brangwynne purcell

Paradise Lost

A few years back I embarked on a series of poems exploring the transformation of friendship. This began by chance after opening an old book of poetry and finding an inscription from a dear professor, long since lost from my everyday. He finished with these lines: “Someday write a poem about me. About this I would care.”

And so began the Paradise Lost series. Each poem about a different friendship, in some way changed or transfigured. And one by one, I have been turning the poems into little art books. It is as if with each completion I am able to put them to bed; tuck them in & lay them in the grave of forgiveness & grace. My little elegies to loss.

Into the Wood

Here We Are

This is the End

…more to come.

© copyright Brangwynne Purcell

Into the Wood

This walk

through the wood of forgetting

has brought me

to the corner

where I left you…

[click on title, above, for full poem]

Here We Are

Are you still there -

perched upon your summit

- watching as if a poet or artist

taking in the world (in its infinite parts)

in order to create it - in your own image

(playing God) - again…

[click on title, above, for full poem]

This is the End

This is the end we never saw coming

Our compass fixed on some sure point,

due north, ever true…

[click on title, above, for full poem]