As the Verb Tenses

Overview

As the Verb Tenses is the work of a reflective and sensitive poetic talent: one run with gleaming wires of joy. In poems that gather together the vivid details of childhood memory, the surreal juxtapositions of life in the contemporary West, the wry observations of a temporary expatriate, the deeply lodged pain of historical and personal loss, Lynley Edmeades speaks to us in delicately spun lines that press out ironies, dissonances and profound formative experience. From playful, rhythmical poems about the art of dinner conversation, to warm glimpses of intimacy, she lays poetry's table with the knife of light satire, the bright salt of wit, the heady wine of love, the bread of knowledge. This quietly poised, confident first collection has a musical, emotional and thematic range of a substantial new talent.

Author Biography

Lynley Edmeades was born in Putaruru. Her poetry, reviews and academic writing have been published in New Zealand, the US, Europe and Australia. In 2011 she completed an MA at the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry at Queen's University, Belfast.