For those of you that missed it here is a short video I’ve managed to cobble to together of the launch night for ‘The Tough of Love’. Many thanks to all those who came along and for the video clips that created this.
It was lovely to hear that I’d inspired people to read the work of some of the poets I read on the night – I do love sharing the world of poetry – there’s so much good stuff out there that needs its people to find it. On the night I shared George Herbert’s ‘The Temper 1’ (as seen in the video), some lines from Wendell Berry, The Call by Charlotte Mew (which I have shared on A Hit of Poetry), Some lines from Dolly Parton, and ‘Songs for the People’ by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper.
I think the book goes well for the time of year. Here is the poem ‘Upturning’ that I share in the video:
UPTURNING At times my heart upturns like a snow globe. Heaviness shifted – rearranged to light and a snow-like glow warming from inside my shielded self. Something seeking to pierce the cold outside that settles between us. I can float above the noise for a bit and watch the dealer upturn the next card. Cups spill over into the frightened child still awake all these years, still pretending she’s asleep beside her sobbing mother. That was the night you died. That was the night the dark entered me and began to push me down its path. Upturning unknown soil into the light as we journey under rabbit-like burrowing for connection. That child became friends with The Big Bad Wolf. Together they would venture between worlds in search of lost life. Bridging the divide they upturned death, flung her into daylight, and you in wolf’s clothing caught and kissed her. Marigolds bloom for Día de Muertos as intense as the sun in its rising and as deep as its setting. All of us joining all who’ve passed to all yet to come. Warming into a smile my heart upturns.
If you’re interested in some more Halloween/Day of the Dead goodness, please head over to INScapable to read about more Dead Big Feelings and take a look at the new posters in evren’s emporium.
