Review Sally-Shakti Willowโs bold new collection Atha utilises collage technique to espouse a Utopian Poetics described as โa relationship of non-alienation between reader and writerโ in which one encounters oneโs embodied and intersubjective self. In combining fragments from a rich array of sources such as yoga manuals with the 24 hour news cycle, Willow ensures that this enquiry fully integrates inner and ...Full description
Review Sally-Shakti Willowโs bold new collection Atha utilises collage technique to espouse a Utopian Poetics described as โa relationship of non-alienation between reader and writerโ in which one encounters oneโs embodied and intersubjective self. In combining fragments from a rich array of sources such as yoga manuals with the 24 hour news cycle, Willow ensures that this enquiry fully integrates inner and outer worlds in lines like โhormone secretions stimulate freedom of movement.โ In her series of rituals for Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, this utopian tension is memorably chased by a โghostwordโ that โsemblesโ and โdissemblesโ as it โsearch [es] the words / for the root.โ The final section โMovement & Meditationโ opens with the question โhow to metabolise thisโ, when โthisโ feels like all the evils of the world rising to engulf us. That the answer must be โmy voiceโ puts Willowโs courageous and generous work firmly in the company of writers like Maggie OโSullivan โ to whom she pays tribute here โ making Atha an accomplished and inspiring act of โedgewordering.โย โScott Thurston