Sensitive to Temperature
June 2023
Available to order here.
“Sensitive to Temperature seeks out the precariousness and sensitivities of language, as well as the fragilities of the world it represents. These are eco-poems that experience time on a human and non-human scale, from the movements of rock to the sources of rivers.”
- The Poetry Business
“These poems feel as if they move in and out of consciousness, preoccupied with the language of psychology, tapered by wonder and restraint. There’s a casual knowingness to the work which encourages the reader to also peer beyond their reality, in the hope something new appears.”
– Anthony Anaxagorou
“Accomplished and compelling in equal measure, Alagappan’s poetry tackles the big subjects—love, family, memory, the earth—by setting the planetary and the personal in close proximity. Her voice flickers with intimacy as it celebrates and laments the shared vulnerabilities of human and heavenly bodies. In their deft leaps between the local and the cosmic, these poems always land on the side of hope.”
-Erica McAlpine
“A rare quality I find in Alagappan’s work is the balance between susceptibility and resilience and how these tensions invigorate her poetics. She is an exciting new voice on the scene and I can’t wait to read more by her.”
-Daljit Nagra
Poems
“Shop Local”
“Holy”
“Cosmic Crane”
“Embruns”
“Red Moon”
“Prayer Peaks”
“The Sky Has a Body”
“Forest Fire from Far Away”
“The Body Keeps the Score”
“Nostalgia Architects”
“Birthing Cave”
“After the Mushroom at the End of the World”
“Late May”
“Tiffin”
“After the Mushroom at the End of the World”
“Bitter like a Nightingale” “Tread Softly” &
“Her first time on the Bimah”
“even now, assembling” & “Let’s Catch Up Soon”
“perennial grasses” & “the used heart”