The collection features a blend of verse and prose poems, incorporating various forms such as letters, ephemera, and miscellaneous writings. This diverse array invites readers to explore different styles and themes, offering a rich tapestry of emotional and intellectual reflections. Each piece contributes to a broader conversation about life, memory, and the intricacies of human experience.
Exploring emotional and intellectual themes, this work blends nonfiction, prose poems, and poetry to document Lynn Jenner's investigations from 2010 to 2014. The text captures the complexities of her experiences and reflections, offering a unique perspective on loss and memory.
"Peat starts out as Lynn Jenner's study of the Kapiti Expressway, built between 2013 and 2017 and passing, at its nearest point, about a kilometre from her own house. She decides to create a kind of archive of the construction of this so-called Road of National Significance. How did it come to be built? What is its character? Who will win and who will lose from its construction? What will be its impact on the local environment? Jenner begins a quest to find a fellow writer with different sensibilities to help her think about the natural world the road traverses. New Zealand-born poet, editor, art collector and philanthropist Charles Brasch is her choice. Researching Brasch will be her refuge from the constant pile-driving and the sprawling concrete, and perhaps the poet will offer some ways of thinking that will help her understand contemporary events. She reads and reflects on Brasch's memoir, some of his poems, his journals and his letters to the local paper. She thinks about Brasch in the context of his family and New Zealand in the 1940s-60s, and she reads local papers. She reads the official handouts about the road and listens to people in her local community when they talk about the road. From there Lynn Jenner carefully builds her unconventional text, layer upon layer, into an intelligent and beautifully refracted work that is haunting, fearless, and utterly compelling"--Distributor's website.