Accidents of Composition
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. The poet is caught, returned to her first heart: poetry.
After four novels, Merlinda offers seventy-six poems from the stillness of contemplation to the spinning of tales, then to passage across different histories. Glass becomes eternal greens underwater, fish gossip about colonisation, a gumnut turns dissident, and the dreams of Captain Cook and Pigafetta circumnavigate the globe leaving a trail of blood, beads, and the scent of cloves. But in between, the poet hopes: ‘there could be accidents / of kindness here.’
In her latest collection of poetry, award-winning author Merlinda Bobis traces the accidents of art and life. Drawing on the journal of Pigafetta whose writings have become an accident of history, Merlinda Bobis composes with an attuned ear and her poems are rich with imagery; with breath and heart.
2017 | ISBN 9781742199986 | Paperback | 210 x 148 mm | 184 pp
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. The poet is caught, returned to her first heart: poetry.
After four novels, Merlinda offers seventy-six poems from the stillness of contemplation to the spinning of tales, then to passage across different histories. Glass becomes eternal greens underwater, fish gossip about colonisation, a gumnut turns dissident, and the dreams of Captain Cook and Pigafetta circumnavigate the globe leaving a trail of blood, beads, and the scent of cloves. But in between, the poet hopes: ‘there could be accidents / of kindness here.’
In her latest collection of poetry, award-winning author Merlinda Bobis traces the accidents of art and life. Drawing on the journal of Pigafetta whose writings have become an accident of history, Merlinda Bobis composes with an attuned ear and her poems are rich with imagery; with breath and heart.
2017 | ISBN 9781742199986 | Paperback | 210 x 148 mm | 184 pp
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. The poet is caught, returned to her first heart: poetry.
After four novels, Merlinda offers seventy-six poems from the stillness of contemplation to the spinning of tales, then to passage across different histories. Glass becomes eternal greens underwater, fish gossip about colonisation, a gumnut turns dissident, and the dreams of Captain Cook and Pigafetta circumnavigate the globe leaving a trail of blood, beads, and the scent of cloves. But in between, the poet hopes: ‘there could be accidents / of kindness here.’
In her latest collection of poetry, award-winning author Merlinda Bobis traces the accidents of art and life. Drawing on the journal of Pigafetta whose writings have become an accident of history, Merlinda Bobis composes with an attuned ear and her poems are rich with imagery; with breath and heart.
2017 | ISBN 9781742199986 | Paperback | 210 x 148 mm | 184 pp
Awards
Highly Commended, ACT Book of the Year Award, 2018
Reviews
Merlinda Bobis is a writer whose work transcends… Bobis’s writing, in both her poetry and her prose fiction, is at once reassuring and uncomfortable; it quietly sears as it sings. Her music affirms the power of art and language, offering a portrait of our world which is as unflinching as it is, sincerely, a love song. Read the full review here
—Jo Langdon, Sydney Review of Books
From its core, this collection radiates an ambitious vision of kindness. The notion that the heart has space enough to imagine the story that remains unfinished, to attempt to see what lies beyond our borders, is made compelling by Bobis’s immediately intelligent and vivid reading of the world. With a voice courageous as ever, Bobis stays full of novelty and surprise in her generous, beautiful entreaty to look and listen to one another anew. Read the full review here.
—Lucy Van, Cordite Poetry Review
Within the lyric lines and vivid imagery, Bobis takes the reader into an experience otherwise unfamiliar or alien. Drawing connections between images and texts, events across time and space, Bobis also expands the meaning of ecology from its physical definition. Every thing and image is an index or reference of another, image and texts are combinations of the known and unknown, our relations are mediated and determined by reasoning with elements beyond our control. One can navigate their fate through a ripple caused by the smallest fish; one can find their love in a different time or in virtual space. Read the full review here.
—Zeny May Dy Recidoro, SparkUp, BusinessWorld Publishing Corporation
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 Maiden
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
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