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Published by a misFit book
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
Table of Contents
About The Book
Pink Moon is part anthem of decolonization, part oracle of the times. Earthy, magical, and steeped in ancestral connection, Roshan James fuses her lived experience as a Tibetan-Indian born in Scarborough, Ontario, with a tangible connection to nature, humanity, and realms of consciousness. Growing up in the South Asian diaspora, but feeling disconnected from her cultural roots, James makes peace with the tension between her self-identities through poetry.
With lyrical ease and simplicity, James resonates off the page, holding the reader in a space, almost trance-like, of quiet confidence. Infused with street-style and deep contemplation, ancient tones and child-like questioning, this collection is a journey through abstract expression. Pink Moon sits at an intersection of timely themes: anti-oppression, melanated lived experience, climate action, social justice, and personal spirituality. The collection will be of interest for discussion in academia, literary circles, and among people who are passionate about art, mindfulness, meditation, holistic health, and nature.
With lyrical ease and simplicity, James resonates off the page, holding the reader in a space, almost trance-like, of quiet confidence. Infused with street-style and deep contemplation, ancient tones and child-like questioning, this collection is a journey through abstract expression. Pink Moon sits at an intersection of timely themes: anti-oppression, melanated lived experience, climate action, social justice, and personal spirituality. The collection will be of interest for discussion in academia, literary circles, and among people who are passionate about art, mindfulness, meditation, holistic health, and nature.
Excerpt
Razor round with a sweet silver face
Primordial flash and roar
Of undertowing tidal commands
From a soft clamshell mouth
We can't understand who we are
Unless we understand
Sky rocks
And abyss
Why soil appears brown like our skin
The soul of trees
Birds
And all the intelligent
Animation
We are all
Connected by
Marrow and air
And to see ourselves, once in a new moon
Is to see how the cosmos roils
Behind the scenes
On the other side of the waking dream
Of skin, home, streets, and day time activities
Lines from ‘A Song For Trees’
Seedlings gambol at the feet of ancients
Where old growth breaks down to loam
And dirt erupts in slow motion
The well-planted push their own pace
Beyond the wheel of Organized Time
What dominions
Herein have privilege
Or is it more about structure and efficiency?
High towers for small beasts
Cloaked highways for small feet
Why do you grow between rocks
I can’t imagine you chose it
for yourself and your young
Was it persistent necessity?
Did one of us bring you here
And force you into breaking ground
You, with the dreadlocked-roots, and
sinewed trunks more than an arm-circle around
Why do you cling to the face of rock, why if only
to stretch out and over the riverbank
that cuts under, exposing
Where did you learn this defiant vulnerability
Opening yourself to survival?
Primordial flash and roar
Of undertowing tidal commands
From a soft clamshell mouth
We can't understand who we are
Unless we understand
Sky rocks
And abyss
Why soil appears brown like our skin
The soul of trees
Birds
And all the intelligent
Animation
We are all
Connected by
Marrow and air
And to see ourselves, once in a new moon
Is to see how the cosmos roils
Behind the scenes
On the other side of the waking dream
Of skin, home, streets, and day time activities
Lines from ‘A Song For Trees’
Seedlings gambol at the feet of ancients
Where old growth breaks down to loam
And dirt erupts in slow motion
The well-planted push their own pace
Beyond the wheel of Organized Time
What dominions
Herein have privilege
Or is it more about structure and efficiency?
High towers for small beasts
Cloaked highways for small feet
Why do you grow between rocks
I can’t imagine you chose it
for yourself and your young
Was it persistent necessity?
Did one of us bring you here
And force you into breaking ground
You, with the dreadlocked-roots, and
sinewed trunks more than an arm-circle around
Why do you cling to the face of rock, why if only
to stretch out and over the riverbank
that cuts under, exposing
Where did you learn this defiant vulnerability
Opening yourself to survival?
Product Details
- Publisher: a misFit book (September 5, 2023)
- Length: 88 pages
- ISBN13: 9781770417625
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Raves and Reviews
“Diasporic displacement dictates its deliverance in this feminist rallying cry against heteropatriarchy and all its binary forms! With every word, in spaces between words, brimming with resilience and retrospection, every poem in this collection asks its reader to read these poems queerly; in doing so, each promises self-liberation. Imagine Yellowjackets written from the point of view of a racialized diasporic feminist leader, and you get Pink Moon.” — Aashay Dalvi, founder of Rad Riot Books
“Time pulses and slows in Pink Moon. ‘[H]ow can we be so bold as to define what makes civility?’ is a question Roshan James poses at the outset and proceeds to answer and interrogate. From the way ‘[t]here is so much more of you / Of us / Where the wild things grow’ to how ‘[i]t would take a lifetime to know her / To learn at the feet of her joy,’ the sheer expanse of time is laid bare. ‘There is medicine in memories / Buried under the roots of the family tree,’ and there is medicine in James’s prayer-like poetry that invokes blessings for a network of kin that spans the living and non-living.” — Manahil Bandukwala, author of Monument
“For fans of poetry, magic, spells and nature this 80-page poem anthology is like a breath of autumn air.” — The Community Edition
Resources and Downloads
High Resolution Images
- Book Cover Image (jpg): Pink Moon Trade Paperback 9781770417625
