Rose Interior
New Poems
The poems in Rose Interior move between the inside and outside of everything they touch, from the domestic scene, both cosy and claustrophobic, to the social and ecological settings we must all answer for. Poems from Ireland, Switzerland and Australia consider life at home in the personal sense: through the body, childhood memories and family houses, ‘a room within a dream’. Wherever home lies, it’s always on borrowed time. The collection turns inward to ponder human transience. Yet there’s also the wider sense of our place in the world, where the natural environment requires our closer attention, especially the things we ignore or devalue when we put self at the centre. Against the background of the global pandemic and ongoing climate change, the book’s last section deals with experiences of home education during lockdowns, for better and for worse. It calls for more kindness not only to ourselves, but to younger generations and our future.
Tracy Ryan was born in Middle Swan on the edge of Perth, grew up in the outer suburbs, and now lives in the WA wheatbelt. She has published five novels, and Rose Interior is her tenth full-length collection of poetry. The Willing Eye (2000) and The Argument (2011) were awarded the WA Premier’s Prize for poetry. Ryan has also been awarded the Mattara (Newcastle) and the ABR/Peter Porter poetry prizes. She has worked in libraries, bookselling, editing, journalism, and in tertiary teaching in the UK, USA and Australia. She is interested in foreign languages and translation.
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