She Can Still Sing
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Written while the author grieved the loss of a friend who took her life after a long struggle with mental illness, She Can Still Sing is a eulogy that projects from light. One part love letter to the mundane, three parts hymn to the departed, four parts ride of wonderment, these poems celebrate the bonds of friendship and family even as they leave love notes to the departed stuffed into surprising images. Louisa's connection to the environment is evident in nods to water and the earth's many-coloured bounty of flora – and, right through the pamphlet, there is a clear sense of the passage of time and its maintenance of the natural order of things, the cycle of life. Where there is grief, there is joy, and to lose sight of that might make of one “beating crimson wings/ against the glass of a window which can never/ be opened”.
Louisa Adjoa Parker is a writer of English-Ghanaian heritage who lives in south west England. Author of three poetry books, including Salt-sweat and Tears (Cinnamon Press) and How to wear a skin (Indigo Dreams), her work has appeared in a wide range of journals and anthologies including Envoi; Wasafiri; Acumen; Out of Bounds (Bloodaxe); and Closure: Contemporary Black British Short Stories (Peepal Tree). She has been highly commended by the Forward Prize and twice shortlisted by the Bridport Prize. Louisa’s poem, Kindness, was commended by the National Poetry Competition in 2019.