Writing on Nature & Place :
Poetry Review Extract

Curled in land's belly, beyond the wind, living like
hermits at Inlet's edge, that South Western water-
body's boulders, clouds, reed-fringed wetlands
mirror-gazed our reflections in breathless
shallows, wild Nullaki peninsula
folded like a hinge between
twin skies, our minds
empty as cloisters.

It's a test of any writer when they choose to write about a familiar landscape. Does the imagery evoke, reconfigure, live beyond, succeed in giving us what we know? Yes, this first stanza from 'Curled' works beautifully - I love the "peninsula folded like a hinge" - Anna, can I pinch that line?! We're there, right there, with sun and wind, lifted from the page.

Anna Maria may have been born and raised in Malta, she seems have had significant and very deep relationships with places and people, she appears to have a propensity for walking in plazas and market places and experiencing their exotic headiness - all of these, yes, are important ….. But for me it's the lacing of emotional content with patterns and rhythms of diction that bring them close, conjure them real and now, so that yes, I feel the connection between mind/hand/word/eye/mind.

The Famous Reporter # 38, Poet Kevin Gillam launching of The Roof Milkers June 2008. Kevin Gillam’s forthcoming poems, titled ‘songs sul G’ (Fremantle Press, July 2011) will appear in a paired volume with Andrew Lansdown.
http://walleahpress.com.au/FR38Gillam.html

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