Slack Tide – Sarah Day
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Slack Tide
Slack tide is the turning point when a body of tidal water can seem uncertain as to whether it is coming in or going out. Surface water may be deceptively calm at this time, yet below the surface huge divergent forces are at work. World events and global forces are an oblique presence in much of this collection in whose poems private and public disturb one another’s space and boundaries. The themes hold gravitas, but there is playfulness and whimsy too, in tone, voice and angle. The poems look for wisdom in unexpected places, like the non-human and inanimate world: in the actions of pigs; a honey-eater’s tongue extracting nectar as statistics are read out on the day’s news; or in the utopian behaviour of “macaroon islands of sea foam”. These poems seek what Robert Pinsky called “a collaboration between the external world and the self, between language and intention”.
Read an extract from the book (PDF 565.6 KB)
About the author
Since Sarah Day’s first book in 1987, her works have received a number of awards, including the Anne Elder and the Queensland Premier’s Awards and Michel Wesley Wright Prizes, and have been shortlisted for the NSW, Tasmanian Premier’s, and Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. She has taught creative writing to year 12 students over the past 20 years, has collaborated with musicians, and judged national poetry, fiction and nature-writing competitions. She lives in Hobart.