Gravida

by Sue Standing

The lyrics in Sue Standing’s False Horizon quietly celebrate the lust that is living, the lust that is memory. “The risks we're taking aren’t really risks/ Orange trees. Umbrella Pines. Wisteria.” These poems, some of which are set in the far reaches of Africa and India, argue for the primacy of the present tense, a present tense that shines erotically out from under the beautiful drapery of a manifold rich and cultural world history. Therefore, False Horizons is a book full of sensations. And yet the world remains elusive and mysterious. “In the moonlight I can see the shadow of a tree that is no longer there.” Standing writes a wonderfully understated poetry about the intimacies of experience. She says, “I need a life that won’t diminish.”

188 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1995

Reviews

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I liked riding the circus train at night,
as we moved through towns too small to stop.
The train itself breathed like an animal.
I was never sad on the train - it seemed
always to carry me to a better future.

Sometimes I dream I'm back in the sideshow tent:
that moment before the curtain opened:
the hush before the gasp. Everyone wanted
to touch me, but I made love in the dark.
And when I die my bones will shine."

One of those volumes where most of the poems grab you by the heart and force you to text your friends quotes with "!!!!!!" attached.