[Launch by Jane Williams of Lyn Reeves' collection Beads from Picaro Press - the Republic Bar & Cafe, North Hobart, Sunday 1st April, 2007]:
At a recent literary event as part of 10 days on the island there was talk about how many poets there are here per square inch. A goodly lot seemed to be the consensus. But it’s not just the number of poets in Tasmania, it’s the number of poets in Tasmania who are receiving growing national and international recognition, through awards, grants, residencies and of course published works. The majority of these are down to small press publishers. Small presses are the faith keepers of contemporary Australian poetry and have been quick to respond to quality Tasmanian writing. Picaro Press for one has published several Tasmanian poets over the last few years, Karen Knight, Louise Oxley, Gina Mercer … and now well known poet and small press publisher herself Lyn Reeves.
These are well cared for poems by a poet who clearly respects the importance of symbols in our understanding of human history and in our everyday communication.
In the book’s back blurb Gina Mercer writes that these poems ‘…whirl the reader on transcendent and translucent journeys’. As a reader it’s those journeys I hope to embark on. To be engaged, transported and returned enriched by the experience. Beads did this for me by shining an alluring light on a topic I had little previous knowledge of or interest in beyond the superficial.
In recent years I have read and admired many of these individual bead poems, to now see them collated in one volume is such a pleasure. It is as it should be.
Reading the poem ‘Jewel of heaven’ which draws a comparison between the physical qualities of jade and some of our more and less admirable human qualities I was struck by the generosity of spirit evoked by this gentle reminder: ‘…its flaws/ are counterpoised with beauty/ as in a well loved friend’
Those who know Lyn’s work will not be surprised; I’m sure they’ll be delighted as I was, to detect here and there a little of her haiku sensibility. Take the last lines of the poem ‘Memento mori’ in which jet is rendered synonymous with grief: ‘… In the lustre of a stone whose colour/ never fades, your mirrored breath’
As part of an earlier sequence which was runner up in the 1999 Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize, the poem ‘Amber’ is a kind of miniature catalogue or sample show bag of ‘life the universe and everything’. The treatment of language in this poem is at once playful and considered. The shape shifting between fact and fancy is done so seamlessly that it is easy for the reader to believe, not only in ‘resinous blood of primeval forests’ and ‘metamorphosed mammoth dung’ but equally in ‘concretion of bird’s tears’ and ‘preserved menstrual blood of mermaids’.
Whether dealing with trade beads, prayer beads, talismans or love tokens, these poems never merely entertain or distract. They at turn seduce, challenge and enlighten, leaving the reader with an expanded vision. Surely this is one of the hallmarks of truly worthy writing.