Emily Hasler's debut collection moves between the local and the distant, the urban and the rural, and past and present. This is poetry of emotional density underpinned with a lightness of touch. Hasler's poems are structural but organic, detailed but lively, thoughtful but playful. There is a rare combination of exactitude and wonder which leads the reader in and keeps them there. Often taking their cue from the work of visual artists, these poems probe at the ways we understand and reconstruct our environment. Examining places, objects, buildings, landscapes, rivers and bridges, these poems ask how our world is made, and how it makes us.
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What I've been meaning to mention is the folding machine; how it's a truly marvellous thing and I want to see it. And I want us to take it to the beach or to visit Stonehenge. ON HEADED PAPER
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(@LivUniPress, 1 November 2018, e-book, 57 pages, borrowed from @natpoetrylib via @OverDriveLibs)
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I wanted to read this collection because the title intrigued me and there's something I really liked about the simple, plain cover. I enjoyed the poems contained in this collection. The poet explores familiar themes and also touches on ideas and concepts I haven't come across before. Many of the poems focus on our environment such as places we occupy, objects we interact with, the landscapes of our life and nature. I tend to dislike poems that tackle some of these themes but enjoyed Hasler's work. The best poems are The Built Environment, Katana, A False Winter and Inscription. This is worth a read.
