Joanna Preston

I don't read a lot of poetry but I found this volume to be really accessible. I could enjoy the poems' beautiful surfaces, and I could also enjoy digging into the depths.

Many of the poems use nature imagery, highlighting local animals and language. I'm not from Australia or New Zealand, so I was grateful for the glossary, but I really enjoyed the local flavor and felt that it was an integral part of the character of the poems, indeed the entire volume.

My favorite poem was "Cowarral", told in parts, where a girl returns to her great grandmother's home after a long time, looking forward to happy memories, to relive them in the way one does when returning, only to find an "old house, full of our ghosts." It really resonated with me, especially these lines: "They've ripped out the timbers,/ the long, polished boards of the kitchen floor/ that I helped Grandma scrub./ They've torn the heavy boards from their hinges// a thousand miles away/ I still hear/ the exact note they make/ slamming shut." I think I would have really liked to have gone to that house, to see it as a living, breathing thing.

I really enjoyed it and recommend it to anyone who loves poems that you can touch, feel and particpate with.… (plus d'informations)