Nadat Moessorgski na ’n uitstalling van skilderye van sy gestorwe vriend Viktor Hartmann gegaan het, het hy in 1874 ’n klavierwerk geskryf wat in 1922 deur Ravel georkestreer is en as gevolg van die orkesweergawe beroemd geword het. Philip de Vos het met sy verse die werk gemoderniseer om dit meer toegangklik vir moderne lesers te maak, terwyl dit steeds die gevoel van hierdie klassieke meesterwerk behou. Die prettige en slim Prente by ’n uitstalling beeld die besoeker uit soos hy van die een skildery na die volgende beweeg.

The poems in ‘predicaments’ explore women’s responses to the constraints and consequences of choices they have made. Their responses are not much changed through the millennia of myth, history and into contemporary times.

The poet reflects on significant moments in the lives of women such as Helen of Troy, Delilah and Joan of Arc, and the predicaments they are faced with in a man’s world.

In vloei/stof ontgin Gilbert Gibson temas soos die liefde/verhoudings, kinderherinneringe, geskiedkundige gegewens, geweld/oorlog, die belewenis van landskap, en die verloop van tyd/die dood op vernuftige wyse.

Soos in sy vorige bundels, bewys hy dat hy ’n meester is van die hermetiese digkuns – gedigte wat deur ’n spel met taal en vorm vervreemding teweegbring. Die leser word uitgedaag om die betekenis van die gedigte te ontsluit.

Die digter en literêre kritikus Louis Esterhuizen beskryf die bundel as volg: “Inderdaad digverweefde gedigte wat net soveel verhul as wat dit probeer onthul; verbrokkelde verse wat voortstu met verskuiwende betekenisvlakke en versplinterde (wan)begrip waartydens die leser genoodsaak word om ’n aktiewe rol te speel in die (re-)konstruksie van die teks.”

A selection of sharp, witty, and impeccably crafted poems from A. E. Stallings, the award-winning poet and translator.

This Afterlife: Selected Poems brings together poetry from A. E. Stallings’s four acclaimed collections, Archaic Smile, Hapax, Olives, and Like, as well as a lagniappe of outlier poems. Over time, themes and characters reappear, speaking to one another across years and experience, creating a complex music of harmony, dissonance, and counterpoint. The Underworld and the Afterlife, ancient history and the archaeology of the here and now, all slant rhyme with one another. Many of these poems unfold in the mytho-domestic sphere, through the eyes of Penelope or Pandora, Alice in Wonderland or the poet herself. Fulfilling the promise of the energy and sprezzatura of Stallings’s earliest collection, her later technical accomplishments rise to meet the richness of lived experience: of marriage and motherhood, of a life lived in another language and country, of aging and mortality. Her chosen home of Greece adds layers of urgency to her fascination with Greek mythology; living in an epicenter of contemporary crises means current events and ancient history are always rubbing shoulders in her poems.

Expert at traditional received forms, Stallings is also a poet of restless experiment, in cat’s-cradle rhyme schemes, nonce stanzas, supple free verse, thematic variation, and metaphysical conceits. The pleasure of these poems, fierce and witty, melancholy and wise, lies in a timeless precision that will outlast the fickleness of fashion.

In setting the poets side by side, this volume also highlights the two main faith traditions of the West: Deane with his Roman Catholic background, rooted in the landscape of Mayo; and Harpur with his Protestant (Church of Ireland and Quaker) heritage, influenced by myth, medieval history and mystics. Their two approaches to everyday life and ultimate reality - including nature, saints and mystics, music, art, prayer, and issues of faith and doubt - combine to make a single volume full of lyrical beauty and powerful witness. In addition, an afterword consisting of an informal dialogue between the two poets complements in prose the themes their poems explore. This is a book to challenge, console, delight and make its readers think again about their own journeys through this "vale of soul-making".

As the seas rise, the fight intensifies to save the Pacific Ocean's Marshall Islands from being devoured by the waters around them. At the same time, activists are raising their poetic voices against decades of colonialism, environmental destruction, and social injustice. Marshallese poet and activist Kathy Jetn-il-Kijiner's writing highlights the traumas of colonialism, racism, forced migration, the legacy of American nuclear testing, and the impending threats of climate change. Bearing witness at the front lines of various activist movements inspires her work and has propelled her poetry onto international stages, where she has performed in front of audiences ranging from elementary school students to more than a hundred world leaders at the United Nations Climate Summit. The poet connects us to Marshallese daily life and tradition, likening her poetry to a basket and its essential materials. Her cultural roots and her family provides the thick fiber, the structure of the basket. Her diasporic upbringing is the material which wraps around the fiber, an essential layer to the structure of her experiences. And her passion for justice and change, the passion which brings her to the front lines of activist movements-is the stitching that binds these two experiences together. Iep Jaltok will make history as the first published book of poetry written by a Marshallese author, and it ushers in an important new voice for justice.