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'The Only White Landscape is an assembly point. Past instances of thought and memory have come together as directed when under threat. The swells of real-life changes underpinning the poetry are physical, social, geographic and romantic. But, that’s so usual: the attempt to find singularity in the ruptures – not meaning, not really. From loneliness to only-ness. Sometimes I run at night through the fields around my house and then sit on carpet to record the resulting language. ‘I feel so lyrical,’ I remember thinking at one point, mid-manuscript. I’m always seeking recognition. I want a conversation to surround my personal thoughts. I want to influence ‘you’ – your actions and opinions. Poetry can and will measure up to somebody’s sincerity levels but then he / she still might not love you. All the feels laid bare, the words persisting as evidence of what you might have thought, felt. The Only White Landscape is a submersion in the past, a landscape stripped of comforting colour, a set piece refigured in post like a photograph, my choices of emphasis directing and deflecting your attention. It feels like an outcome. I hope the poems keep you just as long as you want to be kept.' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Lucas Smith Reviews The Only White Landscape by Derek Motion
2018
single work
review
— Appears in: Plumwood Mountain [Online] , February 2018;
— Review of The Only White Landscape 2017 selected work poetry
-
Lucas Smith Reviews The Only White Landscape by Derek Motion
2018
single work
review
— Appears in: Plumwood Mountain [Online] , February 2018;
— Review of The Only White Landscape 2017 selected work poetry