Jupiter’s Perigee

by Sophia Hardy

Genre: Poetry 

Jupiter’s Perigee is a collection of poetry about the lives of several characters during a time when Jupiter has moved its closest to the earth. It’s about excess, wealth, love, entrapment, unease, loss, and the divine.
This is the book is divided into 8 different sections each following the narrative of a different character, including William Blake and his initial portrayal of Jupiter the god. Jupiter’s Perigee takes the reader through the moments of life that are inexplicable and balances mystery with common table salt and human passion.

These are poems of great clarity and strength, arising from the dramatic context of their characters’ lives. Simple conversational elements fuse to create mystery, intrigue and complexity. Here is a score for several voices: Constance whose yearning never ceases in the reign of money; Will, who sees his poems go up in smoke; Dadhija, who prays for rain in the forgetfulness of the monsoon; Lucy, stalked by jealousy – and William Blake who set a flaming Jupiter in the night sky… And Jupiter, the planet of excess, swings terribly close!