Thoughts, no Prayers

Thoughts, No Prayers is a powerful debut poetry collection by Scott A. Morley — a poet, veteran, geoscience engineer, and relentless observer of the human condition. With raw honesty and emotional precision, Morley explores the jagged terrain of trauma, resilience, identity, love, loss, injustice, and survival. Through his verses, Morley invites readers into a space where vulnerability and strength coexist, where quiet moments carry unexpected weight, and where the fractures of both the world and the self are held up to the light. His poems refuse to offer easy answers; instead, they confront the truths many turn away from — the scars of war, the ache of disillusionment, the weight of memory, and the quiet search for meaning in a world shaped by chaos. Drawing from his decades of experience across military service, working life, and personal reckoning, Morley's writing offers readers a hard-earned perspective on what it means to be human in an age of distraction, injustice, and loss. Yet Thoughts, No Prayers is not only a book of darkness — it is also a book of light: of resilience, of connection, of the small moments of joy, humor, and beauty that allow us to endure. Morley's voice is both intimate and universal, offering an invitation to pause, to reflect, and to connect — not just with his words, but with the reader's own quiet struggles and hard-won insights. For anyone who has wrestled with pain, searched for purpose, or longed to find meaning in the chaos, Thoughts, No Prayers offers a deeply honest and ultimately hopeful meditation on the human experience.