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This extraordinary and exquisitely-crafted pamphlet, the third from Romani poet Raine Geoghegan, has a unique silver thread running through it, of winter, sleep, stone… A tree is ‘more stone than bark’, a woman is stone, and tries to escape feeling; fatigue makes stone of another person. Of course the ultimate sleep is death, and there are poems which feature a woman finding her final ‘atchin tan’, or stopping place, on the road; a vigil is kept with a loved one nearing the end of their journey; a young woman is prepared for burial according to Romani customs; and a gravestone is searched for, lost in long grass. Rituals of birth, death and sex are celebrated. And behind the ‘stone sleep’ of the title is a huge and indomitable life spirit. As the epigraph to the opening (and title) poem, taken from Czeslaw Milosz, says: Even asleep we partake in the becoming of the world . This life spirit, wild and resilient, is embodied in nature, animals (the wolf, the hawk), native cultures, and elemental presences. Kali Ma, the Hindu goddess of death, rebirth and transformation, presides over the work, representing feminine power, subversive and rebellious: ‘she laughs and sticks her long red tongue out’. The Inuit goddess of the Sea, Sedna, also features, and a female shaman, ‘like a kestrel’. The Salmon, symbol of rebirth, is hunted for cruel human sport, while another poem celebrates the Buddhist reverence for the smallest living creature. Like the ‘masks’ and ‘eyes’ and ‘hands’ which appear, this very tightly-themed pamphlet is greater than the sum of its parts. The Stone Sleep is nourishment and guide: it will be a delight for Raine Geoghegan’s regular readers and is sure to attract many more to her compelling and healing work.
-GB Clarkson, Author of ‘Overcoat of Flesh’ with Nine Arches Press 2021. Winner of the 2015 Ambit Poetry Competition and the 2015 Poetry London Competition.
Sometimes shamanic, always moving, these are stirring slivers of living and loss. From ‘As the light unwraps itself, / you go deeper into the stone sleep’ to reaching atchin tan (stopping place/ home), this pamphlet evokes and awakens a new sense of being and belonging.
-Sarah James, Poet, fiction writer, journalist and Editor at V. Press. Author of four poetry collections, three pamphlets, and an ACE funded multi-media narrative.
