Delicate Availability
With a sensual perspective on human nature, Delicate Availability is an evocative collection of lyrical stories and poignant poems. Adeptly balanced between fiction and poetry, a story is told, unraveling one woman’s journey through cities and countries, spanning years and generations, with loved ones and lovers.
Though the theme of passions found and lost may seem universal, and the reminders of life and death rudimentary, with the use of richly textured language, natural rhythm, and deft nuance, each piece reaches into the very fabric of human desire, and it becomes clear the Delicate Availability of us all.
Published in January 2012.
Edited by Betsy Warland. Cover art by Stephanie Taylor
“In this debut collection, Jane Mellor’s poems weave between friendship, men, travel, regret, pleasure. Fun, bittersweet, self-aware, they delve into the extraordinary of everyday, with an eye to life’s fragile beauty, and an ear to the music of the line.”
— Miranda Pearson, author of Harbour
Because It Is
In this second book of poetry, Jane’s work dances between family, loss and change and how each is connected.
Using nimble, effecting language, and her signature use of alliteration, this new work breaches the margins of expectation and reaches out with a deft tongue. Loss is captured through memory and family, then comes alive with nuanced angst and dreamy scenes of nature.
Although Jane’s work is known for its accessibility, there is a sense of drive in Because It Is that propels this work into another level of assurance and on a joyful albeit poignant ride.
Published in January 2020.
Edited by Miranda Pearson
“In Jane Mellor’s Because It Is, the poems pose questions about identity, transformation, commitment to life and love, and the duration of all these. Change, whether inflicted by events or part of the natural process, is both trial and celebration: ‘I became alien, though looked like mother – /always mother’ (Want). Mellor’s exuberance manifests in tumbling images and moments of lyric beauty. ‘Once, I wore a bonnet of stars/and when morning broke, I fell quiet,//plucked silver dander from my crown so Polaris/would catch a glimpse’ (Polaris). While the title of the collection might suggest stoic acceptance, Mellor’s poems are curious about the routes we choose and how they lead to a well-lived life.”
— Elee Kraljii Gardiner, author of Serpentine Loop and Against Death Anthology