The Kingfisher's Soul by Robert Adamson
Robert Adamson has been nourished for much of his life by Australia's Hawkesbury River. His poetry praises nature - red in tooth and claw - and celebrates existence as a mythological quest. The Kingfisher's Soul is his first new collection to be published in Britain since Reading the River: Selected Poems (2004). Extending the territory covered by the later poems in that selection, The Kingfisher's Soul takes Adamson's personal Romanticism and daring lyricism to a higher imaginative level. He confronts a range of contradictions: how the fish he kills to make a living also sustain his vision as poet; and how he uses birds from the sky for his paintings. He wonders about the existence of God as well as the different meanings of souls of humans, birds, fish and animals. Some of the poems look at war, and many come back again to love.
'Readers of Robert Adamson's books will have understood that this distinguished man of letters and major poet is one of the most significant gifts Australia can offer the rest of the worldSpecifically, the gift comes from the Hawkesbury River, north of Sydney. This river that Adamson lives on, and from which everything is born, becomes in his work an archetypal water which everyone can relate to wherever they reside. From it he raises a universe. Robert Adamson grows into the reader like a whole forest, slowly and deeply like a whole Nature. He deserves reading like you deserve breath' - NATHANIEL TARN. 'Robert Adamson is that rare instance of a poet who can touch all the world and yet stay particular, local to the body he's been given in a literal time and place. He is as deft and resourceful a craftsman as exists, and his poems move with a clarity and ease I find unique. He has savored his life, felt it at each moment, and what he has written is its vivid and enduring testament' - ROBERT CREELEY.
Robert Adamson was born in Sydney in 1943 and grew up in Neutral Bay and on the Hawkesbury River, New South Wales. During a tumultuous youth, he found his way to poetry, and in the five decades since he has produced 20 books of poetry and three books of prose. From 1970 to 1985 he was the driving force behind Australia's New Poetry magazine, and in 1987, with Juno Gemes, he established Paper Bark Press, for two decades one of Australia's leading poetry publishers. He was the inaugural CAL chair of poetry at UTS (University of Technology, Sydney) in 2011-14. He has won many major Australian poetry awards, including the Christopher Brennan Prize for lifetime achievement, the Patrick White Award, The Age Book of the Year Award for The Goldfinches of Baghdad (Flood Editions, 2006) and the Victorian Premier's Poetry Award for The Golden Bird (Black Inc, 2009). He has published three books in Britain with Bloodaxe: Reading the River: Selected Poems (2004), The Kingfisher's Soul (2009) and Net Needle (2016).
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781852248208 |
| ISBN 10 | 1852248203 |
| Title | The Kingfisher's Soul |
| Author | Robert Adamson |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Bloodaxe Books Ltd |
| Year published | 2009-03-26 |
| Number of pages | 80 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |