Spellbound

Spellbound by Francis Aschoff
ISBN: 978-0-473-75942-1

Launching 6pm 19th November at Unity Books Wellington

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Once I sink my teeth in, I have to nurse myself into letting go

I feed the ugliest pigeon in Midland Park because what does it say about my humanity if I don’t? Why do 10-year-olds have to run cross country? What choice do I have? When is love staying, and when isn’t it? At what age does a lamb become a sheep? Do you like it like that? Is it enough? How will I ever know if I’m doing it right? What if I don’t know it when I see it?

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Francis Aschoff’s debut poetry collection is a time machine trip from the heights of first love to the yellow days of infancy, from crying in club bathrooms to a future not yet known. These poems are a magnifying glass, a tender eye and a flame thrower. They are love poems to the difficulties of love – love that is absent or which can’t be felt even when it’s there. Spellbound zings with surprising images that will make you see, and feel, differently.

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"Spellbound is a feast of raw-hearted morsels, bursting with tenderness for everything from the Courtenay Place Chicken Palace, to the ugliest pigeon in Midland park. It’s dreamy paper collages and sticker charts. It’s hot pink nostalgia with attachment issues. It’s packed with feeling, sharp as teeth. It opens its mouth and consumes you.” - Dani Yourukova

“It’s a cliche to say poems grapple with things, but these poems grapple like a twelfth dan judo practitioner. They grapple like a f--ing grappling hook. It doesn’t even matter what they’re grappling with. It’s a joy just to watch them grapple, grab, twist, throw. The motion of them. The rippling surfaces. These poems are beautiful like muscles moving under skin. They are afraid but not afraid of being afraid. Yearning and yearning not to be yearning. Read them when you need to feel something. They will pick you up and toss you to the ground.” - Always Becominging