'in early light ~ aubades' | ISBN 978 1 763825 994 | 106 pgs | May 2025 | $25 (within Australia)
These freewheeling Hopkinsesque, Dylanesque, fragmentary poems have the
thrilling feeling of “the still wet canvas” of dawn with its “light that breaks down
doors” and suddenly you see, waking again and again to the newness of world
and “the firstliness of birds / born to the thin air chase”. With gentle brushstrokes
Kelen “rubs back a primed sky” with an irradiating light: “It’s just these little prints I
leave / barest of impressions” he says, but what an impression these poems leave
us indeed: “the practice of just where we are”, the meditation of poet being poet
being human being artist in this world right now – and how thankful I am for them.
– Anne Kellas