say, a river – Pam Schindler
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say, a river
These poems “gather morning sticks / for the flames to run through”. Written over the past 10 years, they are concerned with the natural world (chiefly south-east Queensland and Tasmania), love and loss, perception and time. Martin Duwell wrote in Australian Poetry Review that “say, a river might be said to be about how we respond to the loss of loved ones expressed as an intense engagement with the natural world.” Anne Kellas described these poems as “a frail canvas made new from lissom, nimble, honey-sharp words.” These poems listen carefully to the world. Zenobia Frost writes that “These are compact poems spinning into [their] own weather”; they are “thin moons cradling the dark.”
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About the author
Pam Schindler is an Australian poet living by the sea in Blackmans Bay, Hobart, Lutruwita/Tasmania. Her work has appeared in Australian magazines and anthologies and in her two collections, A sky you could fall into (Brisbane: Post Pressed, 2010) and say, a river (Port Adelaide: Ginninderra Press, 2023). She graduated with an Honours degree in English Literature from the University of Queensland and worked as a reference librarian at both the University of Tasmania and the University of Queensland. Pam is a Hawthornden Fellow, receiving a writer’s residency at Hawthornden Castle, Scotland, in 2013. In 2020, she was commended in the WB Yeats Prize (Australia). In 2021, she took part as one of 23 Tasmanian poets in the Poetry for a More Than Human World project, led by Kristen Lang. She was a featured poet in the 2024 Tasmanian Poetry Festival.