Liveability
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In Liveability, Claire Orchard places us vividly in the lives, pasts, futures and homes of others: A young farmer obsessively photographs snowflakes in wintry Vermont. A pair of geckos named Romeo and Juliet live out their lives in an ice-cream container. A CPR manikin contemplates their resuscitator, Leonard Nimoy peers through the TV screen into a family living room, while a girl reaches her own conclusion about who is bravest of them all. An ode to the eccentricities and occasional sorrows of the everyday, Liveability is also a joyous and witty celebration of the otherworldly. ‘These poems take us from the ordinary to the extraordinary and vice versa. Claire Orchard’s eye tilts the world and shows how the extraordinary is actually all around us.’ — James Brown, author of The Tip Shop. ‘This collection can be appreciated like a Monet or peeled like an onion. The payoff in this one is almost always profound.' — Hamesh Wyatt, Otago Daily Times. ‘Claire writes such funny, quietly experimental and beautifully crafted poems, and her work often reminds me of Jenny Bornholdt. Everyone should read her poem "Settling for Action Man". Everyone one should read this collection.' — Sarah Jane Barnett, author of Notes on Womanhood, on Cold Water Cure |
