Description
On 26 April, 1986 at 1.23 am, in the cool dark of an early Saturday, the fourth reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear complex exploded. "Heavy Water" is based on eyewitness accounts of the Chernobyl disaster. Petrucci takes up the challenge confronting society in every age: to attempt the difficult task of exploring its most terrible events. His poem unites the concerns of artist, humanitarian and historian at a common source: the desire not to forget. This poem stands to remind us that those who have been exposed to the invisible should never become so.Each segment paints an intimate picture: some elements of everyday life remain unchanged, others are profoundly altered. The collection's recurring motifs of black and white signal how all are silenced, reduced to anonymity - which in turn engenders fierce solidarity. Meanwhile, men and machines toil side by side to tackle the insurmountable. Petrucci's use of scientific and medical terminology makes his descriptions chillingly precise. In contrast, we hear, from a deeply personal angle, the simply expressed accounts of real people who struggle to cope with the enormity of the disaster. This poem is at once deeply shocking yet pervaded by an uplifting beauty.
About the Author
Mario Petrucci is an ecologist, physicist and war poet. He is also the only poet to have been in residence at the Imperial War Museum.A selection of these poems won the Daily Telegraph / Arvon International Poetry Competition 2002, and two won Merit Awards in the Nottingham Open Poetry Competition in the same year. Mario was the recipient of a Writers Award from the Arts Council of England. A Natural Sciences graduate, Mario is currently Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Oxford Brookes University, and works as an educator and a radio/TV broadcaster. Poems from Heavy Water are featured in Poetry Review, The London Magazine, Acumen, Agenda, on BBC Radio and at The Royal Festival Hall
Reviews
"Heartfelt, ambitious and alive"Jackie Kay
Book Information
ISBN 9781900564342
Author Mario Petrucci
Format Paperback
Page Count 96
Imprint Enitharmon Press
Publisher Enitharmon Press
About the Author
Mario Petrucci is an ecologist, physicist and war poet. He is also the only poet to have been in residence at the Imperial War Museum.A selection of these poems won the Daily Telegraph / Arvon International Poetry Competition 2002, and two won Merit Awards in the Nottingham Open Poetry Competition in the same year. Mario was the recipient of a Writers Award from the Arts Council of England. A Natural Sciences graduate, Mario is currently Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Oxford Brookes University, and works as an educator and a radio/TV broadcaster. Poems from Heavy Water are featured in Poetry Review, The London Magazine, Acumen, Agenda, on BBC Radio and at The Royal Festival Hall
Reviews
"Heartfelt, ambitious and alive"Jackie Kay
Book Information
ISBN 9781900564342
Author Mario Petrucci
Format Paperback
Page Count 96
Imprint Enitharmon Press
Publisher Enitharmon Press
