Overview
Is it the sun a hole sucking in a bird or Icarus about to singe the sun? Which composes which? The poet asks as she circumnavigates the globe, history, and an inner universe. When it responds, there's the small shudder, the sprawl of a spin, or the quiet before and after a full circle. The eyes catch a black bird close to an eerie sun. Instantly, a poem: an accident of composition. Or a tree, rock, light from a story heard, dreamt, read or remembered returns as if it were the only tree, rock, light in the planet.Reviews
"The volcanics of poem and story are among [Bobis'] driving forces. But here 'the weight of what we have written' carries a new urgency. What is at stake is the deep kinship of all life mediated by our own species. Just as a 'tiny gumnut' is a 'primeval dissident', so the 'presuming poet' must keep 'tuning in'. Awe, grief, joy, love are among her companions of choice. The journey leaves none untouched." —Patricia Sykes
"In these troubled times tainted with fear, hate, and despair, 'there is hope for us,' the poems assure us. In them I hear an exquisite polyphony of voices: passionate and poised, sensuous and serene, lyrical and philosophical. Like incantations, these poems ask to be read and heard aloud." —Subhash Jaireth
"A very vivid work. Sometimes immediately sensitive/sensual, sometimes deliberately rough-edged, but always well-expressed, well-principled and well-considered, and always thankfully 'still tuning in'." —Jennifer MaidenAuthor Biography
Merlinda Bobis is a multi-awarded writer with 4 novels, 6 poetry books, and a collection of short stories. She performed her one-woman plays at various venues internationally. Borders and difference, women and girls, geopolitics and environment, war and memory, the poetics and politics of care are among the subjects of her various literary, performance, and scholarly works.