The Ponies | Bernadette Hall
The subtle and sophisticated poems in this collection artfully move across a spectrum of geographic and emotional landscapes. After shunning the physical reality of Antarctica’s “hazardous beauty” in favor of exploring the inner world it inspires, the poet considers the urban nightmare of London after the 2005 bombings that killed her niece. Finally, a section based on artworks and memories weaves through love in the 1960s to the liveliness of contemporary New Zealand.