First published 2013
Sarah Broom faces a medical crisis that transforms her understanding of her own body and the world around her. Through forty poems, she maps the terrain of illness using the natural landscape as her guide. During a radiotherapy session, she envisions avenues of light opening across the vast, hilly country of her brain. Her body becomes both battlefield and sanctuary as she navigates treatment and recovery. The physical world offers metaphors for her internal struggle. Mountains, valleys, and open terrains mirror the geography of fear, hope, and healing. Broom captures the weight of mortality while finding moments of unexpected beauty in medical procedures and hospital rooms. Her poems weave together the vulnerability of flesh with the endurance of earth and sky. Each verse examines fundamental truths about human fragility and resilience. The collection transforms personal crisis into universal meditation on what it means to inhabit a body under threat. Through precise language and vivid imagery, Broom creates a map for others traveling similar difficult paths.
Genres: poetry, biography-memoir, 21st-century, academic
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: personal-journey, transformation
64 pages · Paperback · Auckland University Press
Content warnings: medical-trauma