Full Description
Mythic and familial beasts roam the swamps and moors of Pascale Petit's Beast. These spirits of the wild haunt the Camargue of Provence, the limestone Causses and gorges of the Languedoc, Indian tiger forests, the Amazon rainforest, and her home by Bodmin Moor in Cornwall. Some of these remote places are vestiges of earth's pristine habitats, while other wildernesses are encaged in cellars of Paris, along with the world's last species. Their essence is evoked in lithe and luxurious lines sometimes compressed as a trapped animal. An estranged father reappears as a hunter, while Maman is an orb spider or a grand piano; both are predators. And there are earthly beasts - wild horses and bulls, lammergeiers, bee-eaters and catfish, remnants of a vanishing natural world. Beast asks if survival is possible in an abusive family and on an abused home planet, in the face of climate catastrophe, childhood trauma and war. These poems address difficult challenges, insisting that making art is an act of love and hope, and there are joyful lyrics celebrating the ineffable beauty of endangered species. Beast is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation.
Content warning: this book contains descriptions of historical sexual abuse and assault.
Contents
I. AMAZONIA
10 The River
12 Oxbow Lake
14 Catfish
15 House of Puberty
17 Concert for Motherhood
18 Dumbo Octopus
19 Monkey Muriel
20 My Book of the Dead
22 Portrait of My Mother at Six Weeks
23 Maman
24 Western Façade
25 Skinner
26 Hummer
27 The Lover's Bed
29 Kisser
30 The Insect Father
31 To a Botfly
32 The Pelts of Animals
34 Pale-winged Trumpeters
35 Vial
II. THE CAMARGUE AND LANGUEDOC
38 On Longing
40 The Lammergeier Daughter
41 Civet de Cerf
42 Papa Guêpier
43 Choker
44 After visiting the Museum of Doors, Pézenas,
46 The Frozen Zoo
48 Bac du Sauvage
49 Ode to Causse Méjean with Takhi Horses
50 Chemin des Rainettes
51 The Beast of Vaccarès
53 Courses Camarguaises
54 The Tarasque Tattoo
56 Camargue Bull at Dusk
58 Hide (Emperors and Egrets)
60 Ode to the Camargue
62 Hide (Mosquitoes)
64 Hide (My Birth)
65 Letter to Muriel
69 The Walnut Tree
70 Maman Argiope
72 Hide (Red Crayfish Claws and a Glossy Ibis)
73 My Mother's Provençal Dress
III. TALA ZONE
76 Tala Zone
IV. WHAT ROUGH BEAST?
85 I asked if I could leave the Earth
86 A Mother Sings
87 What Eagle Saw
88 Butcherbirds
89 Salt Bride
90 Beauty
V. BEAST OF BODMIN
93 The Moor Horses
95 Galloway Bull at the Waterhole
96 Roebuck
98 Ode to a Cornish Hedge
100 Song Thrush
102 Swallows
104 Murmurations at Roughtor
105 Beast of Bodmin
111 Acknowledgements
