JourneyOnline
Australians are generally not very good with struggle, suffering and grief. We rarely choose to look at these things if there is anything else that can take our attention.
But they are a part of life for all of us in one season or other; we will all need to travel through them and find a path to a sense of peace. Madeleine Onraet’s poetry in The Heart’s Curtain comes from reflection on that journey. The simple words convey her sense of the questions she was asking, the battles she fought, and the peace she sought.
She speaks of ‘looking deeply into moments of everyday life’ to find ‘ a path that brings peace, presence and love”. As she says in her poem The Explorer, “We have such a need to climb into the darkness of ourselves”.
A collection like this can touch us with the experience of an individual bravely creating poetry from pain and, perhaps even more importantly, ask us to reflect on our own struggle to see the lessons, growth and beauty we might find there.
The book is available at Dymocks, Queen Street, Brisbane CBD or online at www.madeleineonraet.com
