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Introduction to For the Talking Statues

by Jim Bennett

For the Talking Statues by Jennifer Compton

Jennifer Compton is an Australian poet and playwright who was resident in the B. R. Whiting
Library in Rome in 2006 from February to July. The time she spent there has enabled her to produce a body of interesting work and not least is this fascinating poem.

For the Talking Statues is an exploration of an alternative Rome. Almost an alternative guide book. What Compton achieves here it to take a place familiar because of books, television, cheap flights and air miles and opens it up in a new page. First she sweeps away some of the preconceptions that we all hold then she draws us down into a wealth of images that expose a new and different Rome. She creates a rich and lasting landscape with an economy of words. The style is her own and the language is her own.

Read For the Talking Statues by Jennifer Compton

The Poetry Kit