Author(s): Johanna Emeney

Poetry | Aotearoa

Couples in last-chance therapy, friends unfriending, racist trolls trawling the comments section for game--this collection of poems is concerned with the things that make us feel. The felt realm is very much in nature, too. From the calm of a sleeping doe to the slow unwinding of the last bee on Earth, Johanna Emeney seems to say that there is a message in the air--for those who listen with all of the senses.

Contents: Suspicion 11 Couples Therapy 12 I Am Losing You Again 14 Hospital Guard 16 When Things End Badly 17 Going Bad 19 That Face 20 Favoured Exception 21 RLSV 23 Angel Road 26 This Vehicle Kneels on Request 28 Honest Second 29 Trashed 30 Shelter from the Storm 32 Bad Jokes/About Goats 33 How Can This Be Anything But Another Summer Poem? 35 Touching 36 Paradise Ducklings 38 Grass Frog 39 Early Autumn Morning 41 Ruby, at Six 42 Play 43 Felt 44 Fight 45 Strawberries 47 Reading Aloud in Bed 48 Felt_TEXT_FNL.indd 8 11/11/20 2:21 PMThe Physics of Grief 50 Hydrotherapy 51 Prayer 52 Where Have All the Old Names Gone? 54 Going into Winter 55 On Charity 66 Myxomatosis 57 A Childhood in the Country 58 Gorse 59 Comments Section 60 The Neighbour's House 62 The Good Daughters 63 Personal Space 64 Tick Boxes 65 Reading King Lear While the Old Man Is in Hospital 66 Liver Failure 67 I Understand You 69 Acknowledgements 71 About the Author 73 Index of Poems 75

Author Biography: JOHANNA EMENEY (1974-), a Cambridge graduate with a postgraduate diploma in education, is a tutor of creative writing at Massey University, Auckland, where she gained her PhD. She has published two books of poetry, Apple and Tree (Cape Catley, 2011) and Family History (Ma karo Press, 2017), and an academic book, The Rise of Autobiographical Medical Poetry and the Medical Humanities (Ibidem Press, 2018). She was the editor of the Poetry New Zealand Yearbook 2020.