Blue in Green

The collection "Blue in Green" explores the complexities of human relationships, particularly within families, and how disease becomes a collaborator in shaping these relationships. Through ekphrastic poems, letters, and free verse, Elliotts works highlight reciprocity and the struggle to process the damaging interpersonal reverberations of racism, sexism, and environmental damage. The poems depict the feeling of perpetually existing in the shadow of catastrophe and document the slow and strange process of coming to terms with this way of living.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 80 pages
Publication date: 27 August 2021
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press

Collaboration is a central theme in this collection, as human relationships, particularly within families, shape the poems in Blue in Green. These poems delve into the evolution of expectations between individuals, transforming into a contemplation of what we owe each other. When cancer disrupts the ordinary, engulfing the labor of love, work, and friendship, disease becomes a collaborator, proposing new rules of exchange. Elliotts diverse works showcase reciprocity, with ekphrastic poems describing modern jazz songs, letters, and letter fragments, as well as free verse poems with varying line lengths.

"When I was a wave," the speaker repeats, each time sharing a different narrative about intimacy and risk. Blue in Green navigates the challenging process of processing the damaging interpersonal reverberations of racism, sexism, and environmental damage, while also exploring the intertwined personal and political manifestations of care. As a slow-growing disease consumes the speaker's body, these poems capture the sensation of perpetually living in the shadow of catastrophe and document the gradual and peculiar journey of coming to terms with this way of life.

Weight: 100g
Dimension: 139 x 215 x 8 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780226783888