Sinking Lessons

by Philip Armstrong

Overview

The poems in Sinking Lessons portray the vitality of a world full of things and beings we too often disregard, using language that vibrates in harmony with the lively tales it tells—from small, everyday events to stories of shipwrecks and strandings, resurrections and reanimations, arctic adventures and descents into the underworld. The cast of characters includes members of the poet's family alongside heroes from myth and literature, such as Orpheus, Scheherazade, and Frankenstein's Creature. And crowding in upon these, at all times, a multitude of non-human protagonists: sun and stars, wind and water, mud and sand, body fluids, decaying matter, chemicals organic and inorganic, and a great many fishes and birds and beasts. Sinking Lessons is the first collection of poetry from Philip Armstrong, winner of the 2019 Kathleen Grattan Poetry Award.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781990048159
Publisher:	Otago University Press
Publication date:	07/16/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	54
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Philip Armstrong lives in Lyttelton and teaches literature, writing and human-animal studies at the University of Canterbury. In 2011 he won the Landfall Essay Prize for his essay ‘Tenuous Grounds', an account of the Canterbury earthquakes. His previous books include Sheep and A New Zealand Book of Beasts (co-authored with Annie Potts and Deidre Brown). Philip Armstrong lives in Lyttelton and teaches literature, writing, and human-animal studies at the University of Canterbury. In 2011 he won the Landfall Essay Prize for his essay 'Tenuous Grounds,' an account of the Canterbury earthquakes. His previous books include Sheep and A New Zealand Book of Beasts (co-authored with Annie Potts and Deidre Brown).

Table of Contents

A Horizontal Light 7

Portolan 8

Sinker 8

Call Sign 9

Rising Sign 11

Swimming Lessons 12

Die Traumdeutung 14

The Old Man of the Sea 15

General Relativity 17

Longitude 19

A Visit to Hell 21

Obiter Dicta 23

1 Voccus 23

2 Going to a Funeral 24

Jeremiad 25

Creature Effects 26

Best Before 26

The Widening Gyre 29

Resurrexit 31

The Female Me 32

Book of Beasts 33

1 Some Avian Habitats 33

2 A Vulnerable Species 34

3 A Parasite 35

4 Mutualism 36

5 Great Apes 37

In the Infinity Pool 38

The Wake-Up 39

Self Introduced 40

Eel Dream 42

A Note upon the Mystic Writing-Pad 43

Song of the Orpheus 44

Headwind 50

Holding Still 51

Notes and Acknowledgements 53