Palm Wine Tapper and The Boy at Jericho

by Nithy Kasa

Off-kilter, Stephanie Conn’s third collection, sees the environment and the body under pressure; the landscape burns, the body sickens, relationships fracture. Threat looms large in the collection, yet these poems also chart a tentative path through the darkness – animals adapt to hostile conditions, the body rests and art is created out of the lived experience of chronic illness. The reader travels across the globe from Tasmania, in the blistering heat, to Canada and its frozen winter, by way of the Amazon Rainforest and Frida Kahlo’s Mexico. These are poems of people and place, crisis and pain, but also of hope.

Genres: Poetry

80 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2022

Reviews

[Molly Ferguson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very approachable poems that brings a vantage point from the New Irish on what living in Ireland today is like. They embody a great fusion of the Congo and Europe. A few of my favorites were: "An Opus," "The City Moves," "Silver Lining," "Things Slip Away," and "On Board Bus 13". I am assigning several to my study abroad class.

[hystericprayingmantis · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 bc i couldn’t get some of the poems 🥲

[Ally ☆ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't understand like. A LOT of these poems.

[Maya Cagafl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I struggle with poetry sometimes, but this was not as obscure as some. Topics ranging from mother-daughter relationships to the noise of the big city are covered.

[Medhya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful poetry.

[Luke Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enigmatic, magical, sumptuous and awe-striking. Can't wait to read what Nithy writes next!

[sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

English is not mine to keep


3.5

[plutosbigteeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

favorites r probably: lizard, the city moves, lone valentin, before death came to it, the blind spot of god(!), the horizon is tired and on the very last note of the cadence.

[leni swagger · Rating 3 out of 5]

a very melodic collection. a bit disappointed by how the lecturer approached the book, as it felt rather superficial