the wash of hours

<p>Jason Conway's debut collection <strong><em>'the wash of hours'</em></strong> 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.</p><p></p><p>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.' </p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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'. </p><p></p><p><strong>- Dr Lucy English - Professor of Creative Enterprise and The Spoken Word. Co-director of Lyra Bristol Poetry Festival</strong></p><p></p>