Saturday Poetry – ‘And You . . .’ by Jason Allen-Paisant
Saturday Poetry – ‘And You . . .’ by Jason Allen-Paisant
This week’s Saturday Poetry brings you the soul-stirring poem titled ‘And You’ . . . by Jason Allen-Paisant. He is the author of The Possibility of Tenderness (Hutchinson Heinemann, 2025), Engagements with Aimé Césaire (Oxford University Press, 2024), and Self-Portrait as Othello(Carcanet Press, 2023).
About this poem “My wife and I had just moved to Leeds, a city neither of us knew. This event happened in the woods one day. I was unaware until then of my deep loneliness in this city. I don’t fully understand why, but this feeling of loneliness upon coming to live in a new city discovered its expression in the sense of touch. In the poem, I deliberately bare myself. The vulnerability of the moment is a shock, but one accompanied by a touch of the absurd”, he explained.
For this edition of Saturday Poetry, we have paired Jason Allen-Paisant’s emotive words with mobile art by the talented @hangworthyart with the captivating artwork complementing the poem’s essence beautifully, creating a symphony of emotions.
To view the others we have published in this section, go here.
via Poets.org
Saturday Poetry – And You . . . by Jason Allen-Paisant
a walk in a midwinter ochre wood
to get some England sun
as it steals away—
a little poodle runs to show you love;
you like the feel of the animal’s body
on your leg; it’s something
of an acceptance so you smile
and are not the least bothered; you even hope
it’ll jump, though the lady yells
no jumping Sam! no jumping!
and when she adds ‘you know he
just loves EVERYbody!’ why should you
suddenly feel tears coming?—
it’s just that EVERYbody; how do you
explain this? there’s nobody to explain
it to: why she needed to take away
from you this one feeling of special?
how could she know it was the most
human moment of your day—
the most human moment in weeks?
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Joanne Carter
Joanne Carter is a British photographer, photography journalist, editor and curator and the founder and editorial director of TheAppWhisperer.com, an independent international photography publication established in 2009.Her journalism, criticism and commentary have appeared in The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Financial Times, BBC, Vogue Italia, LensCulture, Popular Photography, Android Magazine, NikonPro, DPReview, Which Digital Camera and Which Camera. She has lectured internationally on photography and mobile art, served as a juror for international photography awards, and exhibited her own photographic work across the UK, Europe, South Korea and the United States.Alongside her editorial work, Joanne's photographic and postgraduate research explores death, grief, memory, representation and social inequality through contemporary photography, participatory practice and visual research methods, with the longer-term aim of developing this work through doctoral research.Through TheAppWhisperer, she continues to publish independent photography journalism spanning contemporary photographic practice, mobile imaging, photographic apps, computational photography and emerging imaging technologies.Joanne is available for editorial commissions, photography projects, judging, curatorial work, speaking engagements, consultancy and selected collaborations.
