An aloe - spiky, soothing, fragrant, bitter - opens and names Diana Bridge's fifth collection of poetry. Structured in four parts, Aloe & Other Poems asks why and how we look at the world - and how we may catch in words what we see. 'To look is to be caught inside a wave', Bridge declares, and invites the reader to look along with her as she considers Indian temples, trees in Wellington's Botanical Gardens, a cellist, an enduring classical poem and a superb Chinese pot. Other themes - of loss, generation and repetition - run through the collection like Ariadne's threads. Bridge uses the voices and stories of Penelope and Medea, a warlord and a concubine, the Freud's and the furies, to convey psychological and physical suffering, chronicling the trauma and delight of birth and the curious reappearance of family traits. In this fine collection of new work, Bridge constantly observes and mediates the juncture points of the world from the 'raw edge of wonder'.
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[Each silver grey leaf whirls out from the stem in a movement / both spaced and communal. Each tapering arm is inflated / with life - ALOE]***
(Auckland University Press, 14 May 2014, first published 1 January 2009, e-book, 72 pages, borrowed from @natpoetrylib via @OverDriveLibs)
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I'd never heard of the poet before but I love discovering new poets. I've found another poet to add to my 'must read' list. I started to read the collection and didn't stop until I'd finished because I enjoyed it so much. It's rare for a collection of poetry to engage me so much that I literary put everything aside to read it. This is an incredible collection. This is the poet's fifth collection and I need to read the other four. If Abode is anything to go by I'm in for a treat. I enjoyed all of the poems but my favourites were the god of hills, clearing up after watching the news, a mother like Medea and the gap between stones.
