{"id":15396,"date":"2017-12-15T15:30:46","date_gmt":"2017-12-15T15:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=15396"},"modified":"2020-12-09T16:17:19","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T16:17:19","slug":"novembers-pick-of-the-month-is-frequency-violet-by-kate-edwards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/novembers-pick-of-the-month-is-frequency-violet-by-kate-edwards\/","title":{"rendered":"November’s Pick of the Month is ‘Frequency Violet’ by Kate Edwards"},"content":{"rendered":"

As ever it was a close-run contest but ‘Frequency Violet’ charmed the voters and Kate Edwards’ poem is our Pick of the Month for November 2017. With comments such as ‘unique and interesting’, ‘quirky’ and ‘playful’, we think everyone just lost their hearts a little!<\/span><\/p>\n

Kate lives in the\u00a0Calder Valley in Yorkshire but hails from the Black Country. She is a graduate of the Warwick University Masters in Writing Programme and Co-Artistic Director of all-female theatre company, Jammy Voo<\/em>.\u00a0 Twitter: @k8_in_space<\/a><\/p>\n

‘Frequency Violet’ was chosen as one of Ink Sweat & Tears’ entries for the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem 2018 and was Highly Commended.<\/a> It will feature in The Forward Book of Poetry 2019<\/em> available from Faber here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Frequency Violet<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some have misgivings about Violet. They believe
\nshe is on the spectrum; somewhere at the very end,
\nin fact. None can account for it but we\u2019re told
\nshe hums inaudibly in the octave of ozone, and lives
\nin an airlock, loiters in restricted zones, makes
\nuncanny utterances, keeps marine snails, crushes
\npencils into graphite dust, dances like it\u2019s the seventies,
\ntattoos the world\u2019s conspiracy theories onto uterine vellum,
\nstays up all night smoothing polymers under strip lights,
\nblinking. Rumours insist she has an eye for tactical missile
\ndesign and stockpiles blueprints, knows how to execute
\nthe perfect gem heist and leave fingerprints all over it.
\nHer party trick will make volatile hearts and auras
\nof loneliness glow in the dark; despondency shine black.
\nDreams of Violet often precede a wedding or a gas attack.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

More voters comments below:<\/p>\n

Gorgeous, delicate, efficient and bold. Love this. Stayed with me. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Imagery, rhythm, language, detail, originality<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s just such an unusual and clever poem, I loved the originality of it. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

I love the narrative in Kate’s work and the definitiveness that runs through it. It also has a sense of playfulness that delights the reader. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Violet stuns and surprises. The last line is particularly wonderful! <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Because I’m in love with Violet…<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

I just really like it. Despite being unable to describe why. I guess I just like Violet \ud83d\ude42 <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

As someone trained in science I love how scientific integrity is maintained without compromising poetic sensibility. It’s beautifully nuanced, each line vibrating at the right frequency.<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n

Wonderfully imaginative writing <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The opening mis-direction and then the mixture of science and wonderful absurdity. Brilliant <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Kate\u2019s words jump off the page and suck you into an imaginative vortex. Her images sing and I want to read more please. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Tough choice this month! I love the energy and humour of Kate’s poem <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

I love its surprises, its wit and danger. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

There\u2019s just a life to this piece and it seems to be staying alive in my head as I find myself coming back to thinking about it.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As ever it was a close-run contest but ‘Frequency Violet’ charmed the voters and Kate Edwards’ poem is our Pick of the Month for November 2017. With comments such as ‘unique and interesting’, ‘quirky’ and ‘playful’, we think everyone just lost their hearts a little! Kate lives in the\u00a0Calder Valley in Yorkshire but hails from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[136,141],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2017-poetry-picks","category-prizes-and-awards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15396"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17381,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15396\/revisions\/17381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}