In this deft collection, Leonard Lambert
confronts mortality with poems at once moving
and artless. We walk with him down the long
corridor of memory knocking at the occasional
door: opening some and interrogating the
interior, pausing thoughtfully before others,
and––being the trickster poet he often is––
knocking loudly at a few, then skipping away.
There is a wistfulness here, a wryness, and, above
all, the clarity that comes from a poet who has
spent so long perfecting his craft. Slow Fires is a
fine collection to read, warm your hands against,
and savour. ––James Norcliffe
Leonard Lambert (1945) is the author of seven
collections of verse spanning almost as many
decades. His Selected Poems, Somewhere in August
(Steele Roberts) appeared in 2016, and his most
recent publication is a chapbook, Winter Waves
(Cold Hub Press, 2018). He is a full-time painter
who lives in Napier.