Only Connect by Pamela Hobart Carter & Robert M L Raynard
“In Only Connect, Pamela Hobart Carter deconstructs semiotic imageries of London during the COVID-19 pandemic and connects those fragments, with guarded passion, to her experience in Seattle. Her heart-wrenching poems appear inspired by the strange mimesis reflected in the photography of the talented artist, Robert M. L. Raynard. This collection represents extraordinary connectivity over the digital cloud and captures hope, despair, loneliness, solitude, and melancholia. Images, allusions, allegory, and science mingle, like mythical ivy, with magical propensity in her mesmerizing poems.”
— Dr Mostofa Sarwar, Professor emeritus, University of New Orleans
“Despite living far across the pond, London photographer Robert M. L. Raynard and Seattle poet Pamela Hobart Carter made lemonade out of Covid seclusion lemons by partnering their creative skills. Now we can savor Carter’s lyrical poetic responses to Raynard’s original London photos in one delightful chapbook. Carter’s words offer astute observations from a poet who accents her poetry with the language of art and architecture. Raynard’s photography captures both narrative and abstract glimmers of London during Covid. Their final product is outstanding. As Carter writes, ‘We dream of flight. Of riding sky. / Of letting a wind / hold us aloft.’ It is in such collaborations as Carter and Raynard offer us that we humans hold each other up and make art during challenging times.”
— Mary Ellen Talley, Author of Taking Leave
About the Authors:
Pamela Hobart Carter grew up as a landed immigrant in Montreal. When she returned to the US, she earned two geology degrees and became a teacher. Her plays have been produced in Seattle (her home), Montreal, and Fort Worth. She is a Yavanika Press mixed-genre winner for Behind the Scenes at the Eternal Everyday, and a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net (2x) nominee. Some of her other publications include the poetry chapbooks Her Imaginary Museum (Kelsay Books) and Held Together with Tape and Glue (Finishing Line Press). Carter is also a visual artist who loves getting out into the mountains.
Robert M. L. Raynard was born in Dakar (Senegal) and has French Caribbean and French Guyana origins through his parents. Although he enjoyed photography as a child and teenager, his interest in snapping photos took another stride forward after he started working in the art industry at the Tate Britain when he saw their “Another London” exhibition (2012) and the Don McCullin exhibition (2019). Robert took advantage of the very odd situations provided by the relaxation of the first and second Covid 19 lockdowns in 2020 to seize special moments out of the ordinary scenes in the West-End and in Lewisham, where he lives, and Blackheath in south London.
