Jennifer Lee Tsai, a poet, literary critic and an Artist in Residence at the Bluecoat through the Wittenham Bursary, shares a poem ‘Wild Horses’ to mark and celebrate the occasion. This poem features in her forthcoming full-length collection, Melete, which is published by Bloodaxe in May 2026. The book launch for Melete will take place at the Bluecoat on Wed 3 Jun, tickets will be available soon.
She writes:
"This poem explores a childhood memory as well as the theme of language loss from the perspective of a child caught between two contrasting identities, cultures and languages: Chinese (Cantonese) and English at an early age of linguistic development. In psychoanalytic terms, this poem describes that stage when a child’s subjectivity is gradually detaching themselves from the mother to establish his/her/their identity as an independent, autonomous human being but simultaneously still experiencing that enveloping, often beautiful sense of intimacy and intense connection between mother and child. This necessary disruption in identity is dramatized through the child’s emotional and linguistic response to seeing the ‘wild horses’. My intention was to convey the complexities of expressing the nuances of the child’s original language as well as to suggest the inherent symbolism and mythic resonances felt through this language.
Additionally, I wanted to illustrate the richness of my ancestral heritage and the ways in which language itself can empower one and open illuminating possibilities. In this poem, fire is a symbol for rebirth and resurrection, purification and transformation.
Wishing everyone a Happy Year of the Fire Horse in 2026, filled with light, love and peace."
About Jennifer Lee Tsai
Jennifer Lee Tsai is an award-winning poet, writer and artist. She was born in Bebington and grew up in Liverpool. She is a fellow of The Complete Works, a Ledbury Poetry Critic and a former Contributing Editor to Ambit. Her poetry and literary criticism are widely featured in publications including The Guardian, The Poetry Review, Poetry London, The Telegraph, The TLS, The White Review & BBC Radio 4. She is the author of two poetry pamphlets, Kismet (ignitionpress, 2019) and La Mystérique (Guillemot Press, 2022).
Jennifer has received a Northern Writers Award for Poetry and is a winner of the Rebecca Swift Foundation’s Women Poets’ Prize. She has worked extensively as a lecturer, English language teacher and creative writing tutor to students in universities, colleges and community settings. She is the recipient of an AHRC doctoral scholarship in Creative Writing at the University of Liverpool and an Artist in Residence at the Bluecoat. Her first full-length poetry collection, Melete, is forthcoming with Bloodaxe in May 2026. Jennifer’s research interests focus on family history, memory, myth and migration as well as the contemporary lyric, hybridity, feminist theory, race and identity.