Finely drawn and quartered.(Quarters)

Quarters, by Edith Speeds; Esperance Press (Main Rd., Dover TAS 7117), 2001, $25.

EDITH SPEERS' substantial second collection, of 178 pages, was written over more than sixteen years, judging by the publication dates of anthologies that have included these poems. The collection is not organised to reflect poetic development, but is structured and named to feature the variety of forms and perspectives Speers uses.

This is feet-on-the-ground poetry, open and accessible to the general reader who need not be initiated into the obscurities of some contemporary poetry. The voice is direct and intelligent, lively, sometimes exuberant. While acknowledging life's ironies, it is not cynical or self-indulgent and speaks out to the reader. Speers is not detached from any of her subjects, but she does present rather than impose her ideas.

The first "quarter", Free, can be read as a prologue to Speers' expression and understanding. It consists of what could be called definition poems, with titles like "I'd love to live in Paris but", "Chastity is", "brief report by an alien" and "It's hard to be free". These poems unfold in a voice that speaks both concisely and easily:

 
   if you stay in one place and grow old 
   you can have a garden neat and clean 
   but it's the labour of a lifetime 
   to hold back what's wild and green 
   ("love is not a garden it's the weeds") 

Speers is obviously a poet who loves words and what can be made of and with them. In this section she calls attention to her comfortable use of words:

 
   let my dreams flow like these deep slow rivers 
   that slide into the sea 
   without fuss or bother 
   as though it were nothing special 
   ("prayer")