Let Out the Djinn

Jane Aldous

• Publisher: Arachne Press
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9781913665005
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: European Poetry
• Index: Literature

There is a double meaning in the title to this debut collection from Jane Aldous – Jinn was her family nickname, and writing poetry feels like letting out her wild, mischievous spirit.
For Jane, poetry is all about listening, and she invites us to listen to the imagined worlds of hunter-gatherers, star-gazers, mythical beings, wild creatures, the living and the dead, and the real world of a gay woman growing up in the 70s.

Goodbye Voyager 1

I heard you made it

to interstellar space

past the kiss-me-quick hats

lost balloons

stratus and noctilucent clouds

satellites and meteorites

the ever-orbiting bits of junk like me

Telstar 1963

all the way through the heliosphere

beyond the outer planets

if only I could have been programmed

to be as brave as you

do you remember you played

Stravinsky and Chuck Berry

when we almost collided all those years ago

now look where your heart’s desire

has got you to

travelling on a one-way ticket

through thickets of universes

black holes and dying stars

to immortality

where you belong

over and out

so long

First published in UK 2019 by Arachne Press Limited

100 Grierson Road, London SE23 1NX

www.arachnepress.com

© Jane Aldous 2019

ISBNs:

Print: 978-1-909208-81-0

ePub: 978-1-913665-00-5

mobi: 978-1-913665-01-2

The moral rights of the author have been asserted.

All rights reserved. this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior written consent in any form or binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Except for short passages for review purposes no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,

photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of Arachne Press Limited.

Thanks to Muireann Grealy for her proofing.

Printed on wood-free paper in the UK by TJ International, Padstow.

Acknowledgements

Andromeda on All Hallows’ Eve (2014), A Dead Lamb in Polbain (2015) and Whale Wall (2012) were published in Northwords Now.

As a Song Thrush Sings was commended in the Buzzwords Poetry Competition 2016.

Black Wing Rock was published on line on the Stanza Poetry Map of Scotland.

Eel Ghazal won the Wigtown Poetry Competition and was published in Southlight, both in 2012.

Goodbye Voyager 1 was commended in the Baker Prize 2013.

Lochinver Harbour was highly commended in the Norman MacCaig Centenary Competition 2010.

The Shoe Doll and Washerwomen on Calton Hill were performed in the City Arts Centre and published by Edinburgh Museums and Galleries, for the year of History, Heritage and Archaeology in 2017.

Washerwomen on Calton Hill was also published by New Writing Scotland 2017.

A version of With Meme on Mellon Udrigle Beach was longlisted for the Bridport Poetry Prize 2012.

I would also like to acknowledge all the amazing support for my poetry from my lovely partner Bev.

Also, all the friendship and encouragement from my original poetry group, Lindy Barbour, Anthony Costello,

Alex Devoy, Anita John, Simon MacLaren, Sheila Wild and more recently Pat McCaw.

Finally, my brilliant editor Cherry Potts who had faith in me.

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Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Dedication
• Telegram from Doris Court Nursing Home
• Let out the Djinn
• Portland Road
• How it was
• Finding Bluebells
• Dave Off in Five
• In the New Leaf Co-op
• Crow’s Eye
• Watching the Celts on Leith Walk
• With Meme on Mellon Udrigle Beach
• Death Waiting
• Malmesbury
• Home Service
• Whisper
• Lochinver Harbour
• Whale Wall
• Eel Ghazal
• Highland Ghazal
• Black Wing Rock
• A Dead Lamb in Polbain
• Doggerland
• Earth’s Witnesses
• The Deskford Carnyx
• Sennacherib’s Sculptor and the Winged Bulls
• Bridge
• La Mer de Glace
• Twenty-one Antler Head-dresses, Star Carr
• The Death of Echo
• Shoe Doll in the City Arts Centre, Edinburgh
• Washerwomen on Calton Hill
• What’cha
• Frosty Leo
• Andromeda on All Hallows’ Eve
• Goodbye Voyager 1
• Copyright
• Acknowledgements
• About Arachne Press