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Virtuosity

New poetry by Anthony Lawrence and Subhash Jaireth
by
April 2022, no. 441

Ken by Anthony Lawrence

Life Before Man, $19.99 pb, 154 pp

Book 2 Cover Small (400 x 600)

Aflame by Subhash Jaireth

Life Before Man, $19.99 pb, 134 pp

Virtuosity

New poetry by Anthony Lawrence and Subhash Jaireth
by
April 2022, no. 441

Australia has a stylish new poetry press. The two books reviewed here by Life Before Man, the poetry wing of Gazebo Books, preference book cover art and poem above all the usual paraphernalia: publishing details, barcodes, author notes – even the epigraph – are tucked into a back page, and there are no apparently distracting contents pages or page numbers. Most of the poems sit neatly on the right side of the page with a private blank beige page buffer. There’s orientation in a contents list, and I trust the poets have a choice about whether they want one. That said, there’s a holiday-like liberation in slipping through unmoored. It’s a subtle reading experience, but do these aesthetic somewhat precious innovations justify the use of extra paper?

Luke Beesley reviews 'Ken' by Anthony Lawrence and 'Aflame' by Subhash Jaireth

Ken

by Anthony Lawrence

Life Before Man, $19.99 pb, 154 pp

Book 2 Cover Small (400 x 600)

Aflame

by Subhash Jaireth

Life Before Man, $19.99 pb, 134 pp

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