No doubt you’ve spotted a young Roman Emperor looking lad waltzing with regal elegance about the Peninsula, navigating his electric wheelchair with Peter Brock dexterity in a fine-tuned way that’s not at all times exactly street legal. Keep that on the down low.
That’s Tom Oliver, sharply dressed, softly spoken, going places. A model and actor, a writer and Spotify artist, and the author of Still Fire. This is Tom’s debut, a book of 41 heart-wrenching, awe-inspiring, life-affirming poems, combined with illustrations by ten artists from all over the world. The poetry and artwork combine to fortify the raw emotional honesty laid out on the page.
That’s where most people would rest, content with their dedication, a masterful debut book with bespoke illustrations. No, not Tom. Allergic to sitting idle regardless of his limb-girdle muscular dystrophy, Tom is, at his core, a creator. And with the 41 poems borne from his life’s challenges to overcome physical limitations, addiction, extreme anxiety and depression, a suicide attempt at age 23, Tom is transforming his poetry into the Still Fire rap music album!
“At this stage, I feel I have a simple mission in life,” says Tom. “To turn my lived experience into something that helps others survive theirs.
“It became clear to me as I made my way through everything, that being at war with your mind is 10 times harder than being at war with your body.”
Tom’s battles with his body and the day-to-day impacts of limb-girdle muscular dystrophy can be considered unique to Tom, but the battles we all face to overcome the tricks our own minds can play on us is universal.
“In my early twenties, when I was really struggling and using drugs to cope, it led me to a suicide attempt,” says Tom. “Paramedics told me I was just fifteen minutes from dying. I spent 4 days on life support.” But Tom’s struggles didn’t stop there.
“After several hospitalisations, a doctor knelt beside me and said, ‘You don’t have nine lives. You have ten.’”
That moment became Tom’s turning point toward sobriety, and towards storytelling.
“Writing became not only a form of expression, but very much a means of survival, a way for me to process everything I’d been through, and to slowly rebuild a loving relationship with being alive.”
This clarity of purpose comes through at the very opening of Still Fire with Tom’s definition of life:
“To give and receive love everyday. To wake up with a purpose everyday.”
Congratulations Tom on an incredible debut book, on collaborating with artists from all over the world to combine your words with their creations, and to now be poised to unleash on the music charts!
Get your copy
Buy your copy of Still Fire now at tomoliverpoetry.com.au and follow @tomoliverr on Instagram for all updates and more details on when his Still Fire rap album drops!