Bookends is delighted to welcome back Cumbrian poet Kim Moore to Cakes & Ale Cafe to read from her latest collection, The House Of Broken Things.
The House of Broken Things is an astonishing portrait of a mother. Her body as tender, contested territory. Her instincts fierce. Her mind alive with memories of her own childhood, marvelled by love for her young daughter, sharpened with foreboding for her safety in a broken world that has so often made to break her, too. There are truths our daughters must know, and there are burdens we must never pass on. To make them strong, must we also teach them to be afraid?
Calling the spirits of Anne Sexton, Emily Brontë, Adrienne Rich and others, she conjures an intimate atmosphere of haunted domesticity, the poems questioning and incantatory as a lullaby whispered to a cradled baby. Throughout, fears, griefs and anxieties are paired with moments of great tenderness, wit and revelation: brokenness can feel like a trap, but these poems always offer a way out.