In September 2017, Helen Calcutt’s brother Matthew
took his own life. He was 40 years old.
‘… the phone rang / and
when I answered it / you’d killed / yourself, and that was the start / of you
being dead.’
This is the starting point
of an astonishing new pamphlet of poems by Helen Calcutt. At
times harrowing; at others hopeful – always deeply felt and beautifully
realised. These poems display the poise and precision of a poet already at the
height of her powers, writing the un-writable, weaving the terrible into
something relatable and filled with the light of understanding.
How
do we survive the tumultuous presence of grief? How does the trauma of losing a
loved one to suicide affect, our identity, our creativity, and our ability to
love? How – in a world shattered by incomparable change and severe loss –
do we build a life from the wreckage? Because we do.
Somehow,
we do.