Perverse Serenity

Reviews

‘The poems are characterised by a strength of passion, by a searching self-examination, by a daring of emotion that is reflected in the language and images.’ 

–John Hanrahan

'This poetry is vast with remembering.’

–Meg Tasker, Australian Women’s Book Review

‘Here is a picture of a woman’s divided loves, for a love in Ireland and for one in Australia, drawn with rare honesty and a compelling strength of observation … Here is writing not afraid to be vulnerable, not trapped in literary artifice, nor reticent about emotion, its hopes, its fears, its withdrawals and assertions, which we all share and which enrich our humanity.’

–Barrett Reid

Table of Contents

PART ONE

Searching 

The beginning 

PART TWO

Juggling 

End in view 

The risk 

Re-leaving 

Airborne 

PART THREE

Wavering 

Wasting 

Uphill, still climbing 

Toward clarity 

Perverse serenity 

PART FOUR

Finale 

When love goes 

Losing you 

Changing

After Carringbush Ceili 

Surviving single 

Offerings 

Reassessing 

Dolphins 

if 

Black spring 

Murroe 

Ahead 

Recurrent tug 

PART FIVE

Winter surfaces 

The final season 

Spent 

The storm 

To satisfy 

Glossary