Author(s): Sophie van Waardenberg

NZ Poetry

A highly anticipated first poetry collection that is raw and warm and human.
In summer when I picked dandelions
for the geriatric guinea pig I changed the world.
I killed a weed. I filled a mouth with gold.

In this debut poetry collection, Sophie van Waardenberg considers girlhood and grief, love and its loss, distance and the return home, including at its heart a sequence of emotionally raw 'Cremation Sonnets'. In its essence, this collection is the poet exploring 'goodness': 'I am unbegrudging. I am the openest pair of arms', she tells us. 'I am a large dirty lake, a tepid naughty heart.'

I cannot accept this ending. I have fallen
from the highest ledge. I will never land.
So what if I am safe? I am not.