chrysalis for the bardo of lepidoptera

My poetry / is entirely made up / of the sounds of rain / on leaves.” So writes Gerry Loose during his intriguing new collection Night Exposures (Vagabond Voices, £9.95), giving a flavour of his methods and preoccupations. During the course of the book, Loose pings between Scotland, Finland and Nuremberg as he examines the delusions of our would-be-leaders set against the ongoing destruction of the natural world. “chrysalis for the bardo of lepidoptera” is a “cantation for endangered species,” in this case certain species of butterfly.

dagger with knot forester with pinion chestnut with crescent mouse with tiger dusky with sallow sprawler with shoulder mottled with streak latticed with brindled grey with yellow double with narrow ghost with plume crimson & gold argent & sable cinnabar & red neglected sword so be it

You can find a copy of Night Exposures by Gerry Loose at the Scottish Poetry Library, 5 Crichton’s Close, Edinburgh, scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk