Christine Coates casts her eye over the arc of her life, sweeping from childhood memories to life under Covid-19 lockdown. In richly crafted poems, she recalls the sights and sounds of childhood from party lines to fêtes, to a beloved grandparent and early loss. Life as a young woman in Johannesburg comes with its own pleasures and early love. There are poems of her travel; of the quiet intimacies of a long marriage and meditations on aging. Politics is echoed in the resounding roar of Marikana and a woman’s performance art.

And then there is life under Covid-19 lockdown and the small pleasures of baking bread and growing quinces.

The poems are shot through with detail and texture: blue veins, dry bones, a hill baking in the sun, a full moon wrapped in meaning. This is a poet at the height of her powers who has mastered the poetic form. Her elegant vision illuminates every word.