{"id":3376,"date":"2020-04-03T11:45:19","date_gmt":"2020-04-03T01:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/?p=3376"},"modified":"2020-04-01T17:03:16","modified_gmt":"2020-04-01T06:33:16","slug":"poetry-spotlight-offal-love-ali-whitelock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/2020\/04\/poetry-spotlight-offal-love-ali-whitelock\/","title":{"rendered":"POETRY SPOTLIGHT: ‘all the offal love’ by Ali Whitelock"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

It’s time for our Poem of the Week post! Let’s delve into an excerpt taken from the moving poem ‘All the Offal Love’, from Ali Whitelock’s\u00a0 recently released collection The Lactic Acid in the Calves of Your Despair<\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/h1>\n

<\/p>\n

Instead of choosing a full poem today, I wanted to focus on a small collection of words within a larger work, because sometimes it is nice to stop and think and ponder just a little bit closer. Sometimes there is joy to be found in slowing down.<\/p>\n

And these words definitely made me stop and slow.<\/p>\n

They made me wonder if I ‘go to bed eager’ or ‘wake up glad’.<\/p>\n

I think the wonder of poetry is often that it can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Sometimes, it can even mean something very different to a poet than for a reader.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

From\u00a0‘all the offal love’ by Ali Whitelock<\/h1>\n
\n

sometimes when i\u2019m driving back from the supermarket
\ni consider the possibility i may not make it home alive.
\nwhen i pull into my driveway & i\u2019m not dead, i unpack
\nthe car, marvel at the canned spaghetti & sliced white bread<\/p>\n

i\u2019ll get to enjoy if i make it into the house without breaking
\nmy neck on the stairs & every other day i don\u2019t die, i try
\nto go to bed eager. wake up glad. i do my best to whip
\nthe egg whites of my love till they stand in peaks
\nof their own accord. i sift my light like flour.
\nchurn my hate till it turns to butter.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

These words make me think that joy is often found in small things, and that perhaps by facing the inevitability of an ending, it allows us to breathe again in the meantime. I like the idea that by embracing the darkness in our lives and confronting sometimes brutal truths, we are able to fully appreciate the world around us in all its minute beauty.<\/p>\n

To read the poem in full or to discover more of Ali Whitelock’s poetry, delve into her newest collection The Lactic Acid in the Calves of Your Despair<\/em><\/a>. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

And remember, the best way to show your support for writers, poets, publishers and booksellers is to buy books!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Support Wakefield Press by buying our beautiful books!\u00a0 Visit our website<\/a> or contact us on 08 8352 4455 for more information, or to purchase a book (or three!).\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>We can post your purchase to your doorstep!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s time for our Poem of the Week post! Let’s delve into an excerpt taken from the moving poem ‘All the Offal Love’, from Ali Whitelock’s\u00a0 recently released collection The Lactic Acid in the Calves of Your Despair.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[855],"tags":[864,863,856,46,861,862,858,859],"class_list":["post-3376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry-spotlight","tag-australian-poetry","tag-poem-extracts","tag-poems","tag-poetry","tag-poetry-by-women","tag-poetry-spotlight","tag-poets","tag-women-poets"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4v1Of-Ss","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3376"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3384,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3376\/revisions\/3384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}