Description

In Transcontinental Delay, Simon Van Schalkwyk tracks experiences of imminent arrival and departure, periods of waiting and suspension between destinations, points where the demands of place dissolve into the more anticipatory potentialities of space. Drawing on geographical lexicons familiar to South African localities such as Cape Town and Johannesburg, the collection also captures ﬂeeting encounters with global spaces as far aﬁeld as the United Kingdom, Argentina and Sweden. Considering the world from a position of "transcendental homelessness" rather than more conventional expressions of estrangement, alienation, or exile, the poems collected in Transcontinental Delay are attentive to a fundamental sense of unbelonging, registering the moods, tones and attitudes of the visitor and stranger: ﬁgures of restlessness and, at times, obscurity, at odds with both the settlements of "home" and the transitory compulsions of travel.