MODEST JOY by Karenjit Sandhu appears on NationalPoetryMonth.ca on April 22, 2023
From Karenjit
‘MODEST JOY’ is the result of thinking about the word ‘suffer’ in the context of western civilisation. Its denotations, etymology and wider associations. The poem fixates on quotidian suffering and brings a dark humour which crosses over into the absurd. From hang nail to late deliveries to satsuma pips, everything is an irritant to an overly wrought speaker attempting to navigate a life where the only joy is only ever ‘modest’. It asks the reader to consider the subjective nature of mundane daily suffering. What does this look like? And how uneasily does this mundanity sit in the context of global hardship and grief.
About Karenjit
Karenjit Sandhu is a poet and artist. Her second poetry collection Poetic Fragments from the Irritating Archive (Guillemot Press) is a limited-edition box set. Previous publications include young girls! (the87Press) and flowers won’t grow (Sampson Low). Her work also appears in Magma, Judith: Women Making Visual Poetry and DATABLEED. Karenjit’s performance work has led to collaborations with the Institute of Contemporary Arts, Flat Time House and Camden People’s Theatre (London), Arnolfini (Bristol) and Galerie Eric Dupont (Paris). @k_ren_sandhu
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