When reviewing The Secrets She Keeps, Queensland Reviewers Collective’ writer Angela Marie raised the issue of secrecy as a concept and, depending on the secret to a lesser or greater degree of seriousness, introduced the concept of the Lie. In the context of Michael Robotham’s writing, the Lie partners the Secret in the literary dance, the former building an outer protective shell to make a comfortable home for the latter. This is very clearly the case in the present volume.
As the plot develops the Secret and the Lie interact inexorably if not predictably.
We experience a seesawing of emotion … Read the rest
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And so I change the sheets again, you watch me so uncertain
of why I do this simple task or who I am precisely;
I hide a sigh, and tuck you in, your hand held in my keeping,
and when you fall asleep at last, I lie awake, half dreaming
of when a fleeting glance met mine, your grace and quiet beauty
tore down my shields;
no longer could my urgent love stay hiding.
You held me firmly to your breast, my feelings burst their silence
and unconfined, we reached to find a love that has no ceiling.
Our senses … Read the rest
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A Free Country: Australians’ Search for Utopia 1861 – 1901 is the second volume in a five part series that “describes the dominant stream of ideas behind this country’s development, the stream of liberalism…the volume is…carefully illustrative of the history, influence and adoption of the dominant ideas animating that development” (Philip Ayres in Quadrant, 5th February 2019).
Ayres’s conclusion is a useful place to begin my own review of the subsequent volume. Ayres provides an impartial look at Kemp’s statement that “as the prospective founders of the new nation reflected…they were all of the view that liberal democracy in Australia … Read the rest
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I have heard the doleful voices of the dingoes at night
and have thrilled to the whistle of an eagle at great height,
I have heard the warning call when a plover guards its nest
Have marvelled at the creaking of the gums that line the crest
of the hills where the kookaburra laughs with breathless glee
and enjoins the forest creatures to be glad that they’re free.
I have heard the spiteful jar of a crow at its road kill
and have felt the blessed comfort of sitting quite still
to listen to the soothing calls of the birds … Read the rest
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Have you seen the woman living in the house that stands apart?
Have you heard the woman calling in a voice that tears the heart?
Have you spoken to the woman and felt the emotions she sets free?
Have you held the woman’s hand as she begs that you will see
that once
something sick and subtle lay hidden deep down in her soul,
(A burst of laughter, face alive, she’s charming now she’s whole),
But something sickly subtle took away her happy stance
And her face reveals her fear of that unhappy circumstance.
Something sick grew ever stronger and … Read the rest
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