Parking Lot Construction: As part of our ongoing work to maintain and improve Central Library, the parking lot will be closed for construction from Tuesday, July 28, to Saturday, August 1. Visit the Central Library page for more details. 

CLOSURE: Central Library will be closed Tuesday, July 21, through Saturday, July 25, while emergency repairs are made to the building’s cooling system. We expect to reopen Monday, July 27.

Notice of Public Meeting: Kalamazoo Public Library Board of Trustees | July 27 | 5:30 pm | Central Library/Van Deusen Room. The packet of information for the meeting can be found on the library’s website. 

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Lifting the Island

Year

2025

Language

ENGLISH

Publication Information

Red Hen Press

Summary

AWARD-WINNING POET • AUTHOR OF ELEVEN POETRY COLLECTIONS FORMER POET LAUREATE OF NEW ZEALAND David Eggleton explores the voices of New Zealand, Australia, and Polynesia in his latest collection, LIFTING THE ISLAND "This is vital, elastic, expertly handled language in a Pacific voice of cultural and musical sensibility, poetry to be spoken aloud or in the mind."–Cilla McQueen, MNZM, and former New Zealand Poet Laureate This own-voices collection is a kind of lyrical world map of the South Pacific, built up through a lush epic catalog of flora, fauna, and artifacts. This collection is a kind of lyrical word map of the South Pacific, built up through a lush epic catalog of flora, fauna, and artifacts. The poems are frequently infused with a wry humor-and while they often eschew both narrative and personal epiphany, they make intensely detailed, vigorous observations of place and landscape that are curious, sparkling, and sometimes hilarious. Linguistically agile, this book's stanzas bring together the lyrical and the slangy, celebrating the local vernaculars of New Zealand, Australia, and Polynesia. Many of its poems work as cascading streams of image; of pronouncements; of dramatic tonal shifts almost line by line; and with dense, daring metaphor clusters that entertain as well as illuminate.

Subjects