http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
The Turpentine Tree is an enduring symbol of memory, fragile but enduring the passage of time and still persisting. Hjelmgaard employs strong, sensuous imagery to capture moments from across her remarkable life. These are portraits of family, friends and relationships, of Hjelmgaard’s uprooted life, including a life at sea, the subsequent displacement, widowhood and search for connections. Often the remembrances in poems are sweet-bitter, recalling friends and lovers lost, including the writer’s late partner Dannie Abse. These explorations of loss are extremely moving, but the poems also communicate the value of a rich bank of memories which range around from spectating on a girl being punished at camp (‘Summer Camp’), a Florida road trip with friends (‘1969’) or an ‘Evening Flight from Copenhagen.’ Very often the speakers are in transit, travelling through and so the poems hold onto intense, lucid or epiphanic moments.