By Jena Carr
A Torquay writer will launch his eleventh book this month, which comes straight out of lockdown with the theme of connection.
John Bartlett will talk about his latest poetry collection, Excitations of Entanglement, with prize-winning author Julie Maclean at 2pm on November 18 at the Torquay Library.
Mr Bartlett said the collection was his second book of poetry, which took three years to write from the beginning of the COVID lockdown and a year to publish.
“Poetry really is in the realm of the unconscious, and any sort of creative stuff comes out of that area,” he said.
“I’m inspired by poets all the time because I don’t think you can write as a poet unless you read, so I’m reading constantly.”
Mr Bartlett said he felt the book’s title was a “perfect metaphor” for COVID and lockdowns and that it came from a nuclear physics term that explains how photons interact with each other.
“Whatever they do, they’re connected all the time. Even if they’re a distance apart, they’re connected, or if they’re together for a brief time they’re connected and then they fly away,” he said.
“When we were locked down, away from each other, or we were briefly in contact or we weren’t connected, but we were at a distance but still connected.”
Ms Maclean said Mr Bartlett’s poems were “beautiful on the page” and that she was proud of the collection he had created.
“They have the sensuousness of the Baroque in form and style. Each poem skillfully crafted the work artfully created and confident,” she said.
To attend Mr Bartlett’s book launch, people must RSVP to johnbartlett179@gmail by November 11.
