JUST BREATHE

Just Breathe

Just Breathe is Trish’s first full collection. These poems span 30 years of being a mother and carer to two sons whose ability to breathe unaided is gradually deteriorating to the point where they are dependent on a ventilator. The poems explore what it is to breathe naturally and what changes when breathing is done by a machine.

FROM JUST BREATHE…

Don’t Hold Your Breath

  

governments deny everything
commercial behemoths bandy words
of carefully planned power cuts
in neat chessboard patterns,
of emergency blackouts,
of a register alerting authorities
of threats to quarterly profits

 

trust no-one
to whom you are
an account number

 

when push comes to shove
and the power goes off
they are ‘them’
we are ‘us’

 

explaining
‘life’ and ‘death’
to a chatbot

Just Breathe  can be purchased at Five Leaves Bookshop, Nottingham.

“Honest, poignant and true, these poems give us a startling insight into one carer’s life, with all its extremes and mixed emotions, not excluding real joy and humour.”

Cathy Grindrod

“A harrowing, provocative and necessary set of poems.”

Ray Hearne

“An autobiographic odyssey pours strength on pages inked with authenticity and love .”

Dr. John Tams

“A collection about the first and last thing we do on this earth, woven beautifully through words which soar from the page…”

Sophie Sparham

Trish Kerrison’s first collection is an astonishing and brave sequence of poems.

To read Emma Storr’s full Review, as published in London Grip Magazine, click here