood takes center stage in Childhood, Family & Innocence, with poems built from the unfiltered questions of a young child—like "Daddy, Will You Blow My Chicken," which includes musings on where the moon hides and whether ducks might speak Spanish. The collection then slows with Spirituality, Reflection & Inner Peace, where "Yogi Time" describes a meditation encounter with a golden light and a voice that insists there is still work to be done.
Travel and memory feature in Journey, Memory & Place, while Identity, Existence & Philosophical Questions probes what remains of a person after the roles of lover, father, soldier, and believer fall away. The most harrowing section, War, Struggle & Warrior Energy, draws on Stringer's military service. "A Young Warrior's Request!" directly addresses the politicians who send young people to fight, giving voice to those who must live with decisions they did not make.
The collection closes with shorter, lighter pieces like "Irish Dancer" and "A Pirate's Life for Me," proving that even a book rooted in hard-won honesty can make room for play. Stringer's work, spanning two decades, insists on writing what actually happened or what it actually felt like, rather than what would sound impressive on the page.
For readers seeking poetry that grapples with life's enduring questions, Lingering Light offers a reflective and emotionally resonant journey. As Stringer notes, the collection is unified not by subject but by a voice that chases something true, something that outlasts the moment it was written in. Those interested in exploring the book can find it on Amazon, with more information available at victorstringer.com.
