{"id":40611,"date":"2022-10-24T06:30:46","date_gmt":"2022-10-23T17:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=40611"},"modified":"2022-10-23T20:05:30","modified_gmt":"2022-10-23T07:05:30","slug":"what-im-reading-tumble-by-joanna-preston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2022\/10\/24\/what-im-reading-tumble-by-joanna-preston\/","title":{"rendered":"What I’m Reading: “Tumble” by Joanna Preston"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tumble<\/em><\/strong> by Joanna Preston<\/a> is the third and final What I\u2019m Reading<\/strong><\/a> post on books that I\u2019ve heralded in previous months.<\/p>\n

Tumble <\/em>(Otago University Press<\/a>, 2021) is Joanna Preston\u2019s second poetry collection, and won the Ockham NZ Book Awards\u2019 Peter and Mary Biggs Award for Poetry <\/a>earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In terms of disclosure, Joanna and I were in a poetry group together for a number of years. During that time, several of the poems contained in Tumble<\/strong> <\/em>were shared and workshopped with the group. As noted in my Just Arrived post on 23 May<\/a>, \u201cI love <\/em>The Summer King<\/strong> (Joanna\u2019s first collection) and am a huge admirer of Joanna\u2019s poetry generally, and have been privileged to feature a number of her poems on this blog.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In other words, I was predisposed to like Tumble<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 and like it I did, and do. I have not read its fellow finalists for the Ockham Award, so cannot make any comparative observations. Based solely on its own merits, however, I consider Tumble<\/em> a worthy winner.<\/p>\n

So many of the individual poems are standouts in their own right. I particularly note Lucifer in Las Vegas<\/em>, The Salmon, Lost<\/em>, and Earthrise<\/em>, although these are just a few examples. More importantly, there are no poems in the collection that I consider \u201calso rans\u201d in terms of their presence on the page and Joanna\u2019s execution of the poetic art.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has become a sounding bell,<\/em><\/span>
\nleaden, heavy-laden, <\/em><\/span>
\ngathering the miles into a rope,<\/em><\/span>
\nknots of aching anchored <\/em><\/span>
\nto her spine.<\/em><\/span>
\nThe journey has rung through her,<\/em><\/span>
\nand now it ends, in muteness,<\/em><\/span>
\nin the sleepfulness of snow.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

~ from Census at Bethlehem<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Mastery is a word I often think of when reading Joanna\u2019s work. Gorgeous words and turns-of-phrase build to killer lines and powerful stanzas, culminating in poems that deliver as a whole.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing in to roost
\nthe flocks of starlings
\ndip and sweep
\ntrailing filaments of dusk\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

~from The cold, darkening<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Always incisive, and frequently humorous\u2014although often with an edge\u2014the poems range from history (e.g. Chronicle of the year 793<\/em>; Lijessenthoek<\/em>), through the Canterbury earthquakes of 2010 \u2013 2011 (e.g. Fault<\/em>; The Ministry of Sorrow<\/em>); to works that are more personal in tone (e.g. Lares and penates<\/em>; Clemency<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

“<\/em>Every<\/span> outcrop, every ridge, every stand<\/span>
\nof trees \u2013 guardians of the border<\/span>
\nwoven between earth and sky \u2013 <\/span>
\nso many threads, our stories, braided<\/span>
\nand tasselled or tucked<\/span>
\nneatly into the backing \u2013 ”
\n<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

~ from Lares and penates<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Tumble <\/em>also includes an ekphrastic* poem, Female, Nude<\/em>, that was written in response to a Man Ray painting, Ingres Violin<\/em>, as part of the ekphrastic poems series I curated in 2013. Subsequently, Female, Nude<\/em> proved to be one of the top ten posts<\/a> on \u201c\u2026Anything, Really\u201d<\/em> that year, so I was thrilled to see it again, particularly as the opening poem in the collection.<\/p>\n

A link to Female, nude<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, is embedded in the title. Just click to read in full. \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n

Robert Frost said that \u201cpoetry is what gets lost in translation\u201d<\/em><\/span>, which may be true \u2013 but there\u2019s plenty to find and to like in Tumble, <\/em>including poetic resonance, gorgeous words and mastery over their placement, always in company with intellectual rigour and emotional depth.<\/p>\n

In all likelihood, winning the Ockham NZ Book Award for Poetry is all the recommendation that Tumble<\/em> needs. Nonetheless, I am recommending it, especially to those who love poetry and writing that exemplifies \u201cthe best words in the best order\u201d<\/em> <\/span>(Samuel Taylor Coleridge.)<\/p>\n

\u201cand the astronaut, staring down
\ninto the well
\nof cloud and weather<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

the gold flash from her visor<\/em><\/span>
\nas she bends<\/em><\/span>
\nto take the earth\u2019s confession.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

~ from Earthrise<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 a Best New Zealand Poem, 2014<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I purchased my copy of Tumble<\/em> from Otago University Press.<\/p>\n

* Ekphrastic poems are those that respond to a work of art.<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tumble by Joanna Preston is the third and final What I\u2019m Reading post on books that I\u2019ve heralded in previous months. Tumble (Otago University Press, 2021) is Joanna Preston\u2019s second poetry collection, and won the Ockham NZ Book Awards\u2019 Peter and Mary Biggs Award for Poetry earlier this year. In terms of disclosure, Joanna and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","category-what-im-reading"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40611"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40620,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40611\/revisions\/40620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}