Launch: The Kindness of Water
Join MC Dr Mark Tredinnick, Es Foong and Gayelene Carbis to celebrate the launch of this superb debut collection of poems by Melbourne Poet, Helen Jarvis
Time & Location
05 Apr 2025, 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm
Holy Trinity Anglican Church Hall, 255 Nelson Pl, Williamstown VIC 3016, Australia
About the event
THE KINDNESS OF WATER is a braided river of poetry fed by many tributaries. Tender, intimate reflections on the loss of parents--through sudden tragedy or slow decline--mix with new readings of themes from classical mythology and the re-imagining of folk tales. There are cormorants, goldfinches, wild dogs in Africa and ghost moths; glimpsed whales and lost wedding rings; tales of Guy Fawkes and Harry Houdini.
A certain sense of longing and disorientation runs through the book: the perennial migrant experience, suspended between embracing a new world and regretting a world that has been lost. The perspective that emerges from this precarious balance lends a freshness and an urgency to the close observation that characterises these poems.
This is the work of a poet who has mastered her craft; Helen combines emotional maturity and a sophisticated intelligence with formidable command of technique to extract the universal from the particular, and insights…