the male poet and the female poet go to the surgery in exciting times by Anne-Laure Coxam Blue Diode

“What a piece of work is a poet, forever in the here and now and the when and whenever, a poet all of the time whether they try to be or not, whether they’re thinking about reading a book while reading a book, remembering cubed beetroot, obliquely referencing polar bears, or considering the cognitive processes of a Siamese cat eating polystyrene. the male poet and the female poet… is a long poem made of shorter poems, a beautiful murmuration, a writer moving through the world doing this and doing that, noticing everything, finding nothing negligible, seeking connection and always, always making magic.” —Tom Jenks

“Anne-Laure Coxam has an ornithologist’s eye for the human, and a great ear for the ambient language she shapes and detourns. There’s such range in this collection, from heartbreaking short lyrics to satirical prose, tracing the growth, crises and gentle unknotting of a relationship. Everywhere, too, there’s a solidarity with all migrant and precarious beings. It’s all the more moving for the wry humour Coxam finds in her clinical observations of the bird-people, and of her own strategies for living as one of them. A beautiful book, and thoroughly recommended.” —Peter Manson

“Exciting times! Need advice on unplugging a brexiter? Or how to perform surgery on fixed toxic primary binaries? Still dreaming of a common metaphor? Who you gonna call? Get Anne-Laure Coxam on speed dial. Catch her at the beach recycling language with bits of coconut and razor clam. Move over David Attenborough, tell Hélène Cixous the news!—Here comes Coxam’s poetry ‘sobbing and […] trembling regularly and fiercely like an animal who dreams’.” —Jane Goldman

Blue Diode Press