'Aftereffects’ is a moving and lyrical chapbook exploring the subtle reverberations of our lives. Jiye has an extraordinary ability to distil emotion into a few words, and refresh our perceptions of familiar images. Many of the poems experiment with form and manage to be playful and deadly serious at the same time. Alongside contemplations on family interactions and how we are shaped by relationships, Jiye considers more tangible aftereffects, such as those left by war and politics.
Enigma with a Blackbird
After Pablo Neruda, Enigma with a Flower Grief. It has come silently. I did not know it had perched,
the black figure that sits in my chest,
piecing itself a home, twig by twig, scrap by scrap, my heart: her barn, her rooftop, her part of the tree to claim – how she settles there, uninvited. She sheds feathers, ’til the blackness
of her body seeps into mine,
’til her talons curl around my throat.
She spreads her wings – for a moment,
I breathe. Leaves behind an empty nest;
I hear a crack.
Jiye Lee is a British-born Korean poet from Newcastle. Her writing is published / forthcoming in Literary Orphans Journal, Fragmented Voices, and Bandit Fiction Press. As a New Creatives North finalist in 2019, she also has an audio poem forthcoming on BBC sounds.
To get in touch about Jiye's forthcoming chapbook and express your interest in reviewing, please contact Isabelle Kenyon via Flyonthewall@hotmail.com.
'Aftereffects' will be published in March 2021.