Full Description
Please Do Not Touch This Exhibit explores disability, storytelling, and the process of mythologising trauma. Jen Campbell writes of Victorian circus and folklore, deep seas and dark forests, discussing her own relationship with hospitals — both as a disabled person, and as an adult reflecting on childhood while going through IVF.
Please, Do Not Touch This Exhibit is Jen Campbell's second collection, and a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. Her first book-length collection, The Girl Aquarium (Bloodaxe Books, 2019), was shortlisted for the poetry category of the Books Are My Bag Readers Awards 2019 and was a semifinalist for the Goodreads Choice Awards 2019 (Best Poetry category).
Contents
11 At First, the House Is Blue
12 Anatomy of the Sea
15 Dear [______] [1]
16 The Hospital Is Not My House
19 Dear [______] [2]
20 The Hospital Is Not a Place for Bodies
23 Dear [______] [3]
24 For a While, the House Is Green
25 The House of Mirrors Is Owned by the Freak Show
26 The Body Festival
27 Ghost-Whisperer
28 Sometimes, The House Is Made of Glass
29 Dear [______] [4]
30 Please Do Not Touch This Exhibit
31 Technical Rehearsal
32 First Thing, I Am a Forest
33 Dear [______] [5]
34 Alopecia
37 My Brain Is a Sleeping Thing
38 We Must Admit, the House Is Pink
39 Fell
40 For Some Reason, I Can't Stop Writing About Lighthouses
41 In My Dream, the House Is Dark
42 When I Revisit This Room, I Want to Leave Again
45 Poem as Bad Doctor
46 Somehow, the House Is Orange
47 The Five Stages of IVF
48 When It Arrives, It Weighs 5kg
49 The Hospital Is Not Big Enough for the Two of Us
52 Trying to Gain Entry into The Republic of Motherhood
53 This Is Just to Say
54 When I Go to the Woods
55 The Weekend the Garden Reflected Our House
56 The Trees Are Part of the Process
57 Now, The House Is Red
58 This Doesn't Have a Name Yet
60 The House Is All the Colours, All at Once
61 Common Side Effects
