Tylos erdvės / Spaces of Silence
David Malouf’s introduction to the book says:
Lidija Šimkute works as much with space and silence as with words; her poems are full of interstices through which light shines. . . Silence is that necessary state of attention of waiting, of remaining passive, till the universe, as it speaks through a single object, declares one again it is there. . . the poems are always working at the edge of what cannot be expressed, the words themselves when they come have a shining simplicity and precision.
Michael
Sharkey
a poet and critic in his review (Ulitarra17/18,2000) says "Many of
the poems are minimalist in form, but loaded with contemplative possibilities
in terms of language and their referents.
Šimkute's images are always precise, and memorable, whether finding a vocabulary for flowers, grasses, insects, or larger phenomena, or for humans aware of their temperaments as changeable as days and the wind:
. . . Šimkute's poems are unique in contemporary Australian writing. They make no great appeal for attention to the writer’s sentiments; they seem to be perfectly poised enunciations of the mystery and the wonder of being alive.
