Description
Book SynopsisThe Hopeful Hat is Carole Satyamurti's last collection. She was preparing these poems for publication at the time of her death, and left the manuscript in an advanced state of readiness. The sequencing of the poems, and the sections they are grouped in, had already been decided by her. These late poems are informed by Satyamurti's keen eye for social injustice and, equally, by the breadth of her compassion. Poignantly, they are also her nuanced poetic response to having her voice box removed following a diagnosis of laryngeal cancer. The poems' formal accomplishment is carried lightly; characteristically, it is this light touch that enables Satyamurti to move so deeply. Clear-eyed in the face of her own mortality, she produced a series of courageous poems that are, as Carol Ann Duffy said of her work, 'laced with the hard stuff'. They are also graced with Satyamurti's unique and subtle wit. The preface by the poet's daughter, Emma Satyamurti, places this collection in the larger context of four decades of published work, and provides an illuminating insight into the poems gathered together here. Poetry Book Society Recommendation.
Trade ReviewNo matter how compelling her themes, with their demands of compassion and political conscience, Satyamurti never loses hold of her main topic: the capacity of language. -- Bernard O’Donoghue * Poetry London *
Carole Satyamurti’s poems look to be stations on a road map of psychological discoveries, sometimes personal, sometimes objective and scientific. Her best poems are not so much confessions as meditations. -- Anne Stevenson * London Magazine *
Her unobtrusive approach is deceptive – these poems have unexpected stings in their tails. -- Penelope Shuttle
Table of Contents7 Foreword by Emma Satyamurti 10 Acknowledgements I 13 The Hopeful Hat 14 Cans 15 How to Wash Dishes on the Eightfold Path 16 You Could Say 17 Obituary 19 Inheritance 20 Wednesday Again 21 New York 22 Easter 23 All that Is Solid Melts into Air II 27 Voicing the Void 28 New Year on T14 29 Glossal 30 Sea Change 31 Necklace of Wasps 32 Mother Tongue 33 Overtones III 37 Requiem for a Death Foretold 38 Small Change 39 Paper Boat 40 Vyasa’s Gift 41 Hold On 42 The Climate Game 43 War Rhyme 44 Grand IV 47 Debrief 48 Ought 49 Sight Reading 50 Succulent 52 Solitude 53 Shoreline 54 Le moment juste 55 It Turns Out 56 Happening 57 Less than Beautiful 58 April 59 Memento Mori 60 Endurance 61 Logically 62 Solid
