{"product_id":"hopscotch-by-john-mckelvie","title":"'Hopscotch' by John McKelvie","description":"\u003ch4\u003eohn McKelvie’s \u003cem\u003eHopscotch\u003c\/em\u003e moves through ageing, intimacy, mortality, observation and moral unease in poems that tend toward direct speech rather than ornament.\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBodies recur everywhere: bone, ligament, breath, injury, sex, decay. In “Old lovers”, a relationship worn down to its skeletal remainder is turned back into an instrument capable of making music; elsewhere the poems are more deliberately abrasive, testing the distance between witnessing suffering and participating in it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere is a blunt, occasionally blackly comic quality to McKelvie’s writing, and some pieces actively destabilise their own premises rather than allowing the reader an easy moral position. It is modest in production but interesting precisely as an artefact of independent Australian poetry: published in Footscray in a stated edition of only 150 copies, well outside the institutional poetry ecosystem. A curious little Melbourne object as much as a collection.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEXACT Publishing, Footscray, Melbourne, 2011. V1.0, released August 2011; stated print run of 150 copies. Paperback. Inscribed and signed by John McKelvie on the title page (“Thank you Jennifer”). Noticeable reading and shelf wear, including rubbing, scratches and creasing to covers and spine; corners and edges worn. Binding remains sound and interior generally clean.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"bower studio","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45947276296275,"sku":null,"price":22.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0689\/0268\/2707\/files\/womenintranslation_16.png?v=1786357059","url":"https:\/\/bowerbooks.com\/products\/hopscotch-by-john-mckelvie","provider":"bower books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}