Glass

Part of Makina Books' 2021 New Words Poetry Programme supported by Arts Council England

In 'Glass', Emily Cooper's poetics masterfully create a compelling space that deliberately excludes wide views-instead bringing her pen up close to a dilapidated house in a small rural town with its own personality. The traces and presence of those who have existed in those spaces-real and imagined-become interdependent in the narrative.'Glass' is the debut poetry title from Emily Cooper, a writer and poet from Ireland. Cooper's poetics masterfully create a compelling space that deliberately excludes wide views-instead bringing her pen up close to a dilapidated house in a small rural town with its own personality. The traces and presence of those who have existed in those spaces-real and imagined-become interdependent in the narrative. Rural, intimate, isolated and hospitable, she ponders the context of ownership of buildings in 'A fountain pen slices my leg through a bin bag as I move into my new house', and celebrates the old ones collapsing along with their social history. A tunnel of light, the vulnerability of garlic charcoaling in hot oil and the layering dust in-between floorboards are intercut with quiet moments of solitude, affection, disappointment and intimacy. Outside of these spaces of physical realities, there is a strong sense of affection for the enduring landscape of Donegal. Her poems are peppered with the idea of possibilities, of parallel lives and the potential for futures unknown and unseen.