Wednesday 21st August ::: 17:00 - 20:00ish
Dad Head is birthed into the world. A collection of poems about being a Dad, about being tired, about being a human being, published here in Copenhagen by @supertimebooks.
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We will sit on stools and drink beers and talk, Dave will say hello, give an awkward speech (probably) and read some poems from the collection (definitely).
For fans of: poetry, beautiful books. parenthood, awkward speeches, free beers.
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Meals shared, dishes washed, errands run, and worried thoughts cast toward an uncertain future in this collection. The seeds are sown in haste- bashed out in quick sprints and collated by bloodshot eyes after a fussy toddler’s bedtime. The result is an oblique ‘how to’ guide for poets who parent in tandem.
One gem of this collection is Detergent Dairy Pallor, which showcases quotidian horror processed with a bit of humor, “She looked not long dead / Haunted like me / By Englishmen in pub gardens/ And sixty-four years of sub-par dental work,” writes Wood. This is exemplary of how these poems put an infant-sweet present into contact with a souring nostalgia all throughout this collection.
Dave Wood layers - line over line - affection for his child, nostalgia for his past, respect for his child’s mother, throughout this work. It’s the least problematic portrait of a modern, chronically grim, northern European dad that one could hope for.