Customer Reviews

Storms Will Tell: Selected Poems

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The avid Frame reader who, like me, has enjoyed Living in the Maniototo (Recipient of the prestigious Commonwealth Writers Prize) will know that Frame's poetry is dazzling. When a poem interrupts the flow of an author's prose in a novel, the reader can still rely on what came before and what is coming afterwards to understand the poem. But in a collection of poems, we are on our own and yes it can be a difficult experience (but reading Shakespeare is the same isn't it) but it can be rewarding and very moving too.

This book compiles a selection of Frame's poetry, including the posthumously released "Goose Bath," which was awarded the 2007 poetry prize in her native New Zealand, resulting in some controversy among the local literary set.

Although a talented and original prose writer, Frame's poetry is generally uneven; fleetingly lyric at best and ploddingly pedestrian at wost. That is not to say that this volume is without its highlights, but the vast majority of these superiour poems (one still cannot call them great on the order of Frame's idol Rilke) are those from the previously published "Pocket Mirror." I recommend readers interested in checking out Frame's poetry purchase a used copy of this slim volume from the sixties before paying for this posthumous collection. Better yet, skip Frame's poems (the limitations of which she herself freely acknowledged) and read (or re-read) one of her novels.