Defeat/No Surrender

By Colin Greer

At the meeting point of social justice and spirituality, Colin Greer’s third poetry collection, Defeat/No Surrender, is a tribute to his late friend and spiritual teacher, Dr. Jerry Epstein. Following in a long tradition of ethical action grounded in spiritual values, Greer’s poems hold up a mirror to ourselves and our crumbling communities, exploring our longing for unity and the injustices that keep us divided. Mixing past and present in a collage of rich imagery, Defeat/No Surrender asks us to consider the truth of what we are and what we may become, imploring us to imagine new worlds beyond survival, showing us new ways of loving individually and collectively. Greer’s poems embrace humanity blemishes and all. He nudges us to see beyond the duality of “us” and “them”, gently reminding us to see the wholeness of life – its sweetness and its bitterness. Captured within these 57 poems are our souls’ calling for truth, kindness, love, and compassion. His words are terse and precise with a jazz like cadence. Enfolded within each poem is a message of hope grounded in spiritual awareness. “i see the shadow you’re afraid of. you recognize the shadow as yourself. you know about wholeness now. and you know what love is.”