Sign-In
Cart
Neapolitan Skies
Paperback
ISBN13: 9781760417635
Publisher: Ginninderra Press
Published: Jul 9 2019
Pages: 120
Weight: 0.27
Height: 0.25 Width: 5.06 Depth: 7.81
Language: English
Bernadette Anderson's voice is no longer hidden but released in these poems. Many are grounded in the theatre of everyday life. From her coffee comfort zone she observes other people and imagines herself 'woven into the colourful fabrics of others' travels'. She weaves from a different denser cloth when she moves into self-discovery: anger at toxic love in 'Squeeze', where the secateurs of 'Pruning' are transformed into a murderous weapon of passion; maternal love and anguish and the healing love of animals. In shaped poems like 'Concrete' she welds short sharp images into memorable visual patterns where self is overwhelmed. From the ice cream colours of the evening skies on an ordinary walk with her dog in the title poem, to the tenderness in her 'mother poems', Bernadette takes us on her own magical mystery tour. In Neapolitan Skies we are treated to a unique poetic voice. - Sue Cook
What stands out most to me in Bernie Anderson's poems is a sense of the human in nature, literally something of the marvellous. Her encounters with the mundane things of life, and people, are metaphors of her craving to seek beyond. The main image in 'Threads' is a wonderful metaphor, synonymous with the yearning to put them back together. The khaki pungent water in 'Duck Pond', the drama of approaching rain in 'Petrichor', and the naked leaf/self in 'I Found a Poem' are vivid and striking images. There is, too, a strong sense of waiting for something to happen, but never being quite sure of the next step. 'Ladder' sums up the dilemma graphically and beautifully. She not only notices everything, she takes notice of it, as in 'Sinners Wall'. In all, a most rewarding and often deeply moving read. - Ros Schulz
The poems in Neapolitan Skies melt in your mouth. Bernie Anderson's astute view on the world is colourful, sensual and often spiritual. With an eye for small details and for noticing the antics and foibles of her fellow humans, she paints poetic portraits and scenes that are honest, vivid and surprising. Always sensitive to and respectful of nature and of people, Anderson conveys a sense of timelessness, of connecting history to present, family to psyche and the living to the dead. I especially love the way this poetry captures the essence of grief and joy, of nature and creatures such as horses and dogs. Neapolitan Skies is a stunning collection of intelligent, observant and emotive poetry. - Jude Aquilina
Also in
General Poetry
Dante's Vita Nuova, New Edition: A Translation and an Essay
Pitavy, Francois
Alighieri, Dante
Paperback
Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse (by the Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature)
Carson, Anne
Paperback
The Beauty of the Husband: A Fictional Essay in 29 Tangos (by the Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature)
Carson, Anne
Paperback
Decreation: Poetry, Essays, Opera (by the Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature)
Carson, Anne
Paperback
Sounding the Seasons Enlarged Edition: One Hundred and Ten Sonnets for the Christian Year
Guite, Malcolm
Paperback
Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching: A Book about the Way and the Power of the Way
Le Guin, Ursula K.
Lao Tzu
Paperback
A Bowl of Goodness: Nourishing Poems with a Side of Soup, Celebrating Community, Friendship, and Resilience
Jackson, Major
Hardcover
Ariel: The Restored Edition: A Facsimile of Plath's Manuscript, Reinstating Her Original Selection and Arrangement
Plath, Sylvia
Paperback