This poem was written in response to a visit to Ukraine in June 2025. Its title is drawn from James Fenton’s travelogue All the Wrong Places; the phrase was noted immediately on first encounter and became the catalyst for the poem’s emergence. The initial draft was written rapidly, in a concentrated burst, before entering a longer period of formal and emotional refinement.
During this process, the poem resisted coherence, revealing itself to be pulled in two directions. Its resolution came through the recognition that it needed to hold both impulses at once: the poem became, simultaneously, an elegy and a heartbroken love poem. This dual structure allows grief and intimacy to coexist without hierarchy, reflecting the emotional complexity of the experience that prompted it.
The poem was performed at the Loud Poets Grand Slam Final during the Edinburgh International Book Festival in August 2025.
The project is part of the subtheme Writing After – Catastrophe, Memory, and the Archive of Loss.
Author
Tracey S. Rosenberg
Tracey S. Rosenberg is a writer and spoken word performer based in Edinburgh. She's the former Writer in Residence at the University of Edinburgh and the current Loud Poets Inverness slam champion. She's currently working on her second full-length poetry collection, Unrequited War Trauma, which focuses on the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Her Instagram @traceysrosenberg is 70% poetry, 25% Ukraine, and 5% feeding corn kernels to an adorable guinea pig.
