From Ireland, Hughes has moved to New Zealand and produced her debut collection of poetry, Gathering Evidence.
Facts and feelings mix together as experience gives way to insight in 40 moving poems.
I like her pinpoint accuracy, virtuosity and humour.
''Marbles'':
A netted bag of green glass marbles with aquamarine swirls
deep in the otherworld of spherical transparency (simultaneous opacity)
was the first thing I ever stole when I was three and far from the last.
The marbles hung heavily in their lattice like motherless pearls,
like lifeless organs in between bodies, intervening worlds.
I gave them the damp of my palm, envisioning the cold shell nurture
of dinosaur eggs or black hole ovule. When I had lost each glass orb,
I filled my pockets with millefiori beads, Bangladeshi bracelets, Electric Eel
eye-shadow, neon ping-pong balls. But nothing weighed the same as the
stolen marbles
that gave me unbuyable glee and bellyaches when I swallowed them experimentally.
This is a very strong debut collection.
Poems from this slim volume have already won international competitions.
Gathering Evidence is a great mix of contemporary and ancient.
Caoilinn Hughes is a force to be reckoned with.
- Hamesh Wyatt lives in Bluff. He reads and writes poetry.
