The Big Rip

THE BIG RIP is a theory of the universe’s end when all matter disintegrates into elementary particles as the universe expands and rips apart. In these deeply material poems, Andy Brown engages with such cyclical images of growth and decay, and traces of presence and absence, exploring the gaps we find between ourselves and the world – gaps that resonate with wonder and dis/belief.

Arranged into five suites of poems, the personal pieces in The Family Whistle uncover family traces in photos, objects, sayings and sounds, while those in the second, Dragonflies at Le Pré, reflect the book’s themes through the experiences of a life lived between Brittany and Devon. Other poems dwell outside in the environment, especially on rivers and shorelines in Some Sayings About the River, or reflect an abiding interest in ecology and the inhabitants of the non-human world, in the fourth suite, Murmurations. In the title section, The Big Rip, the poems converge again around themes of presence and absence to reflect on one of the book’s recurring themes: how to reconcile a sense of transcendence in a postreligious world.

Throughout, these poems pay homage to literary traces, traditions, and influences, including versions of French poems by Verlaine, Spanish poems by Borges, episodes from Homer and Ovid, or poems written in response to the works of others. The book begins with a whistle shaped by the lips and ends with an affirmative image of lips framing the word ‘Yes’ – in between, all is breath.