POETRY [24] p. : ill. ; 20 cm. #1020

Reading through Merv Lilley’s work in preparing the anthology was a revelation to me. Of course I knew he was a poet, and I knew some of his work, but now I realised that the bright light of his wife Dorothy Hewett’s poetry had meant, for me at least, less recognition of Merv’s own talent. We chose two pieces by Merv for this anthology: one a short but powerful poem from his book Cautious Birds, the other, entitled ‘Swift’, made up of three extracts from a longer work. These are among my favourites in the anthology. ‘Swift’ was written late in Merv’s life and his daughter Rozanna Lilley has said she can’t entirely tell if it is about Merv’s mother or about Dorothy – perhaps there are elements of both – it’s a pretty universal affirmation of loss and persistent connection. I love the excerpts published here for their apparent naturalness that is carefully crafted. The images especially draw on light and sound, so that the commemoration of the dead is embodied and vivid, what you see and hear. As elegy they speak for so many; they contain both sadness and beauty, and find correlation in nature’s patterns of regeneration: ‘the wildflowers springing seasonally all over again following drought and rain’.” Tracy Ryan