Böcker av Ilse van Staden

In this small volume of original English poems, the poet finds inspiration from her everyday environment - grass, pebbles, butterflies, a cat, pot plants, a vacuum cleaner, a pen. These ordinary things become vessels for a quiet, meditative poetry of gratitude for small blessings.

In this small volume of original English poems, award-winning Afrikaans poet Ilse van Staden finds inspiration in her everyday environment, in the small ordinary things of nature and home life.

"Well, thought Harry, did you want to hear my list? A snail plague, an unsolicited pet, a missing client, a missing spade, noises in the dark, a whole nest of dead cat and kittens, and - did I mention it? - another missing client! Talk about being over it." Harry is a gardener, who occasionally has to kill things for a living - weeds, insects, snails. This makes him a murderer, according to his five-year old daughter Martha. She wants a snail for a pet, before he "petticides" it. But a cat will also do. On the same day that Martha's pet arrives, Harry discovers something buried in a client's garden. But then the client disappears. While Harry is confronted with deaths and disappearances, his wife Nancy goes on a wild goose chase searching for the meaning behind the find. Harry learns there is no easy answer to the question: when is killing murder?