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New and Selected Poems
by Sarah Day
Part of our Arc International Poets series
The first UK publication for this major Australian poet
The selection of poems in this book, taken from Sarah Day's three published books and concluding with a substantial body of new work, reflects continuities: the eye for detail and ear for cadence; the process of distilling experience for its essentials; and the power of the image.
The early poems, notionally influenced by classic photographers such as Brandt and Cartier Bresson (in whose human and inanimate landscapes whole narratives can be extrapolated from the fleeting moment), lead on to the more wide-angled view of the later poems. In the new poems which constitute the final section of this collection, the voice is more discursive, with the idea taking precedence over the image. Indeed the concluding poem is possibly more hard-edged and political than anything that precedes it.
This is a book diffused with light and sound, full of exquisitely-crafted images from across the years and inhabiting a multitude of contrasting landscapes. It is both joyous and achingly moving, and every reading offers up new riches.
The poems of Sarah Day draw us back into the connectedness of our world, a flowing interplay between the human and other species, large or delicate. She is both observer and participant. Her pinpoint diction and elastic syntax stretch our assumptions by way of aesthetic play. This is the poetry of vivacity: language leaping off the page.
Paperback
80 pages
Published 2002
ISBN 1-900072-74-2
Published January 2002
