Description
Obscured
in semi-darkness, crouched
head bent to bony knee,
eyes of landed fish. Nothing
can surprise him now. He is halfway
to star.
Zelas chooses her words with care, and her poems are always eloquent and evocative. She demonstrates a sound use of conventions, and her writing is well-crafted and technically excellent.
… the mot juste to characterise these poems is the word meticulous: meticulous invocation of place, of nature and of the human heart; meticulous choice of word, the arrangement of words and of their effects; and, ultimately, meticulous in the way the poems contribute to the architecture of the book … This is a rich and evocative set, resonant with other readings, with travel and memory, but above all with Karen Zelas’s carefully wrought language and imagery, so often surprising and memorable
– James Norcliffe… a beautiful collection. Karen Zelas offers a sharp eye for detail, a skilful sense of cadence, an adept command of poetic possibilities and an astute engagement with life’s biggest question. The result is a striking yet accessible first book of poems … lucid yet edgily dark
– Siobhan HarveyIt’s that play between head and heart that really does typify Karen Zelas’s best poems
– Joanna Preston
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