The Skin Diary

Abegail Morley

• Publisher: Nine Arches Press
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781911027256
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Poetry
• Index: Literature

Abegail Morley's The Skin Diary confronts loss in its many forms with unwavering and astonishing clarity, an incandescent thread running through every line that makes each alive with fierce and steely energy.

Here are alert and lyrical poems that hunt out imperfect hiding places, conjure up imaginary sisters and try to contain near-impossible sorrows that spill out of carrier bags and fill up archives. New skins and old disguises are stitched together, the fabric of life tries to hold fast whilst all else unravels and comes apart at the seams. The Skin Diary documents the sometimes fragile and strange windfalls of our days and months; through hard times and thin ice, this journal is bleakly wry, brilliantly focused and brimming with uncanny and discomforting turns of event.

'...ghostly, visceral, and unflinching poems.' – Penelope Shuttle

'The Skin Diary somehow finds words for the ineffable in its search for hope and understanding.' – Martin Figura

'...here is a poet who can hold her nerve and her entire psychological landscape within each multifariously conceived and consciously humane line.' – Melissa Lee - Houghton

Contents

Before you write off your imaginary sister

Summer

Nesting in the wardrobe

Childhood

Wrong name

Her story

Losing Elena

The Archive of Lost Lives

B1077

Bleeding

Taking flight

The winter gatherer

Discovery

The Blame

The shed = your secret life

If you stitch a woman

Neurologic Signature of Physical Pain

The Ice Hotel

Time Keeper

Brighton flat

Home

Still life with bathwater

The carrier bag

The Skin Diary

Back door at night

The Bramble Hotel

Pause

Love Child

The mechanics of loving

Last night

Summer’s end in Hackney

Forgetting you

The Cabinet of Broken Hearts

Post-

Mayday

The swallowed self

The horologist and the body clock

Barefoot

Foundling

Counter turn

Chicken coop

Fertility spell

Achillea millefolium

Miracle

Fish wife

The Museum of Missed Opportunities

The Oncology Community

In the photo I never took

Paddock Wood to Charing Cross

Presence

text

After you’ve died

Afterwards in ink

After the funeral

Package

Living with bats

Jacket

Night planting

Acknowledgements

‘As time goes on, you’ll understand. What lasts, lasts; what doesn’t, doesn’t. Time solves most things. And what time can’t solve, you have to solve yourself.’

Haruki Murakami

Before you write off your imaginary sister

remember how she didn’t take her blunt playschool scissors

to your Tiny Tears doll, didn’t lop off a curl,

how it didn’t make you cry for three nights in a row,

your only consolation, not inviting a mantra to your lips:

You are not my sister, you are not my sister.

Think of that night she wasn’t at the tap-end

of the bath, not bl...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Before you write off your imaginary sister
• Summer
• Nesting in the wardrobe
• Childhood
• Wrong name
• Her story
• Losing Elena
• The Archive of Lost Lives
• B1077
• Bleeding
• Taking flight
• The winter gatherer
• Discovery
• The Blame
• The shed = your secret life
• If you stitch a woman
• Neurologic Signature of Physical Pain
• The Ice Hotel
• Time Keeper
• Brighton flat
• Home
• Still life with bathwater
• The carrier bag
• The Skin Diary
• Back door at night
• The Bramble Hotel
• Pause
• Love Child
• Mechanics of loving
• Last Night
• Summer’s End in Hackney
• Forgetting you
• The Cabinet of Broken Hearts
• Post-
• Mayday
• The swallowed self
• The horologist and the body clock
• Barefoot
• Foundling
• Counter turn
• Chicken coop
• Fertility spell
• Achillea millefolium
• Miracle
• Fish wife
• The Museum of Missed Opportunities
• The Oncology Community
• In the photo I never took
• Paddock Wood to Charing Cross
• Presence
• text
• After you’ve died
• Afterwards in ink
• After the funeral
• Package
• Living with bats
• Jacket
• Night planting
• Acknowledgements