Jason Conway - Publications
the wash of hours
Publishing Dare: Tuesday 22nd April 2025
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"Jason Conway’s collection is heartbreakingly exquisite, with his ingenious use of nature’s healing yet destructive powers to reflect the co-existing nature of love and pain; undeniable beauty and inevitable change. Authenticity shines through in this poetic exploration of life and loss. He expresses the toughest realities tenderly with seamless, compelling storytelling." – Jemima Hughes
'the wash of hours by Jason Conway is a poignant and deeply personal collection of poetry that navigates themes of grief, memory, and familial bonds with stunning emotional intensity. Conway’s use of striking imagery, lyrical phrasing and bold experiments with form immerses the reader in moments of loss and reflection, particularly in the face of a father’s decline and a son’s struggles. This collection lingers in the mind, offering a powerful meditation on time, loss, and the quiet beauty found in life’s fleeting moments.' – JLM Morton
Jason Conway's the wash of hours is a deeply affecting collection of poems navigating a complicated landscape of caretaking for loved ones while struggling not to neglect one's own essential care. Brave, poignant and important work. – John Burroughs, 2022-23 U.S. Beat Poet Laureate
A wonderfully crafted collection of personal poetry that has you enwrapped in the turmoil of life’s struggles. Some very difficult subjects are handled with aplomb, and you share the anger and unfairness of such things. There are some deft touches too, in which you are reminded that Jason is a first-class writer who can make you feel every emotion, be that in the pit of your stomach or the flutter of the heart. An absolutely stunning read. – Nick Degg – Stoke-on-Trent Centenary Poet Laureate
Like a tidal echo, memory and memorial wash through Jason Conway’s debut collection in little eddies and vast waves. These are salt-sprayed and potent poems of tenderness and rage, numbness and hope. There is much to discover beneath their surfaces. – Adam Horovitz, poet, performer and editor.
Jason Conway's debut collection 'the wash of hours' charts the difficult territory of caring for elderly parents 'drowning by age'. His father's decline impacts the entire family. His mother becomes needy and faces a possible cancer diagnosis and his brother falls into depression. Facing all this the narrator is portrayed like a child overwhelmed by the power and terror of the sea. 'What light can come?' he asks.
We feel the pain of a son trying to shore up a disintegrating family and his awareness of the limitations of his sensitivity. 'I wish I were deaf or an unturned stone, surrounded by trees and leaves.' Swimming and drowning are strong themes here but there is also a delicate observation of the natural world; rain in coastal Spain is remembered as 'Demerara dusted caramel sponge spread with apple & blueberry jam with a sea of frosted crests.'
Conway experiments with form and approach. Some of the poems read like prose or disjointed memories. He displays a quiet deadpan humour which lifts this dark story out of melodrama. Titles like 'What my father said while delirious from a urine infection' and the ridiculousness of medical speak in 'What the Doctor Said' give the whole collection a breathing space in mood.
The final poem, the title one, ends in a moment of reflection that all this pain will gradually shift like a stifling hot summer does 'in a season of shedding'. – Dr Lucy English – Professor of Creative Enterprise and The Spoken Word. Co-director of Lyra, Bristol Poetry Festival