Human looking
Subtitle: new poems
By: Andy Jackson
Series: Giramondo poets
Publisher: Giramondo Publishing
Published: 2021
Place of publication: Artarmon, NSW
Language: eng
Number of pages: 109
ISBN-13: 9781925818857
Copyright date: 2021
Subjects: Disabilities; Poetry; Australian poetry
Description: The poems in Human Looking speak with the voices of the disabled and the disfigured, in ways which are confronting, but also illuminating and tender. They speak of surgical interventions, and of the different kinds of disability which they seek to 'correct'. They range widely, finding figures to identify with in mythology and history, art and photography, poetry and fiction. A number of poems deal with unsettling extremes of embodiment, and with violence against disabled people. Others emerge out of everyday life, and the effects of illness, pain and prejudice. The strength of the speaking voice is remarkable, as is its capacity for empathy and love. 'I, this wonderful catastrophe', the poet has Mary Shelley's monstrous figure declare. The use of unusual and disjunctive - or 'deformed' - poetic forms, adds to the emotional impact of the poems.