Local poet garners international reviews

Local Australian poet Murray Alfredson is off and racing with his second international review!  It's hard to hold a good poet down.


"Certainly not for the faint-hearted, Gleaming Clouds by Murray Alfredson is the work of an unsparingly brave poet who looks at life, just as it is and hard in face. With impressive and sometimes daring linguistic virtuosity, forever looking to amplify experience, find meaningful resonance, explore faith in its fullest sense and take honest comfort wherever possible.

Alfredson's translations from old Norse and 18th century German texts are also touchingly excellent - not only technically, but equally persuasive in their capture of nuance and a beautiful sensitivity of tone that seems to speaks directly to the very soul of our forebears.

[The] Gleaming Clouds is altogether a marvellous and impressively unique creative achievement that, for me, makes sense of one poets life lived always ambitiously and with consistent integrity.

You will struggle to find a robust literary read quite like this anywhere else in the contemporary canon and for that reason, it has my highest recommendation." 

- Scott Hastie, Writer and Poet, Angel Voices

The Gleaming Clouds by Murray Alfredson

International review of 'The Gleaming Clouds' by Murray Alfredson

Murray Alfredson's poetry makes you stop and think.  Popular UK reviewer Valerie Penny agrees:

"When this anthology first came to my attention, I had no idea what to expect from it.  Whatever it was the works far exceeded my expectations and I highly recommend this collection of poems to poetry lovers everywhere.

 

I was excited and amazed by the wide variety of styles of poetry: each at a thought provoking level.  The anthology displays a sound knowledge and understanding of the important ideologies and beliefs of the world.

 

I was particularly interested by Isaac’s boyhood.  It addresses issues that had concerned me and I was delighted to learn of someone else voicing the thoughts so eloquently. 

Another poem that fascinated me was Bi- meets uni-polar.  My cousin is bi-polar and I have lived with clinical depression for years. This poem aptly reflects many of our conversations!

I have already read and enjoyed The Sandwich several times, on each occasion  discovering new images, aspirations and impressions.  So few lines weave so detailed a pattern.

 

One of the translations he includes is Presence, one of my favourite Goethe poems.  I enjoyed the translation, and the excuse to re-read the original."

 

- Valerie Penny's Book Reviews

Read the full review here!
 

Find out more about The Gleaming Clouds here.