AustLit

'And Yet . . ., Dennis Haskell’s ninth collection of poems, is a (late?) string quartet, its four movements attenuating poetic moments, moods and wordplay with poise and emotional intelligence. The first movement ‘Afterwards’ is a jugular-seeking, sonata-form allegro, spinning words around experiences of grieving after the deaths of his wife, his mother and his father-in-law: ‘No matter how blanketed, you can’t get warm / because the blizzard of death is blowing / from within; blood leaches from your body / all the dim day and all through the night’ (‘Go Gently’).' (Introduction)