The Kindness of Water

THE KINDNESS OF WATER is a braided river of poetry fed by many tributaries. Tender, intimate reflections on the loss of parents--through sudden tragedy or slow decline--mix with new readings of themes from classical mythology and the re-imagining of folk tales. There are cormorants, goldfinches, wild dogs in Africa and ghost moths; glimpsed whales and lost wedding rings; tales of Guy Fawkes and Harry Houdini.

A certain sense of longing and disorientation runs through the book: the perennial migrant experience, suspended between embracing a new world and regretting a world that has been lost. The perspective that emerges from this precarious balance lends a freshness and an urgency to the close observation that characterises these poems.

This is the work of a poet who has mastered her craft; Helen combines emotional maturity and a sophisticated intelligence with formidable command of technique to extract the universal from the particular, and insights into the enduring contradictions of the human condition from fleeting moments. The result is a book that demands to be read and re-read."