Beauties of the Octagonal Pool

Auckland University Press, New Zealand, 2012. Paperback. Book Condition: New. 228 x 164 mm. Language: English Brand New Book. Gregory O Brien s first collection of poems since Afternoon of an Evening Train (2005), Beauties of the Octagonal Pool is centred on the octagonal pool of the Waitemata Harbour. In an eight-armed embrace, Beauties of the Octagonal Pool collects poems written from and out of a variety of times, locations and experiences, from the water-frontages of Fiji, Fiordland and the Mediterranean to the built history of Moscow and Berlin. Gregory O Brien s poems here - his first collection for seven years - have a thoughtful musicality, a shambling romance, a sense of humour, an eye on the horizon. And in the background, a soft directional chant of possibility: north, northwest, south, southeast, west, southwest, east, northeast. On Raoul Island there is a mechanical rat; in Moscow we encounter a black negligee and an ice-cream vendor; in Sault, a mayor and the Mistral; on Waiheke, the horses of memory thunder down the course; and in Doubtful Sound, the first guitar music heard in New Zealand spills over the waves. A gazing ball, an infinity pool, an endless sea, an organic compass, a contrapuntal spring, a glorious parrot, a bounded harbour - the octagonal pool might reflect where we ve been to, or where we are going. This is a good place to be marooned.…