Joan Metelerkamp
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Requiem
R120.00Joan Metelerkamp
Requiem is a book-length poem written after the suicide of the poet’s mother, and against the current of catholic masculine authority – it loosely follows the structure of a requiem mass, not allowed by the Catholic church for suicides. The poem attempts to answer fundamental questions: What impels a person to live or die, and how free are we to decide? How are the threads of love, mothering and family woven into and through belief or faith in the present moment? How do survivors find sufficient solace to carry on?
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A daughter somehow has to pick up the pieces of her own life and come to terms with her mother’s legacy. How does a poet do this? She writes. And this poet doesn’t write floridly or introspectively; she writes as if life and death depended on it. […] She cries. She protests. She remembers. She acknowledges the pain of unfinished conversations and regrets. And she holds on for dear life.
– John Forbis
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Under dark under branches
R160.00Joan Metelerkamp
Under dark under branches, Joan Metelerkamp’s tenth collection, continues the explorations of her recent book-length poems, opening out to five generations of family history and the wider context of national history. The assured music of the writing carries dialogues, lyrical passages, and fragments of narrative. Five years after leaving South Africa, the poet mourns the torn-out roots of her life – her community, environment and ancestors left behind in a country no longer her home.