Welcome to ‘Black Eyes Blinks’.
This is the official blog / newsletter for Black Eyes Publishing UK.
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This month’s exciting news:
Black Eyes Publishing UK is pleased to announce the publication of Josephine Lay’s third collection of poetry entitled, A Quietus. To pre-order, your signed copy, go to the following link, https://www.blackeyespublishinguk.co.uk/shop
We will be launching Josephine Lay’s book via Zoom, on Tuesday 11th May 2021, 7.00pm. The host for the evening will be Zoe Brooks with readings from David Clarke, Angela France, Anna Saunders, Thomas Trofimuk and of course Josephine Lay. We would love you to join us; it is a ticketed event, get your free ticket here, https://helmtickets.com/events/7012/josephine-lay---a-quietus---her-new-poetry-collection-launch
From a conversation with Josephine Lay
A Quietus is a collection of poems that contemplates the calm spaces between moments of life and a reflects on the process of dying; of our release from existence.
The impetus for this book was the silent period, the quietus, during the first covid-19 lock down in April/May 2020. Our world stopped. Here was space for contemplation and connection with Nature, but here also, was death, grief and fear: so many people were dying.
Death in our society is virtually a taboo subject, with the horrifying statistics of the last year, we still tend to talk about those deaths numerically and avoid thinking of the pain of loved ones. In our current technological civilization, Death has been removed from being a natural part of living.
I began to write poems about death, became a little obsessed with it. I wanted to view it as something beautiful. - a mere extension of life, a part of Nature. These thoughts linked me to the deaths of my parents: my Father’s disabilities, my Mother’s slow release from life.
So, there are poems in this collection that deal with that sadness, yet I hope they also show a beauty within that grief. There are a few poems about lock down, a few on love and loss, and a few about the aging process - the path towards the inevitable.
But there are also poems about the glory of Nature, the calmness between the frenetic elements of modern life, and the yearning for those soothing moments.
Peter has asked me to share a poem and I have decided on the title poem:
A Quietus (def. - something that has a calming or soothing effect.)
A quietus is the falling
into the space between notes.
A quietus is absence:
a track after a train has passed
a landscape free of people.
The stretching of tired muscle
the pausing for breath.
A quietus is stillness after storm:
the dropping of wind
the drying of ground.
The smoothness between ripples
on the surface of water.
A quietus is a sleeping beast:
felt pads between talons
skin beneath the fur
a yawn of sharp jaws.
For more information about Josephine Lay and her other collections, go to, https://www.blackeyespublishinguk.co.uk/josephine-lay-poet
For further details and discussion about the launch, go to, https://www.facebook.com/events/249317880224913
Regards, Peter