Here are some of my books.

The most recent is a collection inspired by the pandemic, or kind of. It started in protest and anger at the injustice and inequality that seemed to be increasing in the world of Trump, Putin and Johnson, as well as the accelerating damage we were doing to the fragile ecosystems of the planet. However, the ‘great silence’ offered by the pandemic lock downs seemed to offer us a rare chance at reset, so that the future has a chance to be different. What emerged was a collection of poems in three sections, before, during and after. It is angry, bleak but also full of hope. The book is great enhanced by artwork by Si Smith.

You can buy a copy here.

‘Where the streams come from’ is a collection of poetry that we most typically use in our collaborative work within Seatree. It was first pulled together for an exhibition of the same name.

You can buy a copy here.

Then there is Listing

You can buy a copy of this book directly from here.

Here is the Proost blurb from Jonny Baker;

Listing  is a little gem, a surprise that came Proost’s way over the horizon from Chris Goan. He loves crafting words, playing with words, chewing over words, creating and re-creating worlds with words. His poems and meditations are a delight, spinning off from and opening up new takes on familiar verses of ancient wisdom from the scriptures. It’s the second book from Chris on proost. The first is the wonderful meditation he wrote to go along with Si Smith’s images of Christ’s journey into the wilderness ‘40’. The books is available as both hard copy or to download as pdf.

Secondly. ‘Ten Thousand Places’, a book of poetry written over a ten year period-

This book takes some broad themes (Humanity, Family, Community, Faith, Wilderness) and looks for the deeper things of grace in the mix…

I curated a collection of poetry for Proost- which (energy/time permitting) may become an annual event. This was an attempt to pull together a new kind of spiritual poetry, and to give a greater voice to others who would otherwise not be heard. There are a few of my poems in but it collects poetry from all over the world- and it is simply brilliant. Even if you do not usually like poetry, try it!

This is the cover;

Thanks to Si Smith’s prompting I also collaborated with some really talented blokes in creating this book;

Here is the blurb;

We Who Still Wait focuses on the waiting and watching element of the season of Advent and takes us on a 25 day journey right to the birth of Christ.  Each day includes a beautiful original poem by Chris Goan, a provocative thought/reflection from Ian Adams and four beautiful photographs by Steve Broadway.  Together they invite us each day to engage meaningfully with the journey to Christmas Day.

A second poetry collection is now out, entitled Reaching for Mercy. I led a team of 7 other editors on this project, which is full of fantastic work from poets all over the world.

I have also collaborated in the creation of another book with Illustrator Simon Smith called 40.

This is a book of images and meditations written around the theme of Jesus in the wilderness. I originally wrote the book as a script for a worship event and it is still available in various forms as a download.

Some samples of Simon’s images…