Blue Hour

by Jo McNeice

Set in the green spaces and urban grit of contemporary Te Whanganui-a-Tara, this award-winning debut collection from poet Jo McNeice unfolds like a Gothic fairytale. Darkness and light ripple through these haunting, intimate poems, which draw on themes of love, madness, betrayal, desire and recovery to tell the story of a woman searching among the images and events of her life for answers - sometimes finding them, sometimes not. Blue Hour grapples with the complexities of human nature, mental health and relationships. 'You know,' writes McNeice, 'we are irregular verbs. / You know the universe is harsh.' In the remarkable universe created by these poems, the irregular is allowed. Here, mermaids, angels and wolves share space with everyday sparrows in plum trees and dandelions on the lawn. Meet me in the in-between where the negative is being developed.

67 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2024

Reviews

[elio · Rating 4 out of 5]

reminds me a lot of some poems by mary oliver. sharp, melancholic, and peaceful.