Born: Established: 1949 Penrith, Penrith area, Sydney Outer West, Sydney, New South Wales, ;
Gender:
Female
Golden Bridge : New Poems
Penrith
:
Quemar Press
,
2023
26669165
2023
selected work
poetry
'This collection looks at the various functions of the concept and reality of the golden bridge, representing strategic victory, amnesty, mercy, problem-solving and the complexity of memory. In this vibrant new work, a bridge in its essence connects the present with the future, oneself with how one could be: perhaps that is a reason the image of a golden bridge reoccurs in history - a link between the self and time/space surrounding it, a way of commenting on and possibly changing that history itself. In the world, ideas of a 'bridge in gold' seem to occur often. General Kutuzov described his exit strategy for the invading French army as a 'golden bridge'. 'Kutuzov would have hands like that: gnarled and bleached by age and earth, to hold his bridge in a grip both loose, reverential and solid.' In Vietnam, there is a bridge named Cau Vang (golden bridge), supported by vast stone hands, just as a bridge in gold colour connects islands in Bali. Perhaps the bridge often has golden hues to represent auspiciousness, wealth, or a wealth of mercy. These poems reflect a golden bridge and this image ripples and mirrors through the poems' changing fathoms. Here a bridge in gold is that of a Chinese garden with light cast upon it, just as it is Kutuzov's strategy, the curve of a moon in eclipse, the artist's pen outlining a new moral compass for someone, the arched moon being witness as someone plans intricately but delays rescue, Bali's expansive bridge watched by Albanese and Tom Uren as Uren fears for Assange, the crescent of a sleeping cat, the shape of an entity carrying another in its arms, the truck-bombed Kerch Bridge at dawn, the arc of a twisting golden Chinese dragon, or ultimately: 'a golden bridge from Time to Time, with health being a temporal velocity, as Time increases its strength by disconnecting from itself, like a disappearing dragon returning from cloud paradise with cloudy incarnation.' (Publication summary)
The Metronome : New Poems
Artarmon
:
Giramondo Publishing
,
2017
10971162
2017
selected work
poetry
'The Metronome is the third in Giramondo's series of annual poetry collections by award-winning poet Jennifer Maiden, addressing political and social issues of the moment, particularly here the tension caused by the election of the US president. Building on the two previous collections Drones and Phantoms and The Fox Petition, The Metronome features intimate conversations about power and policy between contemporary figures and their historical counterparts, the patriots Jeremy Corbyn and Constance Markievicz on a walk in the Scottish Highlands, Governor Bligh and his namesake Wiliam Bligh Turnbull discussing the difference between temper and temperament, Eleanor Roosevelt counselling Hillary Clinton on the use of violence, Jane Austen and Tanya Plibersek talking about sense and sensibility in Sydney's Botanical Gardens. Throughout, we admire Maiden's ability to read the faces and gestures of public figures, the strength of her women, her magical settings, and the rhythmical beat of the poetic metronome, offering reassurance and continuity in a period of austerity and fear. Jennifer Maiden's collections have won the NSW and Victorian Premier's Poetry Prizes, the Age Poetry Book of the Year, and the Victorian Premier's Award for Literature, the richest literary prize in Australia.'
(Publication Summary)
The Fox Petition
Artarmon
:
Giramondo Publishing
,
2015
8837952
2015
selected work
poetry
'New poems by Australia's foremost political poet, written in response to the social crises that confront us now.
'Jennifer Maiden's new collection deals with xenophobia and the rejection of otherness, whether immigrant or domestic. It takes as its emblem the fox, representing our fear of the introduced and ill-reputed, but its title also refers to the petition of the great Whig statesman, Charles James Fox, for the rights of all people, including freedom of speech and habeas corpus. Fox himself is the subject of some of the poems, while others focus on the crisis in Greece, Hillary Clinton and Eleanor Roosevelt reflecting on poverty and human rights in Iowa, and the development of Julie Bishop in relation to the vulnerability and sensibility engendered by politics and crisis. There is a dialogue between Obama and Gandhi on the methods needed to ensure political results, Kevin Rudd tries to explain Manus Island to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Keith Murdoch and his son Rupert discuss their attempts at idealism in the glass penthouse apartment of the latter.' (Publication summary)
