Things We Leave Behind

<p><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>The Things We Leave Behind</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> gathers poems from all five of Josephine Balmer's acclaimed volumes excavating a common ground between the distant past and our contemporary world. From the universal grief that echoes down through the centuries in both her ground-breaking first collection </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Chasing Catullus</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> (2004) and later </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Letting Go</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> (2017) to the mirroring of ancient exile and modern warfare in </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>The Word for Sorrow</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> (2009) her poetry finds urgent new ways to voice 'the sound of words you can't say'. </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>The Paths of Survival </em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>(2017) shortlisted for the London Hellenic Prize and a Poetry Book of the Year in </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>The Times</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> explores the fragility of the written word; </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Ghost Passage</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> (2022) mines the debris of everyday lives from the 'dark earth' of Roman London rendering them fresh and familiar. Edited and introduced by Paschalis Nikolaou this </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Selected Poems</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> also includes new verse from Balmer's work-in-progress </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Archaeology of Home</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> unearthing the devastating effect of dementia on families past and present. </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>The Things We Leave Behind </em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>offers new insights into Balmer's poignant and compelling work celebrating her 'necromancer's task of easing breath / into moss-flecked lungs of our long long dead'.</span></p><p></p>