Nouns, verbs, etc. (selected poems)
by Fiona Farrell
(Otago University Press, $35)
Reviewed by Stephanie Johnson
Fiona Farrell needs no introduction to readers of New Zealand fiction. Her novels, as well as her non-fiction, have been widely appreciated. Intelligent, furious, affectionate and historically sound, these works should be regarded as nothing less than
taonga.
Farrell is perhaps less well known as a poet, despite having published four volumes. Nouns, verbs, etc. (selected poems) samples each of the four and adds into the mix some uncollected and/or previously unpublished verses.
There is clarity and warmth in many of the poems, despite the occasional difficult and disturbing subjects. Abstract poems are few and consciously abstract; the majority throw the reader into vividly realised scenes. In her preface, Farrell remarks how writing poetry may comfort and inform the poet herself. The "simple act of choosing words can give the illusion, however temporary, of control when emotion threatens to overwhelm".
The book is structured chronologically but it could have been built by subject or style. Throughout there are poems from all decades that are reminiscent of fairy tales. Farrell is very good at constructing vivid, witty tales in verse. The Castle, one of the uncollected poems, is the story of three competing suitors. It could be set in Europe but for the presence of the kānuka. In The old woman's story, the story is a living thing, animated, clever and amusing. There is theft and loss but the story grows again and ends happily, as all good fairy tales should.
