Poem of the Week: ‘Chiaroscuro’ by Isabelle Baafi
14 October 2024
Our Faber Poem of the Week is ‘Chiaroscuro’, from Isabelle Baafi’s forthcoming debut collection, Chaotic Good.
Chaotic Good is a piercing debut about how we are made, how we get lost and how we find new selves. Framed by the story of escape from a toxic marriage, the poems focus on the incremental ways in which power accumulates, shifts and is relinquished within both home and community. Incisive, rigorous and artful, Isabelle Baafi reminds us of the importance of self-determination, and how, when we feel most eroded, we might discover what we need deep within ourselves: ‘This time and every time, I was the code I needed to find my way back.’
Copyright © Isabelle Baafi. Used by permission of Faber & Faber Ltd. All rights reserved.
Chaotic Good by Isabelle Baafi is out on 10 April 2025.