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ISBN: 978-1-926794-06-8
5.5 x 8.5 paperback, 88 pp
$18.00 CDN

The poems in Carapace explore the tensions between life and death as they battle for equal play in the natural world. As in her last two collections of poetry —The First Day of Winter and Fault Line — Lush returns to the themes of loss, death, birth, and rebirth, but with a more unforgiving eye and savage vision, exploring the dualities and ironies of experiencing these states simultaneously. At times, these poems are told through the eyes of a new mother as she attempts to balance the complex and often-times conflicting emotions that accompany motherhood: joy, anger, uncertainty, awe and fear. At other times, they are told through the eyes of a bereft narrator as she comes to grip with death and loss. Driving these poems is an often random and unexplained energy that arises from nature, the life force that underpins the natural world as it gives way to both regeneration and degeneration, and the surrendering to these forces as the narrator tries to arrive at some sort of understanding. The results are short lyric-narratives written in a highly imagistic mode.


REVIEW QUOTES:

The Quill & Quire writes, "A carapace is the dorsal (upper) section of the exoskeleton on a variety of animals, including crustaceans and tortoises. The collection retains the image of the shell, especially as it relates to Lush’s nuanced explorations of human vulnerability. While it would be convenient to don a shell in our weaker moments, the poet suggests, to carry a carapace at all times would most likely be debilitating. Carapace is a thoughtful collection, to be read and appreciated for its ideas about nature, family, and love. “This tableau vivant all yours” Lush writes in “Right Now at This Moment.” This moment, and many others in the collection, prompt us to see the world anew."  — Quoted from Quill & Quire (December 2011)



PRAISE FOR LAURA LUSH:

“Lush’s ability to articulate by not saying gives her work a spiritual depth, an insight into the winters of the soul.”
— Books in Canada

“Adept at developing fresh images and metaphors that do what the best kind of writing should, Lush makes us take a second look at the world, makes us feel as if we are seeing things for the first time.”
— The Malahat Review

“Laura Lush…excels in flash fusion, the implosion of disparate materials into sudden metaphoric unities.”
— Essays on Canadian Writing