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the poet
Ilisha Thiru Purcell is a poet from Newcastle upon Tyne. She is one of the three poets in the inaugural Poets of Colour Incubator (2023/4) and was a Young Creative Associate with New Writing North. Ilisha performed at the 2023 Newcastle Poetry Festival and her work has appeared in publications such as Butcher’s Dog and Bi+ Lines Anthology and she was shortlisted for Nine Arches Primers Volume Seven. She is part of the group Brown Girls Write.
the poems
Coast |
I stand before
the north sea
and think that
a coast | is a lie.
I look for the definitive |
separating the sea
from the shore, water
from land, wet from dry.
Where is the cartoon |
you see in children’s books
dividing the yellow
from the blue?
I search for a |
or _ or even a ----
telling us what is ours
and theirs,
but all there is
is negotiation
between the land
and the sea.
Haven’t you seen
a chunk of cliff
plunge into the sea
toes pointed?
Or how the water takes larger
chunks out of the sand,
ignoring the white |s
on a map saying stay?
Germination
My shadow strikes out from my body/
as if I am announcing that now is the time the time is now/
I have been kept in time and now I am the keeper of it/
Meeting my own gaze/
I expand like the lungs of the city I rest my feet upon/
I smile a wry smile/
a “you can’t even imagine” smile/
A man on a child’s bike asked me where I got it from/
this crescent of grapefruit flesh/
and I replied my mother/
My mum/
who shines brightest in a sea of saris/
who circles my thumb with her forefinger/
like a planet in orbit/
My mum/
dressed in black, absorbing everything, is everything/
a river running to and from everything/
If these images could talk they would tell you that there is more than one way to pray/
more than one way to bless a journey/
Dust to Dawn
The last night I spent alone
I couldn’t remember ever seeing daylight
and all that came from my mouth was dust.
This time I beat back the thoughts like dust
off a rug, sank into this new shade of alone.
I found within myself a light.
Soon I will not need lamplight
to protect me from the parts of my mind that have collected dust,
I will be content and unafraid alone.
Only alone can I watch the dust of my past dance in dawn’s light.
Publishing credits
Coast |: Bi+ Lines – An Anthology of Contemporary
Bi+ Poets (Fourteen Poems)
Germination: Sanctuary – Brown Girls Write Anthology
(New Writing North)
Dust to Dawn: exclusive first publication by iamb