Facing the Demon of Noontide is a poetic meditation on the soul in a postmodern setting. This collection of poems by Ian Irvine breaks new poetic ground even as it deals with the hangovers of old millennium life.
Facing the Demon of Noontide is a poetic meditation on the soul in a postmodern setting. This collection summarizes the poet's creative and intellectual preoccupations over the past ten or so years. There are poems dealing with inspiration, personal loss, life in the Australian outback, travel through South East Asia, love, and more.
Over the entire collection towers the Demon of Noontide, the ancient specter of ennui and alienation first encountered by the ancient Greek and Roman philosophers, and immortalized by the Desert Fathers of Christendom and countless poets and storytellers there-after. Ian uses this specter as a personal symbol for the many faceted postmodern forms of alienation/disenchantment which have interested him since the early 80s.
Over forty of the poems in the collection have been published in journals and ejournals like: Vernacular, Australian Writers' Journal, Ozlit, Conspire, Bonfire, Gravity, Grape Poetry, Blur, ACME Poetry and Plumbing Supplies and Eclectica, among many others. 'The Giant' appeared in 2 national Australian poetry anthologies.
Excerpt
The Gods abandon us
and we disintegrate
heavy handed
glutted with metaphors
self-recriminating, tying
sisters, brothers, lover
to the gallows.
Look at us,
scratching at the boils
of Nietzsche.
Mary Angela Nangini's poems celebrate the richness of life and love. From the city to cottage-country and the roads in between, Nangini explores the changing seasons of her varied region. (This book will soon be reprinted in hard cover.)