George Genovese – författare

Desire in its multifariously limpid and obscure manifestations is one of the salient themes that informs many of the poems in this collection, from the way it is experienced in its recognisably subjective forms as longing, love or intention, to the more challenging notion of its expression as artefact – the objective creations of daily use such as cups, tables, books and money. Consonant with this notion is the way language allies itself with it to make it actual – this book you are holding and its contents being an instance of that – for if our daily artefacts are the echoes of its subterranean making, then surely language as the maker’s first and foremost tool of creative ingenuity, and not just human ingenuity, must be its very flesh.

The theme of time and its associated expressions of mutability, limitation and loss figures prominently in this collection. The title poem is an attempted objectification, one could say personification, of time which ultimately overturns any of the parallels drawn between it and the figures adduced as its visible representatives to stand in any symmetrical relationship. In the end it is a poem of inadequate comparisons mutely pointing to the impossibility of capturing the moment in its inevitable passing and, by implication, the poetic figurations striving to seize it through their imagery and naming. There are diversions too from this theme and touches of lightness, here and there, in subjects as diverse as love, in its generous and less than selfless senses, human grotesquery and those all-important quiet meditative interludes, sustaining in themselves long after their passing, to which we all aspire. 

Reflections on love, loss and the play of poetic imagination recur in this collection. In one of the two free verse works, ‘The Passing Poem’, these unite. This poem was something I felt compelled to write after attending the funerals of two friends. Both times I was struck by how people who might not normally read poetry, let alone write it, composed poems to express their grief and love. For any poet who has doubted their calling (I among them), this was a timely reminder of poetry’s ability to articulate truths in situations, particularly emotionally charged ones, which could not otherwise be as meaningfully expressed. After much travail then, and two funerals too many, I hope this offspring of my labours will make its way into the world, find friends and grow in wisdom through the years.

While most of the characters you''ll meet in these pages are far from perfect, and, with all their anxieties, foibles and frailties, a world away from being heroic, they are recognisably human. What they lack in polish or perfection they more than abundantly make up for in inconspicuous generosity and modesty, much too often under-appreciated for the ramifications these quieter graces have on those around them. This is a collection of stories of varying tonalities, spanning an emotional range comprising anything from the gentle ''My Uncle Dom'' to the light and playful ''Reversal'', the humorous and, at times, outrageously farcical ''Dimblewit'' to the absurd, even grotesque ''The Bookworm'', and again, the dark and disturbing ''The Visitation''. Two pieces among this collection of seven stories, ''Artist'' and ''A Brass Razoo'', present us with portraits particularly Australian.