A heartfelt attempt to capture the fragility of life: Barbara Dunne reviews ‘Mimesis’ By Michael Quinn and Joe Boske
Many of Michael Quinn’s poem deal with the personal and collective trauma in the Irish psyche.
Publisher
Vast, unquenchable curiosity: Les Wicks launches ‘Sejours en France et autre pays’ by Ron Wilkins
Firstly, one has to marvel at the vast, unquenchable curiosity that runs through Ron’s work. There is a global shortage of this invaluable human trait. You find it everywhere in this book from communal bathrooms in Japan to the nature of the human soul.
Guth a thabhairt (Giving voice): Michael Witts reviews Seang (Hungering) by Anne Casey
This beautiful collection is both a joy to read and a challenge. Each poem stands as part of a carefully curated section. The sections combine to form a collection which demands to be read as a whole,
A celebration of informed and fruitful difference: Gig Ryan launches ‘The Wallace Line’ by Jennifer Mackenzie
Jennifer Mackenzie’s work is often ekphrastic, inspired by, or growing out from, another work of art. She doesn’t describe that work of origin, as if outside of it, but becomes thoroughly embedded, moving between direct quotation and poetic re-imagining.
The harrowing task of truth telling: Judith Nangala Crispin reviews ‘The Nightmare Sequence’ by Omar Sakr and artist Safdar Ahmed
The Nightmare Sequence is a profound and deeply moving act of truth-telling created by poet Omar Sakr and artist Safdar Ahmed. It is bravely published by University of Queensland Press, in an almost unprecedented period of censorship in Australia’s artistic and literary scene.
Upending common dichotomies: Leonie Bingham reviews ‘Parallax’ by Robin Morgan.
Parallax is not an easy read, and demands re-reading, which is perhaps its intention. Morgan explores and upends common dichotomies which, to the reader, are inherently familiar: chaos/ order, sanity/i nsanity, religion/science and freedom/ captivity.
The layered structure of the house of poetry: Jennifer Compton launches ‘Intents’ by Anne Elvey
I met Anne Elvey quite a few yonks ago at a soup and haiku night Myron Lysenko hosted when he was living in Brunswick, before he did the tree change thing and relocated to Woodend. I had taken my knitting in case it was boring, but then Anne arrived and sat on the couch next to me
An eloquent case for empathy: Denise O’Hagan reviews The Heart of the Advocate by Angela Costi
With both passion and precision, her poems explore the rift between justice and the law within the often-veiled domestic environment as well as in the courtroom and other more public spaces, in the past and also, urgently, in the present.
A remarkable and many-sided achievement: Eamonn Wall launches ‘Seang (Hungering)’ by Anne Casey
Her new book is her best, bravest, and most ambitious work to date, a remarkable and many-sided achievement that elevates her work, thematically and aesthetically, to a new level.
Rochford Street Review 