This short collection is written in the voice of the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo who led a wild and troubled life. She had polio as a child, and aged eighteen suffered a serious accident which caused her constant pain. She was married to the muralist Diego Rivera and their relationship was stormy but loving. Her fierce and vibrant paintings include many self-portraits.
Pascale Petit has published three full length collections, and was selected by the PBS in 2004 as a Next Generation Poet.
This collection was a first stage winner in The Poetry Business
Book & Pamphlet Competition 2004
'Pascale Petit is among five or six of the very best current poets of the UK.' - Les Murray
'Our eyes are opened to the abundance and colour of the world, and that world seems remade as a life-giving habitat for the imagination.' - Kathleen Jamie and Maurice Riordan, PBS Bulletin
SAMPLE POEM:
Self-Portrait with Monkey and Parrot
I who painted this with brushes of flame
cannot tell you where I have been
this morning. But I can't silence Bonito.
He perches just below my left ear, repeating
sounds he learnt from the sun, when he flew
into its core. Fulang-Chang went with him,
swinging through the canopies of fire forests,
searching for the tree that burns
at the centre of my life.
These gold leaves are the few he brought back -
they still hum many years
after my body has cooled. And you -
how long will you listen to these colours
before you hear the language of light?
Pascale Petit was born in Paris, grew up in France and Wales, and trained as a sculptor at the Royal College of Art. Shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize, her second collection The Zoo Father was a PBS Recommendation. It won an Arts Council of England Writers' Award and a New London Writers' Award. A bilingual edition is published in Mexico. Her third full length collection The Huntress is published in 2005. She was selected in 2004 as one of the Next Generation Poets.
Pascale Petit has published three full length collections, and was selected by the PBS in 2004 as a Next Generation Poet.
This collection was a first stage winner in The Poetry Business
Book & Pamphlet Competition 2004
'Pascale Petit is among five or six of the very best current poets of the UK.' - Les Murray
'Our eyes are opened to the abundance and colour of the world, and that world seems remade as a life-giving habitat for the imagination.' - Kathleen Jamie and Maurice Riordan, PBS Bulletin
SAMPLE POEM:
Self-Portrait with Monkey and Parrot
I who painted this with brushes of flame
cannot tell you where I have been
this morning. But I can't silence Bonito.
He perches just below my left ear, repeating
sounds he learnt from the sun, when he flew
into its core. Fulang-Chang went with him,
swinging through the canopies of fire forests,
searching for the tree that burns
at the centre of my life.
These gold leaves are the few he brought back -
they still hum many years
after my body has cooled. And you -
how long will you listen to these colours
before you hear the language of light?
Pascale Petit was born in Paris, grew up in France and Wales, and trained as a sculptor at the Royal College of Art. Shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize, her second collection The Zoo Father was a PBS Recommendation. It won an Arts Council of England Writers' Award and a New London Writers' Award. A bilingual edition is published in Mexico. Her third full length collection The Huntress is published in 2005. She was selected in 2004 as one of the Next Generation Poets.