Who Asks the Caterpillar?

by Ellin, Jeanne

• ISBN13: 9781900715966
• ISBN10: 1900715961
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-07-01
• Publisher: Peepal Tree Press Ltd.

Summary

In this collection, an Anglo-Indian poet offers a fresh approach to conveying the disorienting postcolonial experience, exploring themes of immersion and exposure to achieve an original and often humorous voice. The challenge of living between cultures and without “family hand-me-downs” propels these poems, as many investigate prominent themes in contemporary poetry—identity, cultural migration, and women’s changing roles—while unwaveringly providing original insights. Drawing on Eastern and Western myths, this collection blends the power of shared ideas with the experiences of a minority group, providing a unique perspective.

Author Biography

Jeanne Ellin is a counselor and an industrial relations medior. She has been poet in residence at Wakefield High Security Prison and is the author of Listening Helpfully: How to Develop Your Counselling Skills.

Table of Contents

Kali dances	p. 10
On leaving the motherland	p. 11
Home is a land	p. 12
When I have to ask why, ask why	p. 13
When the box shuts on the shell	p. 14
What we left behind	p. 15
But I speak English already	p. 16
We naked	p. 17
Needing infinity	p. 18
Mermaid's daughter	p. 19
Merechild	p. 20
Who asks the caterpillar?	p. 21
Butterfly cult	p. 22
Morning mission	p. 23
Name this child	p. 24
The guilty part	p. 25
As a precaution I never walk barefoot in Church	p. 26
Another star	p. 27
Nasturtium	p. 28
Time's passenger	p. 30
Almost a love poem from an Oyster	p. 31
Yours for mine	p. 32
Duty keeps an open prison	p. 33
Love can be paper-thin	p. 34
And if my lover were the sea	p. 35
Not losing but letting go	p. 36
Architect	p. 37
Edges	p. 38
Solitude	p. 39
Ex single parent builds an ark	p. 40
My name is Jeanne, am I still a poet?	p. 41
Name poems	p. 43
Wick monument	p. 44
Mother verb and noun	p. 46
Lost letter	p. 47
Everyday a tongue dies	p. 48
Moon viewing	p. 49
Adopted tongue	p. 50
Infectious	p. 51
Night without song	p. 52
When she was finally given words and light	p. 53
Chimpanzee's song	p. 54
Should we wake this stone-wrapped sleeper?	p. 55
Mendi nights	p. 56
I am under the water	p. 58
Blame spring flowers	p. 60
Mother will	p. 61
Reflections of Aphrodite	p. 62
The first misunderstood husband/abused wife	p. 63
Daddy's girl on the couch	p. 67
The thinking woman's solution	p. 69
Hysteria, a heroine	p. 70
Hestia	p. 71
A brief statement from women's place	p. 72
Green space	p. 73
To lay for your country	p. 74
Voices in the wilderness	p. 76
For a God betrayal is only a breathe away	p. 78
We are all Sheepdogs here	p. 82
Burning bride	p. 83
Adam expelled	p. 84
Gendered chocolate	p. 85
Tour	p. 86
Cliff top museum	p. 87
Self-scouring winds	p. 88
Mirror in winter	p. 89
Last best gift is mischief	p. 90
The last Christmas jumper	p. 91
Real bull	p. 92
Green executive stress	p. 93
Prozac for the pain of bricks and bark	p. 94
Annunciation : to stargazer lilies	p. 95
Off-pitch scoring	p. 96
Return of the all-singing, all-dancing timber wolves	p. 97
Where nile crocodiles sleep	p. 98
Horror stories for the longest day	p. 99
Now Europe is to set the wooden horses free	p. 100
Voyage of the yellow flotilla	p. 101
We are the garlic girls	p. 102
Turkey doctrine	p. 103
A call for responsible publication	p. 104
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.