Towards a Grammar of Being

With heartbreaking clarity, and using grammar as her springboard, Waugh leaps between/into buildings, stops for the death of a bee then soars over a fence and off the page before returning to a Lithgow childhood. Amidst the destruction,dignity and despair of our culpable world this book is a bell. – Les Wicks

In the tradition of Dickinson’s letter to the world, Julie Waugh has dedicated herself to the poet’s scrupulous custom of reflection and self-examination. The result is this poetic self-portrait. What towards a grammar of being delivers, in its high intelligence and tender sensuality, and in its inventive stream-of-verse episodes, is, quite simply, psychology, or what we used to call intuition. This is poetry for poetry lovers who remember when poetry had something to tell us about ourselves and about living the good life, and when reading poetry meant enjoying a poetic experience.