Geologists and archaeologists use spirit level tools to find horizontal levels in ground or rock. Similarly, the poems in Spirit Level search for elusive balance points between memory and lived terrain, between past and present lives, between grief and enlightenment. They are connecting threads of lived and familial histories, often perceived through remembered or exigent visual portals.
This is Marcelle Freiman’s third book of 37 new poems, a number of which have been published in well-known Australian literary journals. There are poems using longer forms or sequences, exploring the fragmented nature of human experience, making patterns and story from lives in the present or those which are lost. Other, shorter lyric forms articulate shards of memory and perception. Throughout the book, themes of loss seek a balance against moments of light.
