A coat of ashes

A coat of ashes, my fourth full-length poetry collection, which draws from Daoism, physics, systems theory and more.

‘A coat of ashes’ book cover
 

From the title poem:

…The pure tone
     of each electron
The pure functions
The math inside the atom
The muscles connecting
     the trunk to the legs
The tendons connecting
     the moon to the earth
The ligaments connecting
     the brain to the bones
A blanket,
A coat of ashes

 
Jackson’s new collection traverses science and spirituality, philosophy and matter. Drawing from physics, systems theory, Daoism and more, it contemplates profound questions about our place within a world of being. With deft silences and fine observations, these poems explore both modern and ancient paths to knowledge, seeking to ‘fully apprehend nature, including our fellow beings, and foster a reverent respect for it’. (Publisher’s description)

This collection, richly suffused with a personal metaphysics, delicately balances the most crucial aspects of being on a bridge between dark and light. One feels that the words in A coat of ashes might be written and received on the skin.
— Dominique Hecq

Jackson’s work is both original and rooted in a number of poetic traditions, which it deftly fuses. The poems in A coat of ashes are beautifully composed, coherent and crystalline. This rich, creative work makes a genuine contribution to contemporary poetry.
— Fiona Sampson MBE FRSL

Published in 2019 by Recent Work Press. 98 pages. ISBN 9780648404231

Doctoral thesis: A coat of ashes — poetry, Daoism, physics and systems theory

A coat of ashes is based on my award-winning doctoral thesis, which contains a slightly different set of poems and four critical essays.

Abstract

This thesis comprises a book-length creative work accompanied by a set of essays. It explores how poetry might bring together spiritual and scientific discourses, focusing primarily on philosophical Daoism (Taoism) and contemporary physics. Systems theory (the science of complex and self-organising systems) is a secondary focus of the creative work and is used metaphorically in theorising the writing process.

The creative work, “A coat of ashes”, is chiefly concerned with the nature of being. It asks, “What is?”, “What am I?” and, most urgently, “What matters?”. To engage with these questions, it opens a space in which voices expressing scientific and spiritual worldviews may be heard on equal terms. “A coat of ashes” contributes a substantial number of poems to the small corpus of Daoist-influenced poetry in English and adds to the larger corpus of poetry engaging with the sciences. The poems are offset by a metafictional narrative, “The Dream”, which may be read as an allegory of the writing journey and the struggle to combine discourses.

The four essays articulate the poetics of “A coat of ashes” by addressing its context, themes, influences, methodology and compositional processes. They contribute to both literary criticism and writing theory. Like the creative work, they focus on dialogues between rationalist or scientific discourses and subjective or spiritual ones.

The first essay, “An introduction”, discusses the thesis itself: its rationale, background, components, limitations and implications. The second, “Singing the quantum”, reviews scholarship discussing the influence of physics on poetry, then examines figurative representations of physics concepts in selected poems by Rebecca Elson, Cilla McQueen and Frederick Seidel. These poems illustrate how contemporary poetry can interpret scientific concepts in terms of subjective human concerns.

The third essay, “Let the song be bare”, discusses existing Daoist poetry criticism before considering Daoist influences in the poetry of Ursula K. Le Guin, Randolph Stow and Judith Wright. These non-Indigenous poets with a strong awareness of the sciences have, by adopting Daoist-inflected senses of the sacred, been able to articulate the tension engendered by their problematic relationships with colonised landscapes. Moreover, the changing aesthetic of Wright’s later poetry reflects a struggle between Daoist quietism and European lyric commentary.

The final essay, “Animating the ash”, reflects on the process of writing poetry, using examples from “A coat of ashes” to construct a theoretical synthesis based on Daoism, systems theory and contemporary poetics. It proposes a novel way to characterise the nature and emergence of the hard-to-define quality that makes a poem a poem. This essay also discusses some of the Daoist and scientific motifs that occur in the creative work.

As a whole, this project highlights the potential of both the sciences and the more ancient ways of knowing — when seen in each other’s light — to help us apprehend the world’s material and metaphysical nature and live harmoniously within it.

Read or download the thesis

The emptied bridge

The emptied bridge, my third full-length poetry collection.

‘The emptied bridge’ poetry book cover
 

From “soaked”

… 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 poems in Jackson’s third full-length collection explore themes of environment, society, gender, sexuality, parenthood, and daily life: the climate change of the world and the self. This is crafted, literary poetry, aware of its contemporaries and antecedents; yet these are poems that anyone with reasonable English can read or perform, that can break free from their author, go out and do work in the world. They encode rhythm and intonation along with possibilities of meaning. Their music will alter the atmosphere in your head. (Publisher’s description)

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 (Legacy, UWA Publishing 2018, winner of the Dorothy Hewett Award for an Unpublished Manuscript)

Order your copy

Published in 2019 by Mulla Mulla Press. 132 pages. ISBN 9780648542438

lemon oil

lemon oil, my second full-length poetry collection.

‘lemon oil’ book cover
 

lemon oil

In this dream
I heal the cuts
his bareness
has left
all over me

with tart, sparse,
sweet, spreading
lemon oil,
the same soft stings

with which I nurture
your smooth
unlacquered
fret-slit
rosewood
fingerboard

 
The pressing, convincing voice of these poems drives you to read fast and then catch your breath, to search for answers and encounter love. Jackson’s second collection is fiery, bold and brave — it unravels everyday stories and raw encounters in a poetic and potent play of language and lemon oil. I don’t know of any other Australian poet who is writing with the combined verve and craft of Jackson. — Claire Potter
 
lemon oil is also available from public libraries and at the National Poetry Library in London.

 
Published in 2013 by Mulla Mulla Press. 120 pages. ISBN 9780987517005. Cover design by Coral Carter.

Coracle

Coracle, my first full-length poetry collection. 94 of my readers’ and audiences’ favourite poems in a sequence that is in itself a poem. Read from front to back it will surely mess with your mind.

‘Coracle’ e-book cover

from Celtic Knots

(St Audoen’s Church, Dublin, 2005)

Temple of history, temple
of short lives long
gone, temple of hundreds
of souls… trod
on me hard as I trod
on its layers
of graves. Quiet
spirits whispered hundreds
of hushes
from the eleventh-
century walls.

If I ever go to church in Dublin this is where.
Not in St Patrick’s with its souvenir stalls.

If I go back to Dublin,
if I take you there,
let me take you to St Audoen’s…

View or download the e-book From the opening lines of the first poem, the reader is introduced to a powerful, resonant and poignantly moving voice … Jackson’s poetry is lean and purposeful … There are many stunning poems here, wry and wistful, love poems with a heartbreaking absence of sentimentality, terrific poems of place and observation and understanding … Coracle is unreservedly recommended. — Shane McCauley in Indigo

If words were chemicals, the potency packed into Coracle would need a stronger container than paper and ink, page and stanza. Jackson’s voice is immediate, the sensations intense, the experiences intelligently informed by free association, by her sense of the absurd and a poignant sensibility. … [Jackson’s] expression is as contemporary, individual and vivid as a digital video and, like an online broadcast, it seeks to straddle the divide between personal and public worldviews. This collection should carry a warning: Your perception will be altered. — Annamaria Weldon

View or download the e-book If you’d like a print copy, please contact me. Coracle is also available through the Australian public library system.
Published in 2009 by the author. 92 pages. ISBN 9780646508757. Cover design by Raymond Grenfell.