Heavy Water: Poem for Chernobyl

This book-length poem pays tribute to the courage and humour displayed, in suffering, by the people of Chernobyl following the events of April 1986. Each segment paints an intimate picture: some elements of everyday life remain unchanged, others are profoundly altered. The collection's recurring motifs of black and white signal how all are silenced, reduced to anonymity - which in turn engenders fierce solidarity. Meanwhile, men and machines toil side by side to tackle the insurmountable. Petrucci's use of scientific and medical terminology makes his descriptions chillingly precise. In contrast, we hear, from a deeply personal angle, the simply expressed accounts of real people who struggle to cope with the enormity of the disaster. These poems are at once deeply shocking yet pervaded by an uplifting beauty. Throughout the collection emphasis is placed on the importance of human dignity and compassion, on the simple persistence of nature in the context of unspeakable destruction.

Ecologist, PhD physicist and Royal Literary Fund Fellow Mario Petrucci is a multi-award-winning poet and residency frontiersman, the only poet to have been resident at the Imperial War Museum and with BBC Radio 3. Mario is four times winner of the London Writers competition, has won prizes in the National Poetry Competition, and is recipient of a PBS Recommendation, the Bridport Prize, an Arts Council England Writers' Award and a New London Writers Award. His Arvon-winning collection Heavy Water: a poem for Chernobyl, below, was the basis of a film by Seventh Art Productions. Aspiring to reach 1111 poems in the vast 'i tulips' project, “Petruccis tulips promise to grow into a truly ambitious landmark body of work” (Poetry Book Society Bulletin).