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Fragments from Before the Fall: An Anthology of Post-Anthropocene Poetry
Conceptual and experimental poetry that uses erasure as a means of commenting on the current climate crisis.
From the Introduction:
The texts contained within this collection date from the last throes of the Anthropocene era, around the time known to current historians as The Fall. Some are believed to originate from just before this global occurrence and some immediately succeeding. It is difficult to provide accurate dates for a period commonly known as the New Dark Ages. Only four of the texts here are considered complete: the first, entitled Fragments from Before the Fall, is believed to have been pieced together contemporaneously making it a particularly thrilling find; the short pieces Hunting and Weather are also considered complete, as is the artifact entitled CLAP. This text, which some scholars claim originated from a diary entry posted onto the International Network, has the appearance of poetry but, like most of the pieces in this collection, one cannot be certain of the author’s intentions. For this reason, it is hard to determine the original meaning or syntax, but the text presented here is considered more authentic than in previous collections.
From the Introduction:
The texts contained within this collection date from the last throes of the Anthropocene era, around the time known to current historians as The Fall. Some are believed to originate from just before this global occurrence and some immediately succeeding. It is difficult to provide accurate dates for a period commonly known as the New Dark Ages. Only four of the texts here are considered complete: the first, entitled Fragments from Before the Fall, is believed to have been pieced together contemporaneously making it a particularly thrilling find; the short pieces Hunting and Weather are also considered complete, as is the artifact entitled CLAP. This text, which some scholars claim originated from a diary entry posted onto the International Network, has the appearance of poetry but, like most of the pieces in this collection, one cannot be certain of the author’s intentions. For this reason, it is hard to determine the original meaning or syntax, but the text presented here is considered more authentic than in previous collections.
44 pages, Paperback
Published November 27, 2021
6 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 20, 2021
I was so impressed by this pamphlet. I picked it up to read a bit and couldn't stop! It's bleak in places, dark and gory but also so real because as we're made aware, if we don't make some big changes, the world could easily fall. As it has before. It was like reading a dystopian novel in much sparser form, with the language and gaps conveying so much with less. Beautiful images, haunting ideas, honest predictions. I was seriously impressed and I can't wait to read more of JP's work.
December 23, 2021
A kind of sci-fi or cli-fi poetry, Fragments from Before the Fall is a highly unusual collection, set in the future, with the clever framing device of the individual works being ‘discovered fragments’ of complete poems written during the Anthropocene collapse. An experimental impulse thus underpins JP Seabright’s poems and their stark, arresting imagery. Seabright looks unflinchingly into the abyss we are headed to if we don’t combat climate change and conjures a disquieting and compulsive vision.
February 28, 2022
This is so well done. "We stared through falling ash...they did not come." I love the archival nature of it, the astonishment of the historians, the flashes of hope, "...always remember contagious laughter", the writer's implicit anger... Brilliant 👏👏👏
December 20, 2021
This is a dark and dire collection, and its apocalyptic tones are more than likely to come true. This is a snapshot of what the science tells us will likely come to pass in the post-anthropocene, not what the politicians tell us.
December 2, 2022
Loved this collection - very grand and high-concept, but so immediately engaging as well! The end of the world is scary! But also cool?
February 10, 2022
An anthology of erasure and found text poetics before a climate change disaster known simply as The Fall, JP acts as editor/curator, giving us a dizzying look into an intensely plausible future. Spec lit at its best. - Review on the International Network, 2022 B.F.
December 28, 2021
As a massive fan of dystopian literature, I was immediately drawn to the concept of 'Fragments from before the Fall' by JP Seabright and it does not disappoint. This collection is immersive, beautifully fragmented, brutal in its warning. One of my favourite pieces is "Weather" - a innovative, thought-provoking collection on climate change and humanity.
May 15, 2022
I’ve never really understood poetry.
I know when poetry moves me, when the slivers of words find chinks in my armour in a way that prose is too thick to penetrate the chainmail links. Poetry is a rapier, and prose an anvil. I know when poetry works, but I don’t understand why.
I know that our world is ending. I know that the crisis of capitalism and inequality and stealing from the earth to uplift the rich cannot be sustained, and I know that what cannot go on must one day stop. I know that the wet bulb event and the tipping points and the destruction of arable land is coming. I know what it means.
JP Seabright knows this too. JP Seabright knows how to turn words into pieces, how to erase everything unnecessary until all that remains is the bright spark, the weapon that will piece my heart. This is a book about what is left, using only the words that escaped being erased and cut-up when they tore into prose and poetry. This book of poetry moves me.
I know when poetry moves me, when the slivers of words find chinks in my armour in a way that prose is too thick to penetrate the chainmail links. Poetry is a rapier, and prose an anvil. I know when poetry works, but I don’t understand why.
I know that our world is ending. I know that the crisis of capitalism and inequality and stealing from the earth to uplift the rich cannot be sustained, and I know that what cannot go on must one day stop. I know that the wet bulb event and the tipping points and the destruction of arable land is coming. I know what it means.
JP Seabright knows this too. JP Seabright knows how to turn words into pieces, how to erase everything unnecessary until all that remains is the bright spark, the weapon that will piece my heart. This is a book about what is left, using only the words that escaped being erased and cut-up when they tore into prose and poetry. This book of poetry moves me.
December 20, 2021
Fascinating, sometimes abstract, experimental poetry. Truly fragments, but each one shines with such originality of language and imagery that they stick with you for days after. Grab this!
September 11, 2022
I interviewed the writer about her collection, which you can read here: https://www.sarahtinsley.com/post/fra...
It imagines a series of 'found' poems that are pieced together by an unknown person in the future. I was struck by its inventiveness, and the way depth of emotion was communicated in just a few words. Dark, strange and moving.
It imagines a series of 'found' poems that are pieced together by an unknown person in the future. I was struck by its inventiveness, and the way depth of emotion was communicated in just a few words. Dark, strange and moving.
December 22, 2023
Deeply chilling.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews