Description
Book SynopsisThese intimate, visceral and often wickedly funny poems journey through the darker days of new parenthood, teasing out the anxieties which plague us when night falls. Violence against women, the destruction of our environment, the poisons and pitfalls of 21st-century living are explored here in poems by turns lyrical and earthy, yearning and angry. They mine gold from the darkness and seek luminescence in the deepest oceans. Pit Lullabies is Jessica Traynor’s third collection, following Liffey Swim (2014) and The Quick (2019) from Ireland’s Dedalus Press. Poetry Book Society Recommendation.
Trade ReviewVisionary, luminous and haunted, Jessica Traynor’s poems are home to a host of compelling characters: witches, changelings, the spirit of Hildegard of Bingen. In The Quick, even the grotesque is rendered with subtle delicacy – a woman whose “lungs fold like an origami bird”. These poems will give you goose-bumps. -- Helen Mort * on The Quick *
Written with a lightness of touch, these poems are capable of dealing with the big themes – especially those of birth, death or illness…this poet [is] capable of creating canonical work which draws on a contemporary re-thinking of poetic traditions while finding a voice that is wholly her own. -- Siobhán Campbell * Poetry Ireland Review, on The Quick *
Traynor is a master at delineating these almost imperceptible but vital changes…Traynor’s fine delicate lyricism belies a social consciousness that subtly bleeds through several poems. -- Martina Evans * The Irish Times, on The Quick *
Table of Contents11 Pit Lullaby 12 Megalodon 13 Anatomy Scan 14 In the Birthing Room 15 Metaphysical Breast Milk Poem 16 Ophelia in Ballybough 19 Midwinter 20 Pit Lullaby II 21 A Plea for the Sanctification of the Ditches of Ireland 23 Child you cut me open 24 What It Takes 25 Patchwork Quilt 26 If You Can Tame a Wildcat, You Can Raise a Baby 27 Pit Lullaby III 28 On Poisons 37 Pit Lullaby IV 38 In the Wrong Place 39 Forecast 41 On Plastics 43 Supermoon Trifecta 45 Walrus 46 Men are Talking 47 Pit Lullaby V 48 An Island Sings 56 Pit Lullaby VI 57 The Signs 63 Pit Lullaby VII 64 Nureyev in Dublin 66 Holidaying with Dad During the Divorce 67 Dad Cars 69 Pit Lullaby VIII 70 Milk Teeth 71 Lessons 72 Zodiac 73 Rock Pool 74 Turbulence 75 Pit Lullaby IX 77 Hungry Ghost 80 Bilbea’s Response 81 Lock Years 83 Onion Poem 84 In the Bathroom Showroom 85 Hunting Lions 86 Hawthorn 87 Night Run 88 Pit Lullaby X 89 Lullaby 91 Notes 93 Acknowledgements
