Somehow

by Helen Calcutt

“A highly accomplished set of poems which consider the ways grief, guilt and loss attach themselves to both the family and the natural world for restoration. What Calcutt does within these pages is acknowledge our ability to be resilient, while never dismissing the private moments we struggle and suffer to keep ourselves going. At times devastating, at other times buoyant, but always totally human.”

– Anthony Anaxagorou

In September 2017, Helen Calcutt’s brother Matthew took his own life. He was 40 years old.

‘… the phone rang / and when I answered it / you’d killed / yourself, and that was the start / of you being dead.’

This is the starting point of an astonishing new pamphlet of poems by Helen Calcutt. At times harrowing; at others hopeful – always deeply felt and beautifully realised. These poems display the poise and precision of a poet already at the height of her powers, writing the un-writable, weaving the terrible into something relatable and filled with the light of understanding.

Genres: Poetry

34 pages, Paperback

First published September 17, 2020

Reviews

[Manpreet Kaur · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful, emotional, beautiful poetry, very vivid imagery, the flow, the variety of poems, everything in this pamphlet is super beautiful.

[Courtney LeBlanc · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of poems focusing on the poet's brother's suicide, and the guilt, loss, grief, and devastation of continuing to live.

from Something terrible happened: "the phone rang / and when I answered / it you'd killed / yourself, and that was the start / of you being dead."

from Light: "and they have said // grief // is a family of birds / thrown from the nest"