A Journal of Australian & International Cultural Reviews, News and Criticism.
Mark O’Flynn has published seven collections of poetry, most recently Undercoat (Liquid Amber Press, 2022) and Einstein’s Brain (Puncher & Wattmann). His novels include The Last Days of Ava Langdon, (UQP, 2016), Grassdogs (Harper Collins, 2006) and The Forgotten World (HC, 2013).
In this new book of poetry Mark deepens and extends his range with a particular focus on ekphrasis, which in very rough terms means using one form of art or literature to describe or respond to what is seen in a different form of art or literature.
This idea of returning forms one of the central tropes of Feldspar in both a figurative and literal sense. Many of these poems revisit scenes of the past, of the casual rituals of life down on the farm.
Detective fiction is hardly a traditional subject for poetry, yet there is clearly a perennial fascination with crime and crime solving. The Detective’s Chair exploits the conceit that the 32 detectives presented here do most of their reflecting, cogitating, puzzling, meditating and nutting-out in the embrace of a favourite chair.