Collusion (poetry collection)

Collusion

Author	Brook Emery
Language	English
Genre	Poetry collection
Publisher	John Leonard Press
Publication date	2012
Publication place	Australia
Media type	Print
Pages	58pp.
ISBN	978-0-9808-5236-3
Dewey Decimal	A821.4
Preceded by	Uncommon Light
Followed by	Have Been and Are

Collusion (2012) is a collection of poetry by the Australian writer Brook Emery. ^[1]

Contents

The collection which, according to Emery's epigraph, explores Daniel Defoe’s question "is it better to be here or there?", ^[2] contains 35 poems, some of which had been previously published. ^[a]

• "Dear K, it's light that makes the river flow"
• ". . . naked and alone"
• ". . . balanced on girders"
• "After the lassitudes of blue"
• "It's almost spring in our neglected hemisphere"
• "In the hour or so before night's certain fall"
• "Waking at night silence has the colour"
• "All morning it's been difficult to settle"
• "A low pressure cell is tracking up the coast"
• ". . . on his left wrist"
• "I remember very little"
• "I want to say the word 'adrift' "
• "You know the way"
• "I can eclipse you with a wink"
• "Contested ground, this strange persistent beauty"
• "It appears we are machines to manufacture words"
• "In the background there is the music"
• "They come and go in pockets"
• "Perhaps the first thing I notice"
• "It comes from over there"
• "The half-awake world in the half-light"
• "You've been waiting for something like this"
• ". . . a dog, looking pleased"
• "The black hill looks to float straight out to sea"
• "Is this now the Anthropocene"
• "Gloom off to the west"
• "It's when the plane takes off"
• "In the photograph we're standing in a line"
• "I walk among the dead"
• "Autumn warmth is draining from the day"
• "I almost understand this resonance"
• "Here it is not so much the thought which teases"
• ". . . seagulls"
• ". . . we're not so unalike"
• "Rain as it is only brighter"

Awards

• 2009 – Blake Poetry Prize, the poem This Curious light (included in this collection as "After the lassitudes of blue") was shortlisted. ^[3]
• 2010 – Blake Poetry Prize, the poem Adrift (divided in this collection into three parts: "I remember very little", "I want to say the word 'adrift' ", and "You know the way") was shortlisted. ^[3]

Critical reception

The collection has been reviewed. ^{[4] [5] [6] [7] [8]}

Notes

1. An unusual feature of the collection is that none of the included poems have a title, and each is simply identified in the Contents by part, or all of their first line; which, as Susan Fealy notes, in her review for Mascara Literary Review (No.13, June 2013), not only applies to those (formerly titled) poems previously published elsewhere, but also to those (formerly titled) poems that had been short-listed in the Blake Poetry Prize in 2009 and 2010.

See also

• 2012 in poetry
• 2012 in Australian literature

Footnotes

1. "Collusion / Brook Emery", National Library of Australia.
2. Quoting from Chapter IV of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe.
3. Collusion: "Acknowledgements".
4. Susan Fealy reviews Collusion by Brook Emery, Mascara Literary Review, No.13, June 2013.
5. Cahill, Michelle (2013), "Aspects of Australian Poetry in 2012", Westerly, Vol.58, No.1, (June 2013), pp. 68-91, at p.76.
6. Brook Emery: Collusion | Australian Poetry Review. (2014, May, 21). Retrieved 21 May 2014 14:04:27.
7. Langford, Martin (2012), "Another Year, Another Engrossing Crop", Meanjin, Vol.71, No.4, (December 2012), pp. 70-79.
8. Lynch, Anthony (2012/2013), "Collusion by Brook Emery", Australian Book Review, No.347, December 2012-January 2013.

External links

• Collusion at AustLit