Anthony Vahni Capildeo Polkadot Wounds

Polkadot Wounds brings home to us the delight, frustration, restlessness and continuity of trying to live a connected human life in our times. Capildeo's poetic practice has always flourished as part of conversation with other writers (dead and living) and other people. Here, travelling and working on commissions has produced glimpsing reflections of events and encounters. The title of the collection is taken from a phrase in the opening poem, commissioned by the Charles Causley Trust, and inspired by the stones of the ruined Norman castle in Launceston, as well as by the wounds depicted in the honey-coloured wood statue of the local martyr, St Cuthbert Mayne. This collection consists of three sections. The first section thinks through and with landscapes, using the earlier spelling 'landskips' to invoke traditions of English-language travel writing, and the playful idea of skipping. These poems range from remembering the days of calling family abroad from a phone box on a wall, to hauntings by Dorothy Wordsworth in northern and Scottish settings. The second section plays off Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. Here, dreams, grief, and the occasional breakthrough of joy appear as if in the corner of your eye, while other scenes play out in more pointilliste fashion. This second section is inflected by untimely deaths, both during the pandemic and in queer and overseas communities. The third section gets a grip on transformations of the self. It leaps with the watery joy of an otter and wonders if there are dogs in heaven, while touching with more seriousness on questions of bodiliness.