Misplaced Heart by Brook Emery
Five Islands Press, 2003

Misplaced Heart showcases Emery's diverse, lyrical voice in a collection that is capable of satisfying a range of tastes. Emery's documentation of familiar, often ordinary scenes, places and circumstances, and his pleasure in a style that fluctuates between the lyrical and the colloquial, is a well recognised feature of his writing. An enjoyable feature of his work is its edginess and unswerving commitment to honest emotional representation …

Like tearing photographic film
from an adhesive bandage. The stickiness
of sleep and dreams. You struggle to separate
one reality form another, to identify the body
in the bed and the one wrestling
to escape or making love to the woman
who is not your wife…
            ('Waking at night')

… even when the content appears to be confessional, and therefore risky to a poet of Emery's stature.

In one