Description
“This is where I find the softest hurt’ is a contemplation of the body, an examination of the relationship between the self and beyond. The bodies in these pages demand to be recognised and exposed for the world to see: my mouth as a tip jar, your skin as a rest area, these hands kneading tang yuan for a loved one, yearning that feels like a phantom limb.
Through metaphors and storytelling, Christi maps a museum of lived experiences, where pain and trauma have to make room for joy and love. When the body is the site of tragedy, when history returns to inflict itself again onto memory, the only way to make peace with one’s own skin is finding light beyond the rubble.”
“Jasutan’s poetry glows with sensory detail and keen observation. The voice is serious, careful and deliberate but finds joy in unexpected places – a long distance, an eccentric gesture of endearment, a kitchen counter.
After spending time with these poems an underlying theme emerges: the innate note of sadness in a celebration and, conversely, the pleasure in rueful recollection. But this is coupled, always, with a determination to be attentive, to make something lasting out of the impressions that glimmer out. A beautiful debut.” – Luke Kennard