Vital Signs

Sarah Holland-Batt won the 2023 Stella Prize for her poetry collection The Jaguar (2022). I heard her speak, and read various poems from The Jaguar at the Sydney Writers' Festival in May, and knew I would enjoy her verse. Over the past few months I have read and reread these poems, finding new wisdom and beauty on each encounter. 

Many of the poems in this collection are about the author's father who died in 2020 after living with Parkinson's disease. There are haunting poems about his mental deterioration ('My Father as a Giant Koi', 'Empires of Mind'), life in hospital and the nursing home ('The Gurney', 'Lime Jelly') and his eventual death ('Terminal Lucidity', 'Nessun Dorma'). Despite the dark themes, these are poems filled with love and beauty. The titular poem is an unexpected delight about a sports car her father is obsessed with.

Other poems in this collection focus on travel to Morocco, Egypt, America and beyond ('Night Flight', 'Sketches from the Nile'), romance ('Instructions for a Lover', 'The Proposal') and more. In each, Holland-Batt deftly uses language to evoke images, her light touch on deep subjects, and a subtle humour to engage the reader. 

One of my favourites in this collection is 'Classical Allegory', greatly reminding me of Dorothy Parker's verse.

The Stella Prize judges describe this collection as 'accessible, lyrical and wise' and I would heartily agree. This is a collection I will return to, time and again.

The Jaguar is Holland-Batt's third collection of poetry, and I am keen to check out her earlier works Aria (2008) and The Hazards (2015).