Sally Purcell is a poet who is able to bypass the clutter of modern life. She makes use of many classical and celtic myths, yet manages to make use reimagine them in a way that renders each one vital to 21st human experience. For example, her poem 'Queen Proserpina Walks' we are shown a vision of a world in which we "invoke her gentleness" despite our knowlege of the inevitability of death. We long for "a brief & sudden breath of flowers" to keep with us in our eternal death.

Kay Ryan