how the first sparks became visible E-Book

Simone Atangana Bekono

• Herausgeber: The Emma Press
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Serie: The Emma Press Poetry Pamphlets
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Seitenzahl: 26

Beschreibung

Simone Atangana Bekono's poems are vivid and arresting, with the feeling of letters or diary entries. In nine breath-taking streams of consciousness, the poet explore race, gender and sexuality, addressing the social stigmatization of race and gender and invoking empathy and human connection in a voice that is both confident and innovative.

Leseprobe

HOW THE FIRST SPARKS BECAME VISIBLE

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POETRYPAMPHLETS

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Vivarium, by Maarja Pärtna

SHORTSTORIES

The Secret Box, by Daina Tabūna

Once Upon A Time In Birmingham, by Louise Palfreyman

Tiny Moons: A year of eating in Shanghai, by Nina Mingya Powles

Postcard Stories 2, by Jan Carson

POETRYANTHOLOGIES

Second Place Rosette: Poems about Britain

Everything That Can Happen: Poems about the Future

The Emma Press Anthology of Contemporary Gothic Verse

The Emma Press Anthology of Illness

BOOKSFORCHILDREN

Wain, by Rachel Plummer

The Adventures of Na Willa, by Reda Gaudiamo

When It Rains, by Rassi Narika

Dragons of the Prime: Poems about Dinosaurs

Super Guppy, by Edward van de Vendel

Poems the wind blew in, by Karmelo C Iribarren

ARTSQUARES

Now You Can Look, by Julia Bird, illustrated by Anna Vaivare

The Goldfish, by Ikhda Ayuning Maharsi Degoul, illustrated by Emma Wright

Menagerie, by Cheryl Pearson, illustrated by Amy Evans

This publication has been made possible with financial support from the Dutch Foundation for Literature.

THEEMMAPRESS

First published in the Netherlands as hoe de eerste vonken zichtbaar waren by Wintertuin Uitgeverij in collaboration with Lebowski Publishers in 2017.

First published in the UK in 2021 by The Emma Press Ltd.

Poems © Simone Atangana Bekono 2017

English-language translation © David Colmer 2021

All rights reserved.

The right of Simone Atangana Bekono and David Colmer to be identified as the creators of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

ISBN 978-1-912915-55-2

EPUB ISBN 978-1-912915-56-9

A CIP catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library.

Printed and bound in the UK by Oxuniprint, Oxford.

The Emma Press

theemmapress.com

[email protected]

Birmingham, UK

CONTENTS

I.

II.

III.

IV.

V.

VI.

VII.

VIII.

IX.

Acknowledgements

About the poet

About the translator

About The Emma Press

friction

I.

I was born in a forest

I was born and someone trained a light on me

on the birthing cloth behind me, my silhouette appeared

My silhouette opened her mouth and said

‘I exist because your body exists

Cronus devouring his children

as bloodthirsty as Goya painted him

a body become unrecognisable

greedy and chaotic

not rooted in the earth’

this was all I had to go on

I heard panting and laughter: concrete, specific sounds

my silhouette was a silhouette without specific characteristics

my silhouette was mine in an incomprehensible way

she acted on my behalf, she was only there when I looked

she existed only on the cloth

Concrete, specific sounds

I wanted to be incorporated into a system of ticks and crosses

I wanted virtual, sexual, depoliticised pleasure, inside

with my chin on the edge of the desk, on the back seat of a Tesla

removed from the menu, yes

inside

II.