John Kinsella On the Outskirts

Annotation

A stunning new collection by one of Australia's most celebrated poets. Inspired by the natural world, Kinsella's poems consider the protection and valuing of human and animal life, and the environment itself. Reflecting the constant flux of the global and the local, these poems consider the plight of refugees, the degradation of the environment, militarisation and violence. Contemplating the failure of public memory to memorialise, Kinsella reflects on the unresolved issues of history such as Nazism and colonisation. Influenced by William Blake's poetry and art, in particular his uncompleted series of illustrations to Dante's Divine Comedy, Kinsella evokes a strong relationship between the visual and textual. On the Outskirts is a work of strangeness and alienation, and one in which a light of redemption is sought - a rehabilitation in the human character and the healing power of nature.