The Non-Sequitur of Snow
Published 2015
Highly Commended in the 2015 Anne Elder Award: “[…] a beautifully crafted and coherent collection that almost floats in its imaginative universe.”
“The Non-Sequitur of Snow reads as coherent and freshly made even though the poems have been written over a twenty year period. The major concerns of this first collection are the relationship between the self and intimate others, and process, including the process of apprehension itself. The poems evoke heightened moments. Some are at tipping points of extremity: integration and disintegration, safety and violence, change and limits to change. Poems disorientate the reader with synaesthesia and dream narratives. The poem is a place for reflection, often after fracture or challenge, and a crucible for change or transcendence.” SUSAN FEALY, Plumwood Mountain Journal
“There is an airy sense of activity throughout this volume. Kocher’s poetic settings range freely between the material and the imagined, forging connections across generations, yet coming through with surprising steel in some pieces. Structurally the collection is diverse, flowing, and occasionally more experimental…The Non-Sequitur of Snow is a successful combination of lightness and sharp attention to problematic details. The structural shifts of the poems complement the constantly evolving familial relationships detailed within, while bodies are broken down to be better understood. Kocher’s stylistic approach is at once immediate and accessible, yet sharply layered with deeper investigative purposes.” SIOBHAN HODGE, Cordite Poetry Review
“Written with Adrienne Rich and Rumi as apparent guides, Shari Kocher’s The Non-Sequitur of Snow… is very different again from the preceding three. Her poems for the most part are of a rare modesty and lightness. The two-page poem Strawberries, for example, narrates a story of a marriage proposal in a strawberry field — that the narrator’s lover doesn’t remember taking place — without becoming icky or indulgent. Clay presents a mother, son and grandmother together making clay angels for a nativity table. The grandmother “hasn’t visited in years”; a comment that creates a separation between the two women.” MICHAEL FARRELL, The Australian
“The twenty-six poems that make The Non-Sequitur of Snow reveal Kocher’s interesting background of having lived and written in many places over the last two decades. A diverse richness of experience is clearly evident in this debut collection which spans dreams, observations, memory and moment…Kocher’s work sustains precision but also embodies a quiet yet deep sensuality.” MONICA CARROLL, TEXT
Praise for this book:
“Shari Kocher writes poetry of incandescent power. In this stunning first collection, free verse is both stylised and fired by incantatory rhythms as much as by the poet’s eye for crystalline image-making. Sweep away the snow and one arrives without preamble at the stoop of myth and memory.”
“This is a beautifully accomplished book, full of genuine poetry. The poetry is full of light, it is painfully real, its women are brilliant and hard working, the children climb trees, the men pick strawberries for their lover then deny it, frogs are in the pipes, and bindii patches infest the lawns. If there is an identifiable modern Australia out there with its distinctive images and its own cadences of speech, then such poetry is surely an essential part of it.”
Links to reviews for The Non-Sequitur of Snow:
Text Journal - Review by Monica Carroll
Cordite - Review by Siobhan Hodge
Plumwood Mountain - Review by Susan Fealy
NZ Poetry Shelf - Review by Paula Green
The Australian - Review by Michael Farrell