Vox Populi
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Pascale Petit: A Mother Sings
I have tucked my daughter back
into my womb.
I have taken her through my Red Sea.
Bomb blasts are muffled there.
She no longer has to breathe poisonous air.
She is cushioned from shrapnel.
She doesn’t have to run on premature legs.
Her lungs are tamarisks where doves perch.
My breasts prepare her milk and honey.
They sing to her of paradise.
I will rebirth her on banks of the river of life.
Only I have to wade through the river of thorns
while she sleeps.
I am her country and her lagoon.
I’ve hung hanging gardens on my bones
for her to crawl into when she arrives.
~
From the “Palestine Series” by Pascale Petit
Copyright 2024 Pascale Petit
Pascale Petit was born in Paris and lives in Cornwall, UK. She is of French, Welsh, and Indian heritage. Her eighth collection of poetry, Tiger Girl (Bloodaxe, 2020), was shortlisted for the Forward Prize and for Wales Book of the Year. Her seventh, Mama Amazonica (Bloodaxe, 2017), won the inaugural Laurel Prize and the RSL Ondaatje Prize. Her debut novel, My Hummingbird Father, is due from Salt in 2024 and her ninth collection, Beast, from Bloodaxe in 2025.
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Devastating.
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Wonderful poem.
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Isn’t it, though? Her poems exist on a very deep level, almost Jungian.
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Thank you, and to you, Mike too
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For many years I was working on Pascal poems to translate them into Farsi for my anthology of best women poems.
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Lovely! She should be translated into other languages.
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Thank you for translating some of my poems into Farsi, much appreciated.
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Love Pasquale’s work
We have much in common
May I have her email?
Many thanks
Diana
Diana Raab, PhD
Website: dianaraab.com
Sent from my iPhone
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Sorry Diana, as a policy, we don’t give out contact info about our authors. If you’d like to send her a message, send it to me. You have my email.
M.
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