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Bernadette Anderson’s voice is no longer hidden but released in these poems. Many are grounded in the theatre of everyday life. From her coffee comfort zone she observes other people and imagines herself ‘woven into the colourful fabrics of others’ travels’. She weaves from a different denser cloth when she moves into self-discovery: anger at toxic love in ‘Squeeze’, where the secateurs of ‘Pruning’ are transformed into a murderous weapon of passion; maternal love and anguish and the healing love of animals. In shaped poems like ‘Concrete’ she welds short sharp images into memorable visual patterns where self is overwhelmed. From the ice cream colours of the evening skies on an ordinary walk with her dog in the title poem, to the tenderness in her ‘mother poems’, Bernadette takes us on her own magical mystery tour. In Neapolitan Skies we are treated to a unique poetic voice. - Sue Cook
What stands out most to me in Bernie Anderson’s poems is a sense of the human in nature, literally something of the marvellous. Her encounters with the mundane things of life, and people, are metaphors of her craving to seek beyond. The main image in ‘Threads’ is a wonderful metaphor, synonymous with the yearning to put them back together. The khaki pungent water in ‘Duck Pond’, the drama of approaching rain in ‘Petrichor’, and the naked leaf/self in ‘I Found a Poem’ are vivid and striking images. There is, too, a strong sense of waiting for something to happen, but never being quite sure of the next step. ‘Ladder’ sums up the dilemma graphically and beautifully. She not only notices everything, she takes notice of it, as in ‘Sinners Wall’. In all, a most rewarding and often deeply moving read. - Ros Schulz
The poems in Neapolitan Skies melt in your mouth. Bernie Anderson’s astute view on the world is colourful, sensual and often spiritual. With an eye for small details and for noticing the antics and foibles of her fellow humans, she paints poetic portraits and scenes that are honest, vivid and surprising. Always sensitive to and respectful of nature and of people, Anderson conveys a sense of timelessness, of connecting history to present, family to psyche and the living to the dead. I especially love the way this poetry captures the essence of grief and joy, of nature and creatures such as horses and dogs. Neapolitan Skies is a stunning collection of intelligent, observant and emotive poetry. - Jude Aquilina
