4 reviews for Water Over Stone

1. 

   IP (Interactive Publications Pty Ltd) – 26 July, 2023

   “Laura Jan Shore’s collection, Water over Stone, is also assured but for different reasons. Shore was born in 1950 in Manchester, England, and soon travelled to the United States with her American parents. In 1996, she emigrated to the Byron Shire, where she became involved with Dangerously Poetic, a community group seeking to encourage, publish and promote quality poetry from the Northern Rivers region of NSW. Some of Shore’s poetry is set in this area, some in the US.

   Shore is at her best when she is dealing with her family in the US. She writes with a seeming authenticity and a sense of fun. In ”Ungloved”, an upper-class woman dismisses her gardener, takes off her gardening gloves and plunges her palm ”into the damp, black soil”. Shore knows what to do with the last line of the poem here; she knows not to go for too much, and lets the action speak for itself.

   Last lines are not the only aspect of her craft at which Shore excels. She also has a touch of the imagist (a necessity if a poet wants to create a sense of atmosphere). In ”Wilderness, untouched”, she often lets her images do the talking, for example, ”A canopy quivering with foliage//snakes through our fantasies./Hidden gullies, pockets of primeval ferns”. This poem proves to be lush and exotic, like others in the collection.

   Water over Stone is also a collection with point and purpose. In ”Hospice”, Shore makes some observations of an artist obsessed with the sky. Her final reflection is the most poignant. She writes, ”In the mirrored black tonight/lie a few pricks of light and the thin moon/of your pillowed cheek/wells upward”. Again, there is the low-key ending – she lets the observation speak for itself.

   There are a number of other instances where Shore is equally clever. But unlike Edge Music, the most interesting aspect is not the intellect of the poet; rather, it is Shore’s impressive aesthetic. Water over Stone proves to have clarity, a wide range of subject matter and variation of form. The poems contain humour, grace and beauty. All these aspects of Shore’s aesthetic go a long way in the process of winning the reader over.”
   – Michael Byrne, Canberra Times

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2. 

   IP (Interactive Publications Pty Ltd) – 26 July, 2023

   “Shore’s mind is awake, always, to the lyrical potential of an ordinary moment and the consolations of memory and old friendships, awake to the satisfactions and losses that stop us in our tracks. The diverse poems in this collection are meditative and thoughtful, full of the layered details of a life richly lived.”
   – Cate Kennedy, author, The World Beneath (People’s Choice Award in the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards)

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3. 

   IP (Interactive Publications Pty Ltd) – 26 July, 2023

   “Throughout this book there’s a tactile empathy. The joy of loss, hands in the soil and the reckless flight of salt into matzo-ball soup. Beasts and feasts, heart in dialogue with mind. This is a rich empathic exploration across five generations and a lifetime of lives. Shore paints her portraits with style and vitality.”
   – Les Wicks, poet, publisher, editor

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4. 

   IP (Interactive Publications Pty Ltd) – 26 July, 2023

   “Water Over Stone takes the reader right to the depths of the rainforests and seas, guiding them through a fantastical journey of vivid and detailed description.”
   – Trove record

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