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Whorelight
"Linda’s collection whorelight seeks to articulate a language for absence. Using recurring motifs of birds, worms, gardens, flowers, moths and butterflies to conjure the violence and delicacy of broken-heartedness... Each poem captures a memory. Each memory is an allegorical construction—specifically defining different manifestations of sorrow—like loss, and guilt. Here, the seeming idyllic botanical imagery is undercut by a brutal plain honesty where the ordinary reality is a love story of grief. In these poems, absence is portrayed as a childless woman and/or an absentee father. In these poems, a birthday song becomes a new tulip, the air is dank with sorrow, the garden smells like a cemetery, a neighbor grieving for his sister pulls flower vases from his lungs to capture mist. Linda’s poems subtly unpick, whilst interrogating the wounds that fester to construct lyrical emotional poetic portraits.” says the Chair of Jury, Forward Prizes for Poetry 2016, Malika Booker.
76 pages, Paperback
First published August 10, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
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April 11, 2018"These poems come from a mind that reacts to sensations like chlorophyll in a leaf. The sensations can range from having sex with a vague lover, a memory, or guilt. Ashok bleeds poetry wherever the needle pricks her, but “next day, (she wakes) up with the sun in (her) lungs, once again burning images into clots.” - Ravi Shanker N.
This book was reviewed in the Jan/Feb 2018 issue of World Literature Today magazine. Read the full review by visiting our website:
https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/...
This book was reviewed in the Jan/Feb 2018 issue of World Literature Today magazine. Read the full review by visiting our website:
https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/...
November 17, 2017
I actually read this book three times, which is uncharacteristic of me.
I started reading poetry as a kid who wanted to see language reimagined beautifully and brilliantly, and then I stopped reading poetry a few years ago after I got worried that nobody really did that anymore.
I don't know why I'm beating around the bush here: This is a brilliant book of poems, and reading something this great and this beautiful reminds me of when I was first blown away by poetry in the first place.
I'm super lucky to kind of know Linda Ashok, and I'm really impressed by this book. I knew she was a great writer, but this is really amazing.
Some of this kind of reminds me of Dylan Thomas in the way she uses this visceral language so you really feel these images cut into your body as you read them.
Whenever I've had folks over to my house these past few weeks since I started reading this I'll make em listen to me read "Tree Inspector" or "Portrait of Guilt". Holy shit these are amazing poems. And there's a whole book of ones just like em.
Anyway, start reading this book. I'll start reading poetry again. I believe in it now.
I started reading poetry as a kid who wanted to see language reimagined beautifully and brilliantly, and then I stopped reading poetry a few years ago after I got worried that nobody really did that anymore.
I don't know why I'm beating around the bush here: This is a brilliant book of poems, and reading something this great and this beautiful reminds me of when I was first blown away by poetry in the first place.
I'm super lucky to kind of know Linda Ashok, and I'm really impressed by this book. I knew she was a great writer, but this is really amazing.
Some of this kind of reminds me of Dylan Thomas in the way she uses this visceral language so you really feel these images cut into your body as you read them.
Whenever I've had folks over to my house these past few weeks since I started reading this I'll make em listen to me read "Tree Inspector" or "Portrait of Guilt". Holy shit these are amazing poems. And there's a whole book of ones just like em.
Anyway, start reading this book. I'll start reading poetry again. I believe in it now.
October 5, 2017
A book I truly enjoyed in a long time. The poems are so real and palpable. When I touched them, I felt I am touching myself. Among the writers to watch, Linda is certainly in my list. My best wishes to her and all those women including myself who Linda has touched with her poems.
October 5, 2017
Stunning. I don’t know how else to describe this book. This is one of the best post-modern poetry collections I have ever read.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews