Views of Rome by Steven Brooke

Views of Rome by Steven Brooke

'In Random Adventures, Martin Christmas brings an acute and sympathetic observer's eye to visual details in a scene. This is not unexpected given his keen skills as a photographer. The familiar is frequently conjured for the reader in a surprising way, offering an understanding of aspects of the world that we might otherwise take for granted.

Christmas moves easily between three key subject areas: human interaction, the built environment (houses, walls, streets and industrial monoliths, for instance), and the backdrop of a natural world that seems increasingly threatened. The human dimension proves particularly rich ground for his poetry. Christmas highlights significant disparities in wealth and social capital among us, with a focus on such people as the disenfranchised poor forced to collect recyclable cans, a frail and elderly couple trying to negotiate a road crossing, or a teenaged shoplifter challenging a store owner. In the carefully realised 254 to Dreamtime, an Aboriginal passenger falls asleep during a bus ride and inadvertently rests her head on another stranger's shoulder. It is an image rendered without overstatement and all the more powerful for that. Christmas is able to seize on other facets of suburban street life--dumped furniture, the rituals of bin night, and a packed trailer indicating the collapse of a couple's relationship. He mixes humour with wit and a constant sense of awe at the natural world. Random Adventures shows Martin Christmas maturing as a poet, and is an important step forward in his writing.' - Steve Evans, former Director of the Creative Writing Program, Flinders University