When New Bedford native Walter Sylvia titled his first book of poetry, “Necessary Surrender,” he wasn’t trying to say he was giving up.
Much of his life before that point, he said, had been a series of pushing forward only to hit a wall and be forced backwards. He battled substance use and homelessness and struggled to overcome obstacles.
Surrendering became Sylvia’s way through the barriers, giving him “the ability to face anything.”
“It’s actually more of a relief,” he said. “I feel lighter. I don’t have to worry about controlling everything. I don’t have to worry about having to master the world or whatever. I can just relax and deal with what I can deal with. And when I can’t, I just let go and I surrender it.”
Asked if he surrenders to a higher power, Sylvia said, “That’s a part of it. But I just surrender to what is, and when I do that, everything usually falls into place.”
Ironically, it was in that moment of surrendering that he first picked up a pen and found a new path forward.
Now in his early 60s, Sylvia is riding a creative wave, following his first book of poetry with “NOUMENA,” a novel that is described as “literary fiction with strong philosophical, metaphysical, and stream-of-consciousness elements,” by the publisher he works with.
This work, due out in the beginning of 2026, became a “personal mythology,” according to Sylvia, helping him to externalize his life and experiences and perceive them in new ways. He is already at work on a follow-up to “NOUMENA.”
Sylvia has always been creative but didn’t see himself as a writer, even after spending decades as a singer/songwriter as part of several bands in the region.
“I don’t have any formal training. I never went to school for writing or anything. I was a singer-songwriter for about 30 years, and maybe that, that creative energy was there. But I could never channel it into writing a full blown out book,” he said.
While in treatment for substance use, he said, a clinician suggested he try journaling. So he did.
“It was so cathartic, and it was so wonderful,” Sylvia said about the 27 poems that came from this process. “It played a part in me getting some things out of myself and I could look at them. I could see them on the page, you know, and when I read them aloud, there was another part of the process too for me.”
The process of writing has helped him in many ways, one of which is to see his life as still unfolding. Unlike a book, he doesn’t have to be finished, especially not because he reached a certain age.
“I’m so many different characters that I’ve been throughout my life,” he said. “And the second book has helped me to dig deeper and find my true self, whatever that is.”
While age has brought perspective, stability, and creativity, it has also brought less welcome things.
“In my life, especially these past four years, I’ve had to accept and surrender to the fact that now that I’m older, disabilities are coming into the picture and not being able to support myself as much as I was when I was younger,” he said.
He has a stable place to live and create and is focused on giving back, especially to the recovery community. He runs two recovery groups: one is a men’s 12-step study group and the other an open men and women’s meeting.
Giving back to this community is “all part of that process of getting well and getting stronger and better,” he said.
“That fellowship saved my life,” said Sylvia. “The community itself is a huge part of it because it’s so much easier to take the journey into a new life sober when you’re with other people who are doing the same thing. You’re not alone.”
His addiction to alcohol was something Sylvia said he hesitated to share publicly, until it fueled his creative work.
“I was reluctant in person to bring that up, that I had disabilities, that I had an addiction problem, you know, and going into treatment,” he said. “I’ve been sober and there have been years when I’ve relapsed and I wasn’t. But I’ve always been connected to the recovery community and there’s some of that in the new book too.”
He currently leads a men’s group as part of the Alcoholics Anonymous program.
Whichever way his life turns next, Sylvia is ready to ride the waves.
“My life was not only ups and downs, but there was a lot of life that I threw away for a lot of different reasons, both good and bad,” he said. “And, you know, the clock’s ticking and suddenly I’m in my sixties and I realized that my life is not over.”
“There are still things I can do.”
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