Join us for the launch of Loops by Clare Pollard and Freya Sacksen, an eerie exchange between a swallow and a drone. We listen in as two beings try and maybe fail to connect. It’s a spirited poem with traces of found text and computer programming language being drawn down as the frustrations and miscommunications alter its course.
Clare and Freya were writing collaboratively for the first time and give us an insight into their process on the inside of this publication, where you’ll also find extracts from the science that inspired their collaboration, and a writing prompt. Each purchase includes a packet of seeds.
"Loops is poetic dialogue at its finest. Both experimental and beautiful, Loops asks a meditation of questions about the nature of what it means to be organic beings. The invitation to be part of the process of the organism (poem) is also another dimension to what makes DIRT and its shoot, Loops, so exciting and nurturing.” ~ Jessica Mookherjee
‘“Loops is a clever, swift and dynamic single-poem pamphlet that unfolds from a simple concept, connecting bird flight to code (and to other things that loop and reel) via collage and a call-and-answer structure. Though it touches thoughtfully on many things, it travels lightly, like a paper plane arcing briefly through the air.” - Jon Stone
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DIRT poets are given a piece of climate science to use as a starting point. This issue, the science came from Newbolt, J.W., Lewis, N., Bleu, M. et al. Flow interactions lead to self-organized flight formations disrupted by self-amplifying waves. Nat Commun 15, 3462 (2024). https://rdcu.be/dROyZ An easy to digest article on the findings can be read on Science Daily.
About Clare Pollard and Freya Sacksen
Clare Pollard has published five collections of poetry with Bloodaxe, with her sixth - Lives of the Female Poets - forthcoming in 2025. She has also written a non-fiction title, Fierce Bad Rabbits: The Tales Behind Childrens’ Picture Books (Fig Tree), her first children’s novel, The Untameables (The Emma Press), and two adult novels, Delphi and The Modern Fairies (Fig Tree).
Freya Sacksen is a UK-based poet from Aotearoa New Zealand. Their work has been published in digital journals EnbyLife and SWAMP, as well as ARU anthology The Word Is…SMUT. Their poetry embraces storytelling, ecopoetics, liminality and queer identity. Their current favorite example of the Order Lepidoptera is Danaus plexippus.