Poetry. Paperback, 132 pages.
The emptied bridge is my third full-length poetry book. The poems explore themes of environment, society, gender, sexuality, parenthood, and daily life.
Only NZD $15 + postage.
To get your copy of The emptied bridge, please contact me for shipping and payment details. Copies are also available through the Australian public library system.
What readers say
“The emptied bridge” explores isolation, connection, and landscapes internal and external. It is a wide-ranging collection that plays throughout with form, rhythm and technique. The poems are infused with intelligence, humour and a deep longing. Sometimes the language is haikuesque, delicate and light, sometimes it is philosophical or matter-of-fact, and often it is charged and raw. Jackson’s distinct voice captures the poignancy of loss and hope and the consolations of music, nature and colour. Edgy, visceral and muscular, The emptied bridge bravely carries its reader through experiences of shadow and light.
Julie Watts
Subject matter ranges from the deeply philosophical to the prosaic, written in a manner that continuously calls into question the division between the two. … Observe the irony of those last two lines, which deftly insert art back into the mundane landscape of suburban Perth.
Miriam Wei Wei Lo in Westerly
Sample poems
From soaked
... we’re not seated
on a carved chair
regarding
through glass
the sharked
polluted
eternal
ocean—
We’re the flensing edge
of any of a hundred
newly risen
teeth
We’re the cornea
of a boy bodysurfing
beside an
outlet pipe …
The secret slip
This is the point from which I always leave
I lock my baggage into a box
to free me while I wait
The key is a number
A secret printed
on a slip of paper
My instrument won’t fit
I have to carry it
This is the point
Under the table my instrument
crouches in its sheath
The locos stand on the lines
bellowing their punk
A sound like yellow streaks
in smoky black
I loved you so much I wanted to unlock
the boxes in your head
and write your healing songs
It doesn’t happen like that
This is the point from which I always leave
I’ll turn my back on the lines
I’ll wrangle my instrument
unlocker my baggage
and put them
on a bus
I’ll sit beside a cellist from Chile
who produces trance and trip-hop
I’ll throw away
the secret slip
First published in Creatrix
Only NZD $15 + postage.
To get your copy of The emptied bridge, please contact me for shipping and payment details. Copies are also available through the Australian public library system.
Published in 2019 by Mulla Mulla Press. ISBN 9780648542438
Jackson 