Name
by Phoebe Power
a chrism, christ with a lemon tongue.
turquoise water inside a glass
wörthersee water
a crystal you take in your pocket or carry
touching your neck
a pair of blue and glass eyes
from a black and white portrait
a ring of yellow hair
Chris
in your army green cap
Christl
a baby lying over a stream
or the picture of a baby
From Shrines of Upper Austria. Reproduced with kind permission of Carcanet
Forward Prizes for Poetry
Winner of Best First Collection 2018
Shrines of Upper Austria
Phoebe Power
About Phoebe Power
Phoebe Power (b. 1993, Newcastle-upon-Tyne) was a Foyle Young Poet of the year before studying at Cambridge, where she ran the Pembroke Poetry Society. Her pamphlet Harp Duet was published by Eyewear in 2016. The poems in Shrines of Upper Austria take their bearings from the landscapes and local detail of Austria — where Power has travelled — sometimes incorporating and assimilating whole lines of German among the English. Several of the poems draw from the life-story of her Austrian grandmother, Christl.
Power says that ‘You can never be sure how readers will engage with your work when you write it — readers are all different — so knowing that some people have connected with it is truly a joy.’ Her enthusiasm with different modes of engagement has included adapting her poems into collaborative video installations and performance pieces, featuring harps, electronica and a flood-destroyed piano.
