Sandeep Parmar wrote recently of her belief that poetry must ‘rise to the collective challenge of our times, not merely be a curio of intimate experience’. I believe this too; I’m trying.
The poems in this selection were written between 2016 and 2017. Many respond or allude to other texts: I think the ongoing work of reconsidering the historical ‘canon’ can help to clarify the challenges of the present. In general, I don’t think it is necessary for the reader to know where these references are; ‘Agony in the Garden’ is an exception to this rule. The poem embeds a quotation from the statement made by John Ruskin during the annulment proceedings of his marriage to Effie Gray in 1854: ‘It may be thought strange that I could abstain from a woman who to most people was so attractive. But though her face was beautiful, her person was not formed to excite passion.’ Later, Ruskin based the ideal of femininity presented in 1865’s Sesame and Lilies on Rose La Touche, whom he subsequently proposed marriage to. When Ruskin and La Touche first met, in 1858, he was nearly thirty-nine years old. She was ten.