Half Life
      (Poems for Chernobyl)

         Heaventree Press, 26 April 2004:   £5.95   ISBN: 0-9545317-3-6    (pamphlet)

"Poetry on a geological scale... a new track for poets of witness."          VERSE [USA]   Drawing on first hand accounts of the Chernobyl disaster, Half Life dissects that terrible day and its aftermath. Mario Petrucci's experience as a physicist and environmentalist opens him to the history of the tragedy, a history still in the making. In his measured, humane verse a range of voices unfold their vivid, sometimes harrowing testimonies. Unflinching, precise, this is poetry that finds its way into your bones.   "A message we cannot and must not ignore... brims with unsettling implications for us all... yet - remarkably, unexpectedly - never ceases in its compassion, in its celebration of the human spirit."     Philip Gross   Half Life is the sister volume to Petrucci's other Chernobyl collection, Heavy Water, published by Enitharmon Press. Both books were launched on the 18th anniversary of the explosion. Half Life is now out of print; to order, make a direct request to the author at mmpetrucci@hotmail.com   Click here to read a review of Half Life/ Heavy Water in Resurgence magazine.

"Heart-breaking... Explores powerful events to deliver harsh truths." "The triumph of these poems lies in their meticulous rendering of metre." POETRY LONDON   "A real curtain-raiser to the twilight of the gods... A powerful and brave achievement, an important poem. I don't think there is any danger of its being underestimated." ENVOI 139   "Intensity and power of penetration... Mario Petrucci has written boldly and clearly on a worthwhile theme. He is one of the most prolific, versatile and, at his best, penetrating of our poets." MAGMA 30   "Triumphant... a message that will influence people for the rest of their lives." POETRYBAY   "This poem tells more... than any newspaper or magazine article or historical treatise ever would... One of the most interesting and best poets of our times." LITERATI MAGAZINE   "Precision and control is fundamental to Petrucci's work, and to the power and poignance of this remarkable collection." "Harrowing and consistently assured... cumulatively [the] effect is crushing." INTERDISCIPLINARY SCIENCE REVIEWS

TEN PADLOCKS   One for his lips. For saying I’ll go. One for that gate his father wrought through which I had to watch him walk. One for the dick of a boss who laid him off with a mechanical — I did not send you there. One to keep eyes dry that now will have no fathering. One for our wedding mattress that will stoke no other man. One for that One Thought the hospital burned deep in his brain to make him swear alone with his glass. One for the stench we opened whenever we turned him. One for his bones –-when I am gone a grandson under cover of dark will bolt them to mine. One for this black box of my heart. Ten. Make me ten. Padlocks. With each key different. The last I send to you who do not see. To keep them out when they come for you.           (c) Mario Petrucci 2004

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copyright mario petrucci 2001