Josephine Lay - Poetry Publications
A Quietus
Book Launch via Zoom - Tuesday 11th May 2021, 7.00-8.30pm GMT+1
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A Quietus is a collection that contemplates calm spaces between moments of life and reflects on the process of our release from existence.
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Josephine Lay’s A Quietus is lyrical and sharply observed. The poems cover a range of subjects, which always seem to be seeking the balance between beauty and the inevitable darkness of decay; to ‘reach for the scissors/ cut away the frills/ unlace the corset’ (‘Sewn Up’), to see the risk in truly living.
Angela France
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Delicate yet fierce, spare yet multi layered… an emotionally affecting collection written by a poet who affirms life by interrogating mortality. A Quietus is a lyrical and erudite lesson in surrender. In a series of nuanced and carefully crafted poems we discover ways to live, and to face death, and how, when we encounter the reaper - we must ' learn to fall gracefully/ gilded by the folds of her cloak’, but not before ‘grasping hold of love like a lifebelt’.
Anna Saunders
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The lodestar of Josephine Lay’s A Quietus is nature. In these meditations… the poet helps us find solace, orientation and hope in the natural world. …these poems speak of the constraints imposed upon us by human society, the desire for creative fulfilment, while acknowledging our fragile mortal condition. …she explores the power of poetry to heal the loss of those we love, how we can ‘hold them close and carry them’…
David Clarke
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Josephine Lay’s poems are fearless intaglios that stir and disturb. They breathe with yearning and wonder. Like all great poets, she brings the full force of her curiosity to the question of what it is to be human.
Thomas Trofimuk, Waiting for Columbus
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Original Cover Painting: Pennie Elfick - www.pennieelfick.co.uk
Book Cover Design: Jason Conway - thedaydreamacademy.com
Unravelling
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By Josephine Lay
Josephine Lay is a writer, novelist and poet. Josephine writes poetry for the page and for performance. This collection highlights her passion for both the written and the spoken word.
Unravelling is a collection of poems written within one year. Josephine Lay writes about the unravelling nature of things in her life; divorce, bereavement, health issues (after hitting her head and getting concussion, twice) and a few poems touching on the political situation in this country during 2018. Her poems speak of the human condition; of life, love, loss and even death. Here is sadness and descent but also the struggle towards the light and the survival of the human spirit.
‘Unravelling by Josephine Lay is a worthy addition to any one’s poetry collection. Her arrival on the performance poetry scene has been most welcome, and her words work equally well on the page. Highly recommended.’
~ Clive Oseman
‘The first time I heard Josephine Lay’s poetry it made me cry. Rich in feeling, yet easy to relate to. Lay’s work is pleasure to hear and read’
~ Charley Barnes
Book Cover Design: Jason Conway - thedaydreamacademy.com
All ‘Black Eyes’ books are available via Bookshop.org , all Amazon platforms, Worldwide, as well as, to order, from bookshops and other booksellers, Worldwide, via the major wholesalers.
Inside Reality - Poetry
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By Josephine Lay
Inside Reality A selection of poems 2000-2016, first Published in 2017. They are a miscellany, each written with feeling at a specific moment of Josephine’s life. They are not, however, placed here in chronological order but in an arrangement that suits the spirit of their significance.
This 2nd edition published in 2018 contains an additional four new poems written in 2018
Book Cover Design: Jason Conway - thedaydreamacademy.com
All ‘Black Eyes’ books are available via Bookshop.org , all Amazon platforms, Worldwide, as well as, to order, from bookshops and other booksellers, Worldwide, via the major wholesalers.
Josephine Lay – Biography
The last two years of my life have been totally inspirational. I have been writing for over 20 years but I started focusing on poetry in 2018 after two consecutive accidents and periods of concussion. Unable to concentrate for extreme periods of time, I abandoned writing novels and found an outlet for expression in this more concise form of literature. I have two collections of poetry published by ‘Black Eyes’; ‘Inside Reality’ and ‘Unravelling’
I embrace both page and performance poetry; Anna Saunders, (CEO of the Cheltenham Poetry Festival) a good friend and mentor, says I straddle between the two; a bit ungainly but truthful. I live midway between Gloucester and Cheltenham and enjoy the differing qualities of both places, both cultures.
I thrive on diversity; I love to read page poetry but also, I enjoy listening to performance poets as well. Personally, I don't see a clear-cut boundary between the two arts. I feel it is more like a gradation of different skills; a spectrum ranging from spoken word, to the page poem. This wide range of poetic skill encompasses; flash fiction, prose poetry, confessional poetry on mental health issues and abuse, therapeutic rants, rap, slam poetry/spoken word, performance poets and, of course, the beautifully written words on the page.
Near perfection, for me, is a skilfully created page poem perfectly performed by the poet. Personally, all types of poetic skill can be considered worthy, provided that each creative writer/performer seeks to polish, improve and perfect their skills as much as possible.
It’s this reason that makes my second passion so rewarding; I love to host events; to run monthly poetry nights, I enjoy seeking out new talent and offering those poets the chance to perform before supportive and appreciative audiences. I run such a monthly event, ‘Squawkers’ at ‘The Sober Parrot’ Cheltenham, on the 3rd Friday of each month. I also enjoy promoting poetry in the community and I am, at present, ‘Poet in Residence at Cheltenham Library. I have worked in Libraries and enjoy connecting with the public especially children. While running workshops I have become heartened and amazed at the levels of talent in many young children.
My third love is helping out as Creative Adviser for ‘Black Eyes Publishing UK’. At Black Eyes we seek to help talented people get their words published at a reasonable cost to themselves. This is especially satisfying when the book we publish is the poet’s first collection.
At the start of 2020 I had the honour of being asked if I would take over the running of the Gloucestershire Poetry Society, by its then, director and founder Z.D. Dicks aka Ziggy The Poet. Naturally, I accepted.
Josephine Lay (February 2020)
