Keel and Drift

Description

A girl carries a tray of eggs on her fingertips, a man plays a cello in a field, a woman buys a carpet sweeper - these moments of everyday life are deceptively simple. Underneath, something else is going on - a sense of mystery, an awareness of impending death, a wry view of human nature. Some of these poems tell a story, some offer an insight, some offer a moment of lyrical beauty. Together, they invite the reader to pause, pay attention, and listen.

Adrienne Jansen is widely known for writing alongside migrants to record their stories, in fiction and non-fiction. But her writing roots are in poetry. In her third collection of poems she returns to those roots, drawing on her life by the sea, her family and friends, her work at Te Papa, odd moments of pleasure, and all the other debris of life that writers sift through. She teaches at the Whitireia Creative Writing Programme and lives in Titahi Bay, north of Wellington.