Customer Reviews

Flame Tree: Selected Poems

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Kevin Hart's selected poems brings together work by one of Australia's most readable poets. Hart's poetry is identifiably Australian - particularly when evoking the city of Brisbane where the poet grew up - yet it is utterly original, unlike the work of any other Australian poet. Auden said that a poet's hope is to be, "like a valley cheese, local, but prized elsewhere", and Hart has had this hope realized, drawing acclaim from the hugely influential Harold Bloom and Charles Simic, among others, who have argued that Hart is one of the major voices in modern poetry. Distinguished by its recurring attempts to participate in the mystery to which it points - the mystery of love, of God, and of 'the other' in its myriad manifestations - this body of work is sensual, searching, reverent and memorable. Whether 'watching sunlight in the trees / Or listening to the beat of the gull's wings", whether "whispering her name" or "undressing words", Hart always approaches his subjects with the attention to detail that characterizes the most generous spirits.

There is something so subtle and soft about Kevin Hart's poetry. From the outset I found this poet immensely readable. With his typical clarity, each sentence is simply and beautifully crafted. Particularly important is the evolution of style as the book spans from 1975 to 2000. Do not be sidetracked by his theological letters- the spirituality in Flame Tree lingers among the sensual. These poems speak plainly of lovers among thoughts of god. The realisation of the two in the final chapters is particularly stunning, and the closing poem 'Prayer' speaks as equally to romance as the spirit.

(...). Pomposity, obscurantism and superficiality plague his work. His technique is inferior, his imagery tired and riddled with cliche. His use of the English language is wearisome and barbarous. His poems are dreadful, embarrassing schlock. Don't waste your time or your money.