Father Myself by James McDermott Abigail Parry Of how bodies can ‘lengthen

Of how bodies can ‘lengthen in rain’ and how an hour might become ‘a moth-eaten stain

and does the speaking for all of us

have been performed at major venues worldwide

I would express my thoughts to you using clay tablets

which brings together his three most recent collections

Father Myself by James McDermott Abigail Parry Of how bodies can ‘lengthenIn 2022, James McDermott lost his sixty year old father to COVID after three weeks in intensive care. In his second collection from Nine Arches Press, McDermott explores his fathers complex illness and death; the pandemic; grief; growth and how as a queer boy then a bereaved son, he had to learn to father himself.