Common Land

Description

A poem is a piece of common land. You go to it to be alone, to be with other people, to be out at night, to graze cattle, to light up. This book of poems and essays includes player pianos, waltzes, green glass trees and a person sitting on their coat. I didn't set out to tell such big stories. I was going to graze cattle, but I stopped to light up.

Lynn Davidson is the author of three previous collections of poetry, How to live by the sea, Tender and Mary Shelley's Window, and a novel, Ghost Net. Her poetry has been included in Big Weather, poems of Wellington, The Best of Sport Magazine, The Best of Best New Zealand Poems and PN Review. In 2003 she was awarded the Louis Johnson Writer's Bursary and in 2011 was Visiting Artist at Massey University where she is currently working towards her PhD. Lynn lives on the Kapiti Coast.

"Common Land is possibly the most successful mix of poetry and prose I have read. Nothing is simply occasional, and everything fits together . . . the essays and poems circle, and shine lights on one another. Lynn Davidson has produced a deeply feeling and deeply rational book, a thoughtful book, where things are unusual and surprising, and yet necessary and true." - Elizabeth Knox, author, The Vintner's Luck "Common Land slinks into the room with poems that sound true. The short essays capture the intensity of feeling that owe a debt to her past. This book hangs together naturally leaving the reader free to enjoy the view as the ride progresses. This is another book full of energy and imagination." - Hamesh Wyatt, Otago Daily Times