Full Description
Zoë Brigley's third collection Hand & Skull draws on early memories of the Welsh landscape and the harshness of rural life as well as on her later immersion in the American landscape and her perception of a sense of hollowness in particular communities there. Other strands include the horror of violence, especially violence towards women, contrasted with poems which offer comfort by working as beatitudes or commentaries on life as it exists now, seeking a way of being that is more beautiful, often in relation to her children. There are also epistolary poems, letters to or from real, imagined and remembered women like the artist Georgia O'Keeffe, Thomas Hardy's Tess, and Edna Pontellier from Kate Chopin's The Awakening. Poetry Book Society Recommendation.
Contents
9 Alfred Stieglitz: Georgia O'Keeffe, Hands and Horse Skull
11 Blind Horse Elegy
13 Poem for Emily Doe
14 Undressing Poem
15 Letter from Georgia O'Keeffe
16 Poem on the Edge
17 Letter from a Sheep Skull
18 Dryad
19 Dressing Poem
20 Sonnet for the Hole in the Glass
21 Letter from Tess Durbeyfield
22 Forgetting Poem
25 Victoria Brookland: Horse
27 Letter to a Horse's Head
28 Poem with a Least Favourite Dress
29 Revolver
30 Western Union
31 Poem with a Whalebone Crinoline
32 The Eye in the Wall
33 The Shave
34 Hand & Breast
35 Post Colonial
36 Beatitudes for the Women
38 Poem with Seams
39 Victoria Brookland: Vésuviennes
40 Letter to Leda on Getting Married
41 Poem with a Wedding Dress
42 Swan
43 Rare
44 Syringe
45 Round Trip
46 White Patio with a Red Door
47 Vésuviennes
48 Poem with a High Waist
49 The Amish Roofers
50 Poem with Stockings and Suspenders
51 Victoria Brookland: I too am a rare pattern
53 Letter from Edna Pontellier
54 Star / Sun / Snow
56 Eagle Poem
57 Name Poem
58 Poem with a Mourning Dress
59 Letter from Nemi
61 Beatitude for the Meek
62 He Has a John Clare Chin
63 Tree with Cut Limb
64 My Last Beatitude
65 Hand & Skull
69 Notes
70 Acknowledgements
71 Thanks
