Emma Press Picks – serie

Written in memory of her mother, who died of motor neurone disease in 2012, the poems of Requiem roughly cover the timespan of an illness, death, and burial. The formal structure is based on the Catholic Requiem Mass as it has been set as a choral piece by Giuseppe Verdi, Gabriel Fauré, Maurice Duruflé, and many others. The poems quote from other classical and folk works about the underworld and the passage into death, juxtaposing the engagement with the old text with modern references.Winner of the Poetry Book Society Spring Pamphlet Choice.2. Kyrie Lord have mercy upon her Christ have mercy upon her Day have mercy upon her Night have mercy upon her Bed have mercy upon her Hoist have mercy upon her Catheter have mercy upon her Needle have mercy upon her Gastrostomy have mercy upon her Citalopram have mercy upon her Riluzole have mercy upon her Morphine have mercy upon her [...]

Call and Response is a sequence of sonnets from the perspective of a daughter, addressed to her mother during her mother's illness. Hard-edged yet tender, the poems explore the darker side of familial bonds and the strange ways suffering can heal old wounds.

Village of dunes. Valley of slumber-dust.Sandsnarl is a settlement steeped in sand – though where it came from and how long ago is a matter of tall tales and steely whispers. The sand itself makes accurate record-keeping impossible. It is drug, ore, plague and delicacy. The inhabitants of this region (or is it a fallen kingdom?) talk and think through its haze. Some alter their shape, as if shaved by it. Others seethe, resisting its rattle and buzz.These poems eavesdrop, extract, sift. Together, they make up a brief impression of time and place, a Buñuelian musical without the music.