{"id":15690,"date":"2012-09-04T06:30:21","date_gmt":"2012-09-03T18:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=15690"},"modified":"2012-09-08T19:43:29","modified_gmt":"2012-09-08T07:43:29","slug":"tuesday-poem-abandoned-geography-by-sugu-pillay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2012\/09\/04\/tuesday-poem-abandoned-geography-by-sugu-pillay\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday Poem: “Abandoned Geography” by Sugu Pillay"},"content":{"rendered":"

ABANDONED GEOGRAPHY<\/p>\n

she\u2019s been in this silence for a long time
\ntoo many journeys to nowhere
\nher body her only home<\/p>\n

the absence continues
\nlingers in every doorway
\nevery footpath<\/p>\n

the nor\u2019wester whizzes through
\nall the gaps left unwritten on the body
\nof the aching land<\/p>\n

released from the contested space
\nof re-arrivals she stands<\/p>\n

both asleep and awake
\nno longer dreaming<\/p>\n

only a trace of a woman
\nin abandoned geography<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 Sugu, Pillay
\nPublished in Flaubert\u2019s Drum<\/em> (Interactive Press) 2012<\/p>\n

Reproduced here with permission<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

About the Poem:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Today, September 4, is the second anniversary of the 7.1 earthquake in 2010 that first shook the city of Christchurch and its environs—and although the 6.3 earthquake of February 22, 2011 was the one that killed 185 people and comprehensively destroyed the central city and large parts of the eastern suburbs, September 4, 2010 remains a significant event.<\/p>\n

So when I discussed a Tuesday Poem feature with Sugu Pillay, to celebrate the release of her poetry collection Flaubert’s Drum<\/em> (launched at the Christchurch Writers’ Festival<\/a> this past weekend) and she sent sent me a selection that included this poem, Abandoned Geography<\/em>—well, given the date, it just had to be “the one.” I also feel it complements David Eggleton’s Christchurch Gothic<\/em> from last week<\/a>—a poem of the way we were “before”, here in Christchurch—very nicely.<\/p>\n

It’s not just about complementarity and remembering September 4, however: I believe this is a very strong poem in its own right. Abandoned Geography<\/em> uses simple, spare langauge to capture the magnitude of the event for the individual person caught up in, and at least partially overwhelmed by, the disaster’s enormity.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

About the Poet:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Born and raised in Malaysia, Sugu Pillay has postgraduate degrees from Victoria University of Wellington and the University of London. A trained teacher of ESL\/ESOL, she has taught in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Melbourne and Christchurch. Awarded a Creative New Zealand Grant (1997), she completed her collection of short fiction, The Chandrasekhar Limit and other stories<\/em>, published by the Writers Group, Auckland in 2002. In 2009, her play, Serendipity<\/em>, premiered in Wellington. Her second play, Salaam Pukekohe<\/em>, was co-winner of Playmarket\u2019s 2010 Write Out Loud script development programme. Flaubert\u2019s Drum<\/em> (previous title: In Medias Res) highly commended in \u2018IP Picks Best Poetry 2012\u2019, is a collection of mostly published poems from 1995 to 2012. A former resident of Christchurch, Sugu now lives in Wellington.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>To read the featured poem on the Tuesday Poem Hub<\/strong> and other great poems from fellow Tuesday poets from around the world, click here<\/strong><\/a> or on the Quill<\/strong> icon<\/strong> in the sidebar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ABANDONED GEOGRAPHY she\u2019s been in this silence for a long time too many journeys to nowhere her body her only home the absence continues lingers in every doorway every footpath the nor\u2019wester whizzes through all the gaps left unwritten on the body of the aching land released from the contested space of re-arrivals she stands […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other-writers","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15690"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15850,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15690\/revisions\/15850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}