Common Land - Softcover

Davidson, Lynn

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0864737602 ISBN 13: 9780864737601

Publisher: Victoria University Press, 2012

Synopsis

Through a complementary combination of prose and poetry, Lynn Davidson has crafted an emotionally charged narrative with an awareness for language, rhythm, and form. The three interconnected personal essays and two poems comprising the book share themes of personhood and relationships, often marked by loss--her mother's Alzheimer's and the disappearance of her son's father--as well as a startling self-presence--childhood memories, the experience of pregnancy, and being a mother. Written with the authorial "I," Common Land is a creatively crafted autobiography.

About this title

Product Description:

A poem is a piece of common land. You go to it to be alone, to be with other people, to be out at night, to graze cattle, to light up. This book of poems and essays includes player pianos, waltzes, green glass trees and a person sitting on their coat. I didn't set out to tell such big stories. I was going to graze cattle, but I stopped to light up.

Review:

"Common Land is possibly the most successful mix of poetry and prose I have read. Nothing is simply occasional, and everything fits together . . . the essays and poems circle, and shine lights on one another. Lynn Davidson has produced a deeply feeling and deeply rational book, a thoughtful book, where things are unusual and surprising, and yet necessary and true." --Elizabeth Knox, author, The Vintner's Luck

"Common Land slinks into the room with poems that sound true. The short essays capture the intensity of feeling that owe a debt to her past. This book hangs together naturally leaving the reader free to enjoy the view as the ride progresses. This is another book full of energy and imagination." --Hamesh Wyatt, Otago Daily Times

About this edition

• Publisher: Victoria University Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0864737602
• ISBN 13: 9780864737601
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 80