Orphic Politics

Author Essay

I wrote the poems in Orphic Politics between 2003 and 2007. This was a difficult time for me. I got quite ill, was hospitalized, and had a number of surgeries. I also developed an auto-immune condition that made walking difficult. I had never been sick like this before, never lived in the country of the ill, and my health problems went on for a couple of years. The poems respond to all of this. After a while, being sick felt like an orphic immurement. I began to think of other diseases in me that might be in need of healing, noological disorders — a loneliness for things, for example, the residue of colonialism. How to transform these? I subjected myself to the theurgic art of poetry.
— Tim Lilburn