Cirrus@Austlit

'How do the ways we interact with the world impact both our navigation through it, and its impact on the self? In what manner do we internalize and externalize our movements through a modern world that is simultaneously both terrifying and crudely sterile? “does your share portfolio ache” (3) opens joanne burns’ most recent collection, brush. It’s a succinct précis of the wonderfully incongruous juxtaposition that permeates much of the collection. brush is burns’ sixteenth book of poetry, her first collection Snatch published in London in 1972. Burns’ work has long satirised the bizarre edifices of contemporary culture, creating work that subverts the ostensible solemnity of these structures, a practice brush continues. Intentionally distorting clarity in order to explore and emphasise both the spectacular unknown and the absurd “normalities” of modern life, burns’ poems comprise of clever, incisive musings that centre largely on the mundane everyday. Split into six sequences, brush showcases burns’ penchant for asymmetrically collaging techniques and styles in a way that blurs lines, defying poetic convention. The assemblage of poetry, prose and microfiction contained throughout gleefully contravenes protocol and fucks with format while retaining coherency and impact, a way of storytelling that could easily feel clumsy were it not so uncompromising in its sharpness.' (Introduction)