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Ilisha Thiru Purcell
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the poet
A poet from Newcastle upon Tyne, and one of three to be chosen for the inaugural Poets of Colour Incubator 2023-2024, Ilisha Thiru Purcell was previously a Young Creative Associate with New Writing North. She performed at the 2023 Newcastle Poetry Festival, and is part of the group Brown Girls Write. Ilisha's work has appeared in Butcher’s Dog and the Bi+ Lines Anthology, and she was shortlisted for Nine Arches Press' Primers: Volume Seven.
the poems
Coast |
I stand before
the north sea
and think that
a coast | is a lie.
I look for the definitive |
separating the sea
from the shore, water
from land, wet from dry.
Where is the cartoon |
you see in children’s books
dividing the yellow
from the blue?
I search for a |
or a _ or even a ----
telling us what is ours
and theirs,
but all there is
is negotiation
between the land
and the sea.
Haven’t you seen
a chunk of cliff
plunge into the sea
toes pointed?
Or how the water takes larger
chunks out of the sand,
ignoring the white |s
on a map saying stay?
Germination
My shadow strikes out from my body/
as if I'm announcing that now is the time the time is now/
I have been kept in time and now I am the keeper of it/
Meeting my own gaze/
I expand like the lungs of the city I rest my feet upon/
I smile a wry smile/
a 'you can’t even imagine' smile/
A man on a child’s bike asked me where I got it from/
this crescent of grapefruit flesh/
and I replied my mother/
My mum/
who shines brightest in a sea of saris/
who circles my thumb with her forefinger/
like a planet in orbit/
My mum/
dressed in black, absorbing everything, is everything/
a river running to and from everything/
If these images could talk they would tell you/
that there is more than one way to pray/
more than one way to bless a journey/
Dust to Dawn
The last night I spent alone
I couldn’t remember ever seeing daylight
and all that came from my mouth was dust.
This time I beat back the thoughts like dust
off a rug, sank into this new shade of alone.
I found within myself a light.
Soon I will not need lamplight
to protect me from the parts of my mind that have collected dust,
I will be content and unafraid alone.
Only alone can I watch the dust of my past dance in dawn’s light.
Publishing credits
Coast |: Bi+ Lines – An Anthology of Contemporary
Bi+ Poets (Fourteen Poems)
Germination: Sanctuary – Brown Girls Write Anthology
(New Writing North)
Dust to Dawn: exclusive first publication by iamb
