From a conversation with Josephine Lay

A Quietus is a collection of poems that contemplates the calm spaces between moments of life and a reflects on the process of dying; of our release from existence.

The impetus for this book was the silent period, the quietus, during the first covid-19 lock down in April/May 2020. Our world stopped. Here was space for contemplation and connection with Nature, but here also, was death, grief and fear: so many people were dying.

Death in our society is virtually a taboo subject, with the horrifying statistics of the last year, we still tend to talk about those deaths numerically and avoid thinking of the pain of loved ones. In our current technological civilization, Death has been removed from being a natural part of living.

I began to write poems about death, became a little obsessed with it. I wanted to view it as something beautiful. - a mere extension of life, a part of Nature. These thoughts linked me to the deaths of my parents: my Father’s disabilities, my Mother’s slow release from life.

So, there are poems in this collection that deal with that sadness, yet I hope they also show a beauty within that grief. There are a few poems about lock down, a few on love and loss, and a few about the aging process - the path towards the inevitable.

But there are also poems about the glory of Nature, the calmness between the frenetic elements of modern life, and the yearning for those soothing moments.

‘A Quietus’ - signed copy.