A Journal of Australian & International Cultural Reviews, News and Criticism.
In agreeing to launch A Blink of Time’s Eye I feel very daunted, very nervous, as to whether I can live up to the faith that David has placed in me, and I hope I can give this moment the touch of both lightness and gravitas that characterises his poetry.
The Twilight Observatory demands of a reader the willingness to take risks, to engage with matters beyond traditional borders. This challenge is something not everyone has the ovarios for. But hers is not cryptic poetry and nor is it self-indulgent.
what happens when the visual qualities of text become totally dissociated from any pre-learned way of reading? What can we infer from a script that has no recognisable form? And what should we make of the intent of an author/artist who deliberately creates marks structurally akin to writing but with no discernible underlying meaning? How can unintelligibility be construed as a positive feature of a piece of visually displayed text?
Richard’s book More Lies. This is a strange and twisted little piece of work. Blackish, Clownish, Hellish, Funnish. It squarely aims to discombobulate. It is a fractured narrative, a jagged jigsaw, threaded with poems, and shards of poems, to throw you on and off its pungent scent.
The blurb on the back of the book refers to this type of writing as ‘hard pastoral’. It is what we encounter in those bucolic bards, Seamus Heaney and Les Murray. It is also what we see in that lesser-known Australian Phillip Hodgins, a poet who was taken from us far too young. By Brendan’s admission, all three poets have influenced his writing. The sensibility of these four poets is a far cry from the sentimental evocations of rural life by the likes of Banjo Paterson and CJ Dennis.
Gold digger is a nuanced journey through the world of women’s labour. We don’t just meet a small-scale prospector here, but a range of female workers across domestic, civic, and commercial spheres.
In this anthology, flight becomes a portal. Through it, we encounter ‘freedom and departure, courage and longing, weightlessness and transcendence’. Rather than limiting itself to a singular interpretation, Poetry of Flight opens up an entire sky of metaphor, meaning, and collective experiences.
This is a jewel of a collection, full of elemental images and resonant engagement with country, history and human feeling.
Overall, this book tells a story of determination, resilience and survival.