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Lakes of Mars, The

Orsman, Chris

This new collection of poems by Orsman follows on from South: An Antarctic Journey, a sequence about Captain Scott's final expedition to Antarctica. These poems are a characteristic mix of thoughtful reflection and precise imagery of landscape and object. Orsman captures 'the plainness of life' with a visual clarity, but always pushes his descriptions further, broadening the poems 'into intellectual and moral meaning'. He is particularly good at vividly recreating historical moments, while evoking the gifts and loss of the past. The first part encompasses the Wellington hills; a wonderful long poem of the camera and its nostalgia, 'Instamatic'; the light art of Bill Culbert; and 'a total stock of words'. The second and third parts, 'The Lakes of Mars' and 'The Book of the Dead', were inspired by Orsman's 1998 trip to the Antarctic as inaugural recipient of an Artists to Antarctica Fellowship. The New Zealand 'Antarctic' poem is now a settled form, but Orsman was one of its originators and, as these poems prove, a true master of it.

Finalist in the 2009 Montana New Zealand Book Awards, Poetry category.

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