THE FLOWERING DARK practises a gardener’s care on language, on memory, family, place, on art, and being in the world.

The great joy of these thoughtful, tender poems is the scent of earth on them, the carolling of birds, the fall of rain, the play of light, the sound of the river, the slosh of the bucket, the texture of seaweed, the impasto of paint on a canvas. Here is a poet of philosophical refinement and linguistic delicacy, who is happy to get her hands dirty. The book begins with what might be a mythic memory of childhood and continues through the landscape of a long life, as much of it spent inside the mind as outside the house.

These lyric poems calibrate the seasons of a speaker’s inner life—her sorrow and gladness—with the concrete mysteries of the outer world. “Outside,” she writes, “there’s so much on offer. Lean in/ and listen to correas filled with the song/ of honeyeaters…”.

Wry, ironic, delighted and devoted, these poems walk in light and anguish and never stop recalling that there is no darkness one can encounter that does not know how to flower.

Praise for THE FLOWERING DARK

‘These poems reflect on moods and dispositions that enrich and often unsettle our lives. They are compelling and wise, and they argue that poetry must be a matter of passion and deep engagement with craft. The poems have been tended to lovingly, meticulously--and the result is a masterful collection that sings line by line.’

Judith Beveridge

‘What a gem of a collection: I've read it over and over and fallen in love with more poems each pass. The Flowering Dark achieves that most necessary of outcomes in a frenetic world; it slows the reader down and makes a compelling case for paying close attention to the quotidian. In this wise, gentle debut, Lockwood refuses the easy binaries of life and death, animate and inanimate, or garden and gardener. These are meticulously-crafted poems that reward uninterrupted reading and re-reading.’

Audrey Molloy

‘Sue Lockwood’s poetry is carved into the page with striking deftness; her language opens the world in front of the reader.’

Kate Middleton