THE VISITORS by Selina Rodrigues

​Characters in THE VISITORS discover the seas, woods, and part-way towns of Wales and Northern England. Their conflicts, loss, and passions are written on their bodies. Their memories dance across the page or rise like ghosts.

​THE VISITORS explores the poet’s Indian and English heritage, and white and Indian people ageing in their home and adopted countries. 

This is her home
they say, so she sits and waits for children
to land and rise as the four walls lean in
towards her. It’s coming soon, in the day-room.

-- ‘Bara’s eyes are open’

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'These fluid, almost dreamlike poems are half-open doors on other worlds and cultures. People carry "their village on their back, to the next village" ('At part-way town'). "A language seeps through / the walls of another language" ('The water finds'). Through imaginative glimpses, and with linguistic precision, Selina Rodrigues opens up subtle possibilities for poetry inspired by family and family background.'

- Moniza Alvi