Bridget Auchmuty is launching a book of her poems tomorrow evening at Central Stories Museum, sharing the personal stories behind their creation.

We chose, he and I, to live on the edge

of things: world, breadline, legality,

comfortable under the radar

Author Bridget Auchmuty said ‘Unmooring’ was a collection of the poems she wrote for her Master’s project. She had started her thesis exploring the topic of immigration.

“Not just how people move from there to here; but looking at how for millennia, humans and many other species have migrated.”

Bridget said her grandfather had gone to sea at the age of 14, back when sailing ships made huge voyages across the world.

“He had charted the Canadian coast, and met my grandmother on the rugged east coast of Canada.”

Then, the unthinkable happened.

“Part way through my master’s study, my partner got sick, and died.

“There was a migration from illness to death, then a journey for me of learning to manage on my own.

“All these things got mixed up, interwoven – I was completely unmoored.

“I hadn’t set sail, circumstances had swept the carpet out from under my feet.”

Then came the pandemic, and lockdown. Bridget said the COVID crisis was another form of unmooring, for everyone.

Bridget now lives in the Ida Valley, with its big skies and seasonal extremes.

Bridget and her partner had moved to the Ida Valley from Nelson for a simpler lifestyle.

“We were living in London, it was a grey February for us when my parents visited my sister in St Bathans.

“They sent us a postcard, and the picture struck a chord.”

Every time they visited, Bridget said, they loved the big skies, the mountains, the extremes and the ruggedness.

“A section came up for sale, and we jumped at it.”

Bridget said she was proud to have achieved the book.

“It’s so nice to have this collection of my poems as something I can hold in my hand.

“It’s so important to honour that phase of my life – particularly because my partner died.”

Bridget said the collection had been formed for selfish purpose, but it was something that would have meaning to anyone with life experience.

“When somebody close to you dies, you feel isolated.

“My experience was individual, but there have been many others on this path before me, and many travelling it every day.

“The process of putting the collection together has helped me be compassionate.”

Bridget said her favourite poem in the collection was titled ‘Bones’.

It’s not that they were our own

people here that made us feel home

but a soft landscape

familiar trees

that in winter shed their leaves

                                                           leaving

the skeleton exposed

seasons

that are distinct

blurred with greenery

or drawn sharp with a 2H pencil

a valley where I could stop running

away and he’d put down roots again

“It’s one that just arrived on the page; it from a depth of me.

“It was nothing to do with my head, the process is difficult to define, difficult to explain.

“It came on impulse, a blessed moment.

“The poem took on a life of its own, had its own energy.”

Bridget said her goal for tomorrow’s book launch was to have fun, read some poems, eat, drink, celebrate.

She hoped people would come, take the opportunity to meet both her and Fiona Farrell, enjoy the reading of the poems and gain something for themselves.

To find out more about tomorrow’s book launch at Central Stories, click here.

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