29th January, 2021

Friday Poem – ‘Black Jaguar at Midnight’ by Pascale Petit

Our Friday Poem this week is ‘Black Jaguar at Midnight’ by Pascale Petit from her 2014 collection Fauverie.

Shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize 2014, this volume has childhood trauma and a dying father at its heart, and the poems skillfully transform painful experiences into expressions of grief. Fauverie redeems the darker forces of human nature while celebrating the ferocity and grace of endangered species: at its heart is the title’s name-sake: the big-cat house in the Jardin des Plantes zoo. Paris, too, takes centre stage – a city savage as the Amazon, haunted by Aramis the black jaguar and a menagerie of wild animals.

Fauverie is available on the Seren website: £9.99

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