Poetry

This is a beautiful, illustrated hardback book of translations of the poetry of Ma Zhiyuan, with detailed commentary on his poems. Ma Zhiyuan lived (1250–1321) at a time when China, for the first time in its history, came under the complete control of an alien regime – the Mongols.  Among his achievements was the development and popularising of the new san qu lyric form of poetry. It was a fascinating time in Chinese history and Ma Zhiyuan’s verse is a quite marvellous reflection of the period as well as being beautiful and informative in its own right. Wonderful to give as a gift.

White Lines (Vertical) is a new collection of poetry by Marcelle Freiman. These moving poems highlight the poet's sensibility towards the complex, varied facets of identity and her perceptions of the world.

"If warmth and wisdom are the two dominant qualities of this book, it is the voice of the poems which makes them so attractive." Brook Emery, Mascara Literary Review http://tiny.cc/kbbau

‘My poems’ meaning reads like open palms …’

Nora Krouk writes of ardour, intimacy and pain in great age with wit and spontaneity. Her candour and the idiosyncratic rhythm and lineation of her verse contribute a strong and different voice to Australian poetry. She writes through a prismatic cultural perspective and with unremitting honesty of what it is to love and lose love at 90. Her technique and the tenor of this work make it powerful and haunting. Anna Kerdijk Nicholson

Read another review on Whispering Gums: 
http://whisperinggums.wordpress.com/2011/10/21/nora-krouk-warming-the-core-of-things/

Versatility is a verse drama in nine acts for double a cappella chorus (representing the community) and baritone (representing the poet). Incidental music is from the collected chorales of JS Bach; poetry is by the author, Timoshenko Aslanides.

The music CD included with the booklet is a live recording of the first performance of the work, at Great Hall, University House, Australian National University, Canberra, 22 September 2012. Conductor: Mary Tatchell; choir –The Revenants.

The Otherness of Words is a collection of poetry written over a period of forty years. Selected from twelve separate collections as well as more recent poems, they offer an insight into the development of a poet whose voice is strikingly different from that of most other Australian writers. Its central preoccupation is a search for identity and the quest for redemption. 

To hear Manfred in conversation with Richard Fidler on Monday 4 February 2013 click here

Through an immigrant's eyes: Late Night Live with Phillip Adams 5 February 2013 listen here

“Stop words are those words which are so common that they are useless to index or use in search engines or other search indexes,” says Wikipedia. 

Regardless, the poet deftly uses these useful words to make meaning of our lives. Each poem uses a stop word as a point of poetic departure, around which he sews a context, impressionistically, sketchily, pencilling a mood, a feeling, tension between the sexes. Relationships are at the heart of his poems, love, death, time, the possible, the impossible, the probable, the emotive, in short sensibilities.

Li Yu was the last ruler of the tenth century Chinese kingdom known as the Southern Tang. The author comments:  “This book contains my translations of, and musings about, the surviving poetry of the ruler of an area of China during the confused period between the collapse of the Tang dynasty in 907 and the re-unification of the country under the Song in 960 …

Li Qingzhao is the most famous female poet in Chinese history. She lived almost a thousand years ago during turbulent times in the Song dynasty.

A selection of short stories, articles, and poetry written by the author over a period of 30 years, many previously published in newspapers, magazines, and journals, and are here collected in book form for the first time. The stories examine the relationships between often-predatory men and the women they lovelessly and manipulatively use.