Not the first time I've written a letter/postcard/PS style poem but on this occasion I have to say thank you to Irish poet Moyra Donaldson and her poem Postcard from The Island of Lizards in Beneath the Ice (Lagan Press 2001) which I've been sharing.
this is bloody great...I don't have the space to expound on my reasoning here, but in short, the manner in which you animate the uncanny ("...rattles me as much as ancient dresses in a museum or an empty/ iron cot...") through a number of enmeshed discursive landscapes (namely, psychological, ecological, environmental, heritage, architectural, and of course national) is nothing short of mesmerising and surprising. The play with scale, the relation of bodies/things to space is not simply playful. The postcard deserves a whole lot of literary analysis as a way of framing these estranging perspectives on gendered discourses of national identity. Thanks!
ReplyDeletePowerful, complex piece of writing but I was taken aback by the question about the whale's stomach, and references to desert — not due to the content (of the line!) but because they seemed too disconnected to integrate with the rest of the poem.
ReplyDeleteOverwhelmed by your generous comments. Thanks Efi for so much feedback - gives me a lot to think about. Robert I just love leaps. Love the freedom of moving through different images/ideas/memories/observations/media and juxtaposing or intermingling them. Especially fragmenting them if they are not already – rip, tear, shred. Collage! :)
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