Earthbound Poetry Series: Helen Charman (Vol. 1, No. 12)

Published 23 March 2020

Text: ‘Worry Work’, by Helen Charman [a poem in six sections]

Cover: Tidal Study (Spreads Her Meaning Out), by Alice Ewing. Cast Bronze and Acrylic Paint (2018)

‘Worry work’ was written between late 2019 and the first week of 2020: I began it during the UCU strike in autumn 2019 and finished it in the aftermath of the 2019 general election and the 2020 Australian bushfires. It borrows from David Burliuk, Alexander Kruchenykh, Vladmir Mayakovsky and Victor Khlebnikov’s 1917 manifesto ‘A Slap in the Face of Public Taste’, from an 1882 letter from Karl Marx to his daughter Jenny, and from the songs ‘Heart-shaped Face’ by Angel Olsen, and ‘Gormlaith’s Grieving’ by Lisa O’Neil. It’s dedicated to Lily Ní Dhomhnaill, Rory Williamson, and Chris Law. —H.C.

Printed in Metallic Gold, Aqua, Grey, and Black riso inks, on FSC certified Munken Pure 170gsm acid free paper. 8pp. Edition of fifty-two numbered copies. Third printing.