A Childhood Rooted in Simplicity, Faith, and the Soil of the South
Before he became an award-winning poet, poet, photographer, author, and artist, he was just a boy growing up, in Mayesville, South Carolina.
Toney, the last of nine siblings, lived in the time of fruit trees, domestic animals, housework, church services, and limitless outdoor fun. It was the kind of childhood that knew only about sun, dirt, and community – nothing about screens or social media.
“Life was fun, but not without its challenges,” Toney remembers fondly. “After homework was done, there were always chores to do, but with so many of us, everyone had a part to play.”
His memories are American, visible and palpable: Saturday-morning-cartoon with a bowl of Cornflakes. Baseball games organized by his mother. Days after days spent riding bikes, making mud pies, catching fireflies-these all were played out under the Southern sky stitched by Sunday church services and family dinner.
Life was a precursor to rhythm and work, the core elements of his writings.
There was a time when books were open in preparation for homework, class assignments, exams only, not for the joy of reading.
He was made to read books at school. He was interested in martial art fantasies with his twin brother Paul, outdoor adventures, and painting. Creativity had always been silently following him even in his childhood days.
He sketched.
He watched.
He wondered.
He asked questions.
Someplace inside, below the level of consciousness where he barely existed, language had already started weaving its tapestry of grace.
Discovering the Weight of Words
Words bear the mark of weight and consequence in Toney’s life and work.
For many people, words represent common or trite things used in argument and were soon disregarded by the speaker. To Toney, words have spiritual ramifications.
“As children, many of us clung to sayings like, ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words may never hurt me,” Or perhaps we playfully said, “I’m rubber, you’re glue; whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you.” Toney said. “How we wished those words were all true.”
After years of life forcibly instilling its own harsh lessons, life caught up with him.Broken bones often heal faster than broken spirits.
Many times we find that broken bones often mend faster than a wounded soul. A single harsh word can echo in our hearts for years, while careless comments can shape the way we see ourselves and others. With every sentence we speak, we have a choice: to build up or tear down, to bless or to wound. Remember, someone around you may be carrying a heavy burden that only a kind word can lighten.
He used scripture to guide him in understanding the language, and thus, Proverbs 18:21, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue,” became more than a verse. It became a philosophy.
For Toney, it is not necessarily about writing beautifully. “Yes, I want my words to build, heal, to encourage,” he says, laying out his philosophy in this regard. It is not just about guarding our speech, but also shaping the heart from which our words flow. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks (Luke 6:45).
This is the essence of Toney’s life work now.
The Moment Poetry Found Him
There it has been, within him for years the soft presence of poetry, always ready to come out in plain view.
It just happened during 2019’s lonely journey to Chimney Rock, North Carolina.
Having become inspired by his poem called ‘Autumn Falling,’ Toney visited the mountains in search of the beauty he had assimilated through language. The view was breath- taking, but it was the people whom he met that truly ministered Toney.
He walked into The Esmeralda Inn & Restaurant, longing for the opportunity to share, to hopefully encourage. Vickie, a staff member, after a brief introduction, allowed him to read the poem to her. Right in front of “Guest Check-in” for the first time, his body full of anticipation and fear, he shared “Autumn Falling.” He was not prepared for her response.
Her response startled him, practically.
With tears running down her face, she thanked him.
“It was not even on my radar,” is how Toney remembers it.
The event triggered the signal of a transition. That became the time when his voice could reach beyond ears and touch the soul, and his words could heal beyond himself.
A whole other incident featuring Toney occurred during that very trip. This occurrence took place at a quaint little store, Natives Rest Candles, nestled in the heart of Chimney Rock, where a tremendously huge boulder was poised inside of this store, serving as the counter top. The owner, Heidi Ladlee, welcomed me with the warmest smile, I had the privilege of sharing my poem with her. I was reminded that life is more than views and moments – it’s also about the people we meet along the way, and the courage to share what God has placed within us.
“This moment got me thinking of life-values and people,” he expresses.
From Photographer to Spoken-Word Artist
Toney’s creative journey was never confined to one medium.
Before many readers discovered his poetry, he was working as a Combat Photographer, USAR and a freelance photographer for the Fayetteville Arts Council in North Carolina. Photography was an advantage to his quest-for detail, atmosphere, stillness, and emotional nuance.
One defining moment for him becomes a memory of photographing “A Dickens Holiday” in the downtown area of Fayetteville. Looking down from the top of the Market House while directing his camera’s angle to that historic location, formerly a market for the sale of humans, Toney struck a deeply felt emotion.
” I happened to glance down at my feet, and this thought came to me, ”It’s possible, I may be standing in the very spot a slave stood, bound. Yet, I stand here free, doing what I love to do.” “And then the miracle of my creative urge?”
This event would later provoke him to write the poem “Stand Free.”
Photography and poetry have since mingled together in his creative process.
“One typically leads me to the other,” he says.
The water droplets contemplated were resting on leaves.
Whether in spring time or autumn travel through the scenic hills of North Carolina – images eluted words, and words spawned images.
“And images can create words and words can create images,” he said.
That was the fifth day of August, 2022.
It happened at an open mic night at The Sweet Palette in Fayetteville, NC when, for the first time, Toney took the challenge to step up to the mic as a spoken-word artist.
“You ever stepped into a room
and feel your heart racing before you even say a word?
You know this is where you’re meant to be-
the mic sounds so nice,
but your mind is still asking.. will my offering suffice?”
His eyes closed in concentration.
But he spoke anyway.
That night signaled the big public persona that he quietly built for himself over the years within the artistic café.
Seasons: The Beautiful Transition
Toney’s beautiful book Seasons is at the very heart of his growing influence.
By portraying very different shades of human experience through season metaphors, i.e., winter, spring, summer, and autumn, the volume underlines grief, growth, waiting, renewal, loss, and spiritual transformation.
The whole concept is plain, yet so emotionally profound.
“There were times God allowed…
what I felt like was silence, stillness, and burial,” confesses Toney.
Buried seeds signal invisible preparation; roots growing beneath the soil symbolize spiritual growth happening invisibly before outward breakthrough ever appears. “Before the stem grows up and above ground, the roots must grow down and deep, that takes time” he imparts.
This particular image becomes the emotional heart of the book. Too many times the readers going through the hard chapters of life felt abandoned in their stillness. Toney fights it very directly.
He sees waiting as having a purpose. Waiting in difficult times causes us to face what we really believe about the goodness of God.
One season prepares a heart for the next.
In contrast to a culture that is all about recklessness and instant gratification, his message appears particularly patient and profoundly spiritual.
The result is not simply a poetry collection but a meditation on perseverance and faith and divine timing.
Faith as the Foundation of Creativity
For Toney, faith is certainly the center of everything he does.
For example, he openly gives credit to Jesus, “the Author of Creativity” believing that the giftedness of artistic talent points to the sheer genius of divine design. “It is established that we are first a creation of His, gifted with the ability to create”.
“Art is not just the product of creation; it is the evidence of the Creator.” Through art, he expresses God’s beauty, God’s truth, and His love in the world.
Hence, the somewhat wellspring of powerful emotion in the writing of Toney. Even his poems about grief, divorce, doubt, or struggle turn to hope, over and over again, despair as an after-thought.
One of the hardest times of his life was his divorce, which taught him the crusade for forgiveness and emotional fortitude. Instead of allowing pain to become a pathway for bitterness, he has learned to see it as a road into understanding and empathy.
‘Don’t let the intensity of your circumstances deceive you into thinking that you are alone. The presence of heat is not the absence of God. Quite the opposite – He promised, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).
That is the same feeling all through some of the lines in Seasons: The Beautiful Transition.
Here, the reader is comforted on quite a number of occasions by the couplets that suggest the winter is never permanent.
Spring always comes.
Recognition, Awards, and Validation
Then came acknowledgment as Toney’s work developed further.
Luxembourg Art Prize, an international art competition extolled the whole world over, was joined by him, and a Certificate of Artistic Achievement was bestowed upon him. But the acknowledgment held too deep an emotional background for an artist once mired well into the devil of imposter syndrome.
“It helped to silence the doubt,” he lets out.
Soon afterwards, Seasons: The Beautiful Transition also acquired an International Impact Book Award, finally offering him recognition as an award-winning author.
However, the experience that touched him most dearly took place miles away from any stage or awards ceremony.
While flying to Phoenix, Arizona-the city where the ceremony was to take place for him because he had already won an award-he had a chat with a woman, Lynda, sitting beside him. The bereft woman was heading back home after her father passed away. He listened
Quickly moved by the conversation, Toney handed her a copy of his book with his signature before they landed.
Days later, she contacted him.
She read the book in one go, on the plane.
And it soothed her.
For Toney this moment became confirmation of purpose.
“What are the chances,” he recalls, “that the same weekend I receive an award for my book, I give my book to a grieving stranger, and it brings peace to her heart?”
To him, the encounter was no accident, actually.
Divine orchestration it was.
A Message for Every Season of Life
Beyond his creativity, family, faith, and service keep Toney rooted. In addition to all else, he is a Christian, US. Army retiree, father, grandfather, teacher, greeter, and eternal student.
He remains humble, even as he undeniably gains prominence.
The crux of his message is its common accessibility because it speaks to a motley of experiences common to every human being: seasons.
Some seasons “blossom beautifully.”
The others “bury us in an avalanche of rumination.”
But every season, according to Toney, is a season of purpose.
“Yet what you are going through is real,” he explains. “Be patient with yourself while in the process. You are not what you’re going through.”
Maybe this is why his work touches readers so deeply in their times of grief, disappointment, spiritual weariness, or transition.
His poetry does not promise instant answers.
It offers, instead, someone to walk alongside.
Encouragement.
Perspective.
Hope.
Looking toward upcoming books, collaborations, and the likelihood of being in the running for the title of Author of the Year 2026, Toney dedicates himself first and foremost to a mission of letting people know tough times do not last.
“God is the one in control of these ‘seasons,’ so trust him,” Toney urges. Wait well, and when the warmth returns, you will rise – not as a buried seed, but as a testimony in full bloom.
Connect With Silas Toney
Readers who wish to explore more of Silas Toney’s work, poetry, photography, and upcoming projects can connect with him through the following platforms:
Official Website
SilasToney.com
Author Website
Seasons TBT Official Page
People’s Artist 2026 Feature
People’s Artist Profile
Additional People’s Artist Link
People’s Artist 2026
Amazon Book Listing
Seasons: The Beautiful Transition on Amazon
Facebook
Silas Toney Facebook
Instagram
Silas Toney Instagram
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