Vagabond Voices Our Real, Red Selves - Book Launch

Birth and war - as opposing states often do, they have moments where they resemble each other: the blood, the screaming, the heightened emotion. In war and in birth we reveal "our real red selves", to quote a line taken from a poem included in this book (Poem for a Garden, by Marion McCready). McCready’s The Birth Garden is inspired by childbirth, whereas the two other pieces of work collected in this volume, Harry Giles’ Drone and J. L. Williams’ The History of Fire, look at war. Contrasting subjects whose treatment by these poets nevertheless echoes each other in imagery and intensity.