Tuesday Poem: Pascale Petit - Blackbird
When they locked me
in the cellar
and told me to count
slowly to a hundred,
each number
became a blackbird's feather
and all the darkness
sang
through the keyhole
of my yellow beak.
© Pascale Petit
From 'Fauverie' published by Seren Books Sept. 2014
This week is National Poetry Day in the United Kingdom. It is also the publication date of Pascale Petit's eagerly anticipated collection 'Fauverie'. This collection does not disappoint - it's brilliant, moving, hard-hitting. I feel very privileged to have seen an advance copy. For more poetry from Fauverie and a full review of the collection, please click over to the main Tuesday Poem hub where it is being featured. And please check out what the other Tuesday poets are posting through the links on the sidebar.
PS - 'Caracal' from Fauverie is the Guardian's 'Poem of the Week' chosen by Carol Rumens.
Fauverie, published by Seren Books, Sept. 2014
"The Fauverie of this book is the big-cat house in the Jardin des Plantes zoo. But the word also evokes the Fauves, ‘primitive’ painters who used raw colour straight from the tube. Like The Zoo Father, Petit’s acclaimed second collection, this volume has childhood trauma and a dying father at its heart, while Paris takes centre stage – a city savage as the Amazon, haunted by Aramis the black jaguar and a menagerie of wild animals. Transforming childhood horrors to ultimately mourn a lost parent, Fauverie redeems the darker forces of human nature while celebrating the ferocity and grace of endangered species. Five poems fromFauverie won the 2013 Manchester Poetry Prize and the manuscript in progress was awarded an Arts Council England Grant for the Arts.”
in the cellar
and told me to count
slowly to a hundred,
each number
became a blackbird's feather
and all the darkness
sang
through the keyhole
of my yellow beak.
© Pascale Petit
From 'Fauverie' published by Seren Books Sept. 2014
PS - 'Caracal' from Fauverie is the Guardian's 'Poem of the Week' chosen by Carol Rumens.
Fauverie, published by Seren Books, Sept. 2014
"The Fauverie of this book is the big-cat house in the Jardin des Plantes zoo. But the word also evokes the Fauves, ‘primitive’ painters who used raw colour straight from the tube. Like The Zoo Father, Petit’s acclaimed second collection, this volume has childhood trauma and a dying father at its heart, while Paris takes centre stage – a city savage as the Amazon, haunted by Aramis the black jaguar and a menagerie of wild animals. Transforming childhood horrors to ultimately mourn a lost parent, Fauverie redeems the darker forces of human nature while celebrating the ferocity and grace of endangered species. Five poems fromFauverie won the 2013 Manchester Poetry Prize and the manuscript in progress was awarded an Arts Council England Grant for the Arts.”
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