Tag: poetry

A review of Paradiso by Dante Alighieri

To read Paradiso by itself is a novel experience and well worth the special attention that it requires. This translation is exceptional and among so many stands out as particularly splendid and true.

Interview with Dorothy Porter

Dorothy Porter talks about her new novel El Dorado, on the “obscure and effete in poetry,” the reasons for and difficulties with writing novels in verse, her narrative technique, and much more.

A review of Beating for Light by Geoff Akers

This is an extremely well-written and worthwhile work that will appeal especially to those readers who have found tragedy and beauty in Sebastian Faulks’Birdsong or Pat Barker’s Regeneration Trilogy. Like these other novels, Beating for Light makes us realise that war – with all its waste, horror and futility – has, too, a human face.

A review of One of Us One Night by Mark Wisniewski

There are seventeen poems in this chapbook so that in this brief book the poems are all fairly long. Most of them explore situations or play with narrative possibilities. The ingenuity is significant and the care in the selection of…

A review of micromacro by rob walker

micromacro is an easy to read collection which presents a light, gently spaced series of poems that appear simple as they cover the Australian terrain and glide over current affairs. Look closely however and the poetry is sharper, more intense and…

A review of Indian Love Poetry by A.L. Dallapiccola

This is a well-proportioned book with illustrations to accompany every excerpt of poetry. The illustrations come from a different time (seventeenth to nineteenth century) than the poems, some of which date from as early as the fifth century of our…

A review of Fresh News from the Arctic by Libby Hart

Libby Hart’s Fresh News From The Arctic is a small but significant collection of poetry that is engaging, thought-provoking, sometimes wryly humorous, and that demands reading and rereading to uncover the delicate nuances hidden so artfully within its language. Reviewed by Liz…

A review of Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman

But many of these pieces are in fact exceptionally good and the poetry, although Gaiman makes rather little of his poetry, is very good. He forthrightly asserts that it is meant to be read aloud and he measures its quality…

A review of Glass Poems by Justin Lowe

Glass Poems is an expansive movement and the persona of the poet is liberally dispersed throughout, rather than directly attained through the writing. While this involves a long search for the reader, it is also what makes this kind of work…