Sagrada Familia

<p class=ql-align-justify>Sagrada Familia is Helen Anderson's exploration of the isolation and erasure involved in loss and a</p><p class=ql-align-justify>reflection on the things which sustain us during hard times. Written in the aftermath of her becoming a widow only a few years after the death of her teenage daughter these poems take us</p><p class=ql-align-justify>from the agony of initial grief through to progress towards healing.</p><p class=ql-align-justify><br></p><p class=ql-align-justify>The trajectory of this journey is far from smooth: Sagrada Familia outlines the fragmentary nature of living with bereavement lifting the cover on the private reality beneath outward appearances of</p><p class=ql-align-justify>everyday survival. The poet shares her attempts to frame a language to deal with multiple shifts in</p><p class=ql-align-justify>normality whether on the beaches of her home in the North East of England or abroad. Like a</p><p class=ql-align-justify>soundtrack which persists even when the backdrop changes raw pain persists in the face of</p><p class=ql-align-justify>attempts to find comfort in travel nature religion and the re-shaping of memories: the only way</p><p class=ql-align-justify>forward is to allow it to run its course.</p><p class=ql-align-justify><br></p><p class=ql-align-justify>Developing its motif of light forcing through darkness Sagrada Familia ends on an uplifting rallying</p><p class=ql-align-justify>note. The final poems hint at happiness in a new - albeit unexpected - way of life by means of real</p><p class=ql-align-justify>change which does not involve hiding away escaping or conforming to society's expectations.</p><p class=ql-align-justify>Ultimately Helen Anderson's message is one of hope that trauma need not be the end but can</p><p class=ql-align-justify>become a bridge towards growth and to living on your own terms.</p><p class=ql-align-center><br></p><p><br></p>