We're delighted to share this extract from Bhanu Kapil's incredible commentary on the PBS Summer Choice How to Wash A Heart from our Summer Bulletin.
"The entire book arrived all at once one day, as if it was being dictated by a very clear voice. It was distracting to be doing domestic things, or work outside of my home, when all I wanted to do was to get down what this voice was saying. Sometimes it was the voice of a guest and sometimes it was the voice of a host. After writing most of the first draft, I moved to the UK after twenty-one (or twenty-nine) years in the US. In Cambridge, I evolved a closing essay, Notes on the Title, trying to think about the performance at the ICA that inspired the title of this collection. It is unlikely I will ever write a book of poetry again. How did you feel when you read the last line of the book? Have you ever been welcomed into a space only to experience, once you’ve entered it, the aversion of its occupants? I was thinking about a country but I was also thinking about a university. Family memories of orchards and war mixed together, in what I wrote, with the Colorado morning, and the strange English night (which seemed to slam down, like a lid, at 3pm every afternoon.)"
PBS Members can the full interview with Bhanu Kapil in the Summer Bulletin or order How to Wash a Heart here with 25% off. Join today for a year of poetry parcels, including a free copy of the Summer Bulletin and a £10 book voucher.