Thursday, June 05, 2014

Debut collection of poems by Wellington writer and artist MaryJane Thomson.


Fallen Grace is the debut collection of poems by Wellington writer and artist MaryJane Thomson.

The book comprises a sequence of 24 poems selected and arranged by Wellington editor Mark Pirie. These form a selection of her latest poems.

The poems, thought provoking and powerful, bristle with energy and evocative lines, richly layered. Thomson works by the process of thought construction, often using opposite images juxtaposed to build her poems. She offers an original insight in to society.

The book is hand-sewn in a limited edition of 100 copies.

Comment on Fallen Grace:

"And then suddenly, something very different to what you might have expected, is sent in the mail, and you’re caught unaware by what you might call the music of the street - a voice looking for a lost self, trying to make sense of the world – personally and politically. A questioning voice that feels marginalized and frequently alienated from much of the material world as we know it, but not necessarily wanting company either. It’s a voice looking for direction, wanting freedom from restraint, yet resorting (at times) to rhyme – wanting to hold on to the familiar without being enslaved. It’s an agitated voice, restless, anxious about conformity, about being ‘swallowed’ into commonality. Sometimes a sense of panic pervades, fear of being self-centered, ‘looking out from within … / your brain the flame’ but in the end, the influence that operates is grace – ‘the gold in the grey is hopeful’ and ‘the light comes in’." – Riemke Ensing

The Night Press is a division/imprint of HeadworX Publishers and publishes the poetry journal broadsheet and occasional chapbooks/mini books.

About the Author

MaryJane Thomson is an artist, writer and photographer living in Wellington, New Zealand. Website: www.maryjanethomson.com Her poems have appeared in Black Mail Press, Valley Micropress, Poetry Notes and broadsheet. Her first book, a memoir Sarah Vaughan is Not my Mother (Awa Press, 2013), was one of the year’s best books at Radio NZ and was widely reviewed in NZ papers/magazines. Kim Hill interviewed Thomson in 2013.

Sample Poem

Out of time

Whose is what? Mine, yours.
Who came first to slaughter each other,
the lamb, the fox, the wolf, the lion,
claiming right to roam and hunt.

Homo erectus, homo sapiens,
blessed be those with a bigger skull.
They enlarged the brain,
don’t we have it?, now learn.

Learning, knowledge defied,
till everything you knew became a lie.

Sidetracked into reverie,
thinking of future life,
we, always in the distance.

Pluto is descending, what does this mean to you?
Can you feel it?
Can you not see it?
Like when they didn’t know leaves fell in autumn,
yet they could see the leaves falling.

It’s an observation because it’s not yet fact,
belief belongs in reason.
You’re simply out of time.

© MaryJane Thomson 2014

Title: Fallen Grace: Poems
Author: MaryJane Thomson
Editor: Mark Pirie
ISBN  978-0-473-28152-6
Price: $20.00
Extent: 32 pages
Format: 148mmx210mm
Publication: June 2014
Publisher: The Night Press (a division of HeadworX)

Email: mpirie@xtra.co.nz
4C/19 Cottleville Tce
Thorndon
Wellington 6011
New Zealand

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