The Zoo Father E-Book

Pascale Petit

• Herausgeber: Seren
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 41

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

Shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize, this is the second collection from a poet of powerful emotions and vivid imagery. The Zoo Father underlines the author's reputation as a questing poet capable of outstanding imagistic flourishes and surprising associations. This extraordinary and powerful volume is comprised of two sections, the first about with the poet's relationship with her father, the second with her mother. Section One is heavily imbued with imagery of the poet's travels in South America and her researches in the cultures and ecology of the Venezuelan rain forest. Pain, anger, bewilderment are refracted through a rich, often sensual imagery of fauna, hallucinatory drugs and tribal beliefs. This gives the poems their originality, and prevents subject matter of childhood abandonment and abuse becoming too harrowing. The imagery adapted from shamanistic beliefs is especially memorable. Section Two is set in southern France, in an almost equally exotic location of vineyards and 'dinosaur plateaux'. It concerns the poet's family holidays in "the vineyard" and her rediscovery and subsequent repossession of that place. Once again, the poems delineate a primary relationship (with the poet's mother), with the lushness of the imagery putting into surprising context the development of that relationship.

Leseprobe

The Zoo Father

Also by Pascale Petit

Icefall Climbing

Heart of a Deer

Tying the Song (Co-edited with Mimi Khalvati)

The Huntress

The Wounded Deer

What the Water Gave Me

Pascale Petit

The Zoo Father

Seren

Seren is the book imprint of

Poetry Wales Press Ltd.

57 Nolton Street, Bridgend, Wales, CF31 3AE

www.serenbooks.com

facebook.com/SerenBooks

Twitter: @SerenBooks

The right of Pascale Petit to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

© Copyright Pascale Petit, 2001, 2012

ISBN 

A CIP record for this title is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted at any time or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the copyright holder.

The publisher acknowledges the financial assistance of the Welsh Books Council.

Cover Image: Nez Perce Horse Mask, Thaw Collection, Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York.

Photograph: John Bigelow Taylor, NYC

Back cover portrait of the author by Kitty Sullivan  Printed by Berforts Information Press, Stevenage 

Contents

7 The Strait-Jackets

8 Embrace of the Electric Eel

9 Self-Portrait with Fire Ants

10 My Father’s Voice

11 The Fish Daughter

12 The Lungfish Father

14 My Father’s Lungs

16 Hummingbird

18 The Shawl

19 Motherfather

20 Self-Portrait as a Warao Violin

21 King Vulture Father

22 Self-Portrait as a Were-Jaguar

24 The Ant Glove

26 A Wasps’ Nest

28 Trophy

30 Father’s Maps

31 During the Eclipse

32 My Father’s Body

34 My Father’s Books

36 Nesting

38 The Wake

39 The Horse Mask

40 The Sea Father

42 The Whale Father

43 Self-Portrait as a Dugout Canoe

44 Self-Portrait as a Harpy Eagle

45 Amazonia

47 Auburn

48 My Mother’s Skin

49 My Octopus Mother

50 The Fish Mother

51 The Dolphin Father

52 Self-Portrait as a Yanomami Daughter 

54 The Musical Archer

56 The Magma Room

57 My Father’s Clothes

THE VINEYARD

61 A Parcel of Land

62 Landowners

63 Reverse Vineyard

64 The Songs of Insects

66 The Second Mazét

67 A Stone Face

68 Home Was a Cyanide Bottle

69 Woman-Bottle

70 My Mother’s Tablets

71 The Snake Dress

72 Acknowledgements

The Strait-Jackets 

I lay the suitcase on Father’s bed and unzip it slowly, gently. Inside, packed in cloth strait-jackets lie forty live hummingbirds tied down in rows, each tiny head cushioned on a swaddled body. I feed them from a flask of sugar water, inserting every bill into the pipette, then unwind their bindings so Father can see their changing colours as they dart around his room. They hover inches from his face as if he’s a flower, their humming just audible above the oxygen recycler. For the first time since I’ve arrived he’s breathing easily, the cannula attached to his nostrils almost slips out. I don’t know how long we sit there but when I next glance at his face he’s asleep, lights from their feathers  still playing on his eyelids and cheeks. It takes me hours to catch them all

Embrace of the Electric Eel

For thirty-five years, Father, you were a numb-fish, I couldn’t quite remember what it felt like 

that last time you hugged me when I was eight, just before you went away.

But when you summon me to your stagnant pool, Dad, Papa, whatever I should call the creature 

that you are, now you finally ask for my love: do you think I’ve become strong as the horses 

Humboldt forced into a stream to test the voltage of Amazonian eels?

He had never witnessed “such a picturesque spectacle of nature” 

as those great eels clamped against the bellies of his threshing horses, how their eyes 

almost popped out and their manes stood on end. Though the jolt alone did not kill them, 

many were so stunned they drowned.

Self-Portrait with Fire Ants

To visit you Father, I wear a mask of fire ants. When I sit waiting for you to explain 

why you abandoned me when I was eight they file in, their red bodies

massing around my eyes, stinging my pupils white until I’m blind. Then they attack my mouth.

I try to lick them but they climb down my gullet until an entire swarm stings my stomach, 

while you must become a giant anteater, push your long sticky tongue down my throat, 

as you once did to my baby brother, French-kissing him while he pretended to sleep.

My Father’s Voice

Because you refused to let me record your voice I’ve brought this parrot all the way from Brazil,