Yesterday was the launch of Pascale Petit’s fifth collection, ‘What the water gave me: poems after Frida Kahlo.’
As well as being a leading surrealist, Kahlo is famous for her injury in a bus accident as a teenager, an accident that left her in need of operations and other medical treatment throughout her life. Pascale’s collection has been descrribed as “a hard-hitting, palette-knife evocation of the effect that bus crash had on Kahlo’s life and work.” (Ruth Padel. The Guardian, 12 June 2010).
There’s a clip of the bus scene from the film ‘Frida’ here, which, as we might expect from the movies, is artistic and somewhat glamorised. In contrast, read Pascale’s poem ‘Remembrance of an Open Wound’ on her website and / or listen to it on PoetCasting.
One of the unusual things about this poem, especially for Pascale’s work, is that it opens with sex, and sex described using a swear-word, “Whenever we make love, you say | it’s like fucking a crash –”
Craig Raine has described swearing as an “example of untranslatability” (‘Bad language: poetry, swearing and translation.’ Thumbscrew 1, Winter 1994-5). Sex can be another taboo for some people. I think it works in Pascale’s poem because neither the sex nor the way it is referred to is gratuitous. It is “kindly” and an act of love. The image of the trolley crash is fresh and concrete and vibrant.
Write a poem that includes a surprising metaphor for love, and, if possible and appropriate, that uses a reference to sex. Swear if you want to.
Yesterday was the launch of Pascale Petit’s fifth collection, ‘What the water gave me: poems after Frida Kahlo.’
As well as being a leading surrealist, Kahlo is famous for her injury in a bus accident as a teenager, an accident that left her in need of operations and other medical treatment throughout her life. Pascale’s collection has been descrribed as “a hard-hitting, palette-knife evocation of the effect that bus crash had on Kahlo’s life and work.” (Ruth Padel. The Guardian, 12 June 2010).
There’s a clip of the bus scene from the film ‘Frida’ here, which, as we might expect from the movies, is artistic and somewhat glamorised. In contrast, read Pascale’s poem ‘Remembrance of an Open Wound’ on her website and / or listen to it on PoetCasting.
One of the unusual things about this poem, especially for Pascale’s work, is that it opens with sex, and sex described using a swear-word, “Whenever we make love, you say | it’s like fucking a crash –”
Craig Raine has described swearing as an “example of untranslatability” (‘Bad language: poetry, swearing and translation.’ Thumbscrew 1, Winter 1994-5). Sex can be another taboo for some people. I think it works in Pascale’s poem because neither the sex nor the way it is referred to is gratuitous. It is “kindly” and an act of love. The image of the trolley crash is fresh and concrete and vibrant.
Write a poem that includes a surprising metaphor for love, and, if possible and appropriate, that uses a reference to sex. Swear if you want to.
Posted 1 year ago & Filed under Pascale Petit, books, 3030 challenge,
