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''Pam Schindler's say, a river proves the best poems don't have to shout. There is so much light in the brushstrokes of this painterly collection, in which Schindler washes private moments of grief and intimacy onto nature's liminal spaces. These are compact poems "spinning into [their] own weather"; they are "thin moon[s] cradling the dark".' - Zenobia Frost
''Here's a poet who is one of Australia's recording angels of the natural world, whose pen's an artist's brush, whose poems "cut words on the clear air" with the arrow-sure, effortless grace that comes only from mature craftsmanship. Her themes paint dimensions of love and loss on a frail canvas made new from lissom, nimble, honey-sharp words. We breathe in this beauty aware that underneath is a leonine strength and a bright deep knowing.' - Anne Kellas
''This softly-spoken collection shares the poet's contemplation of presence and absence. The reader is drawn close to poems that invite a reflective mind. Their power comes from the affectionate distillation of small details of the natural world and the deeply-felt experience of human relationships, love and loss, into direct and unselfconscious language. Having engaged her reader, Schindler steps aside and lets the words work their magic.' - Ynes Sanz' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Dominic Symes : I Saw the Best Memes of My Generation; Pam Schindler: Say, a River
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Poetry Review , no. 18 2023;
— Review of I Saw the Best Memes of My Generation 2022 selected work poetry ; Say, a River 2023 selected work poetry'The initial pleasure in connecting these two excellent books derived from what seemed their absolute difference. It was both rewarding and fun to actually read poems from each book alternately and I was tempted to structure what I want to say about them by seeing them as opposite poles of the poetic spectrum: the one being tonally inclined to the wry and in terms of subject matter very much about how we are located in the (comparatively) new digital age; the other, tonally serious and thematically concerned with how we live and interact with the natural world. A little thought showed this to be misguided: there are far more alien outposts in the map of poetry than these: “language” poetry, found, conceptual poetry, the various forms of text-fiddling, multi-authorship poems, and so on. In fact, thinking of as much of contemporary poetry as I know and imagining it as a map or many-cornered geometric shape, these two books would occupy a reasonably central position and might even be able to speak to each another.'
-
Dominic Symes : I Saw the Best Memes of My Generation; Pam Schindler: Say, a River
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Poetry Review , no. 18 2023;
— Review of I Saw the Best Memes of My Generation 2022 selected work poetry ; Say, a River 2023 selected work poetry'The initial pleasure in connecting these two excellent books derived from what seemed their absolute difference. It was both rewarding and fun to actually read poems from each book alternately and I was tempted to structure what I want to say about them by seeing them as opposite poles of the poetic spectrum: the one being tonally inclined to the wry and in terms of subject matter very much about how we are located in the (comparatively) new digital age; the other, tonally serious and thematically concerned with how we live and interact with the natural world. A little thought showed this to be misguided: there are far more alien outposts in the map of poetry than these: “language” poetry, found, conceptual poetry, the various forms of text-fiddling, multi-authorship poems, and so on. In fact, thinking of as much of contemporary poetry as I know and imagining it as a map or many-cornered geometric shape, these two books would occupy a reasonably central position and might even be able to speak to each another.'
