After the Fire: poems

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After the fire comes the long journey to adapt and return to normality.

Portugal’s devastating forest fires of October 2017 burned 53,000 hectares of land, ruined countless businesses, destroyed 500 homes, injured over 250 people, and caused the deaths of 50 people.

Among the buildings wrecked by the flames was the house that Janet Olearski had bought just seven months earlier. She had lost her job in Abu Dhabi and was packing in preparation for the transfer to her new home when she found out that her home had been destroyed. In March 2018, with her UAE visa cancelled, she had no alternative but to move - bag, baggage, and pets - into her incinerated home in Central Portugal.

Encompassing a range of emotions, this collection of 29 poems charts her coming to terms with the aftermath of the disaster, alone in an unfamiliar environment, in a new country, and through Covid lockdowns. Here are her expressions of sorrow, solitude, regret, nostalgia, acceptance, but also happiness, hope and humour… after the fire.

After the Fire was shortlisted for the Cinnamon Pamphlet Award 2022.