Maps of Small Countries

Memoir and celebration, meditation and exploration, sketches and simple vignette, these are some of the varied fields through which Russell Erwin takes his readers in this latest collection, which bears the hallmarks of his earlier work - an attention to the physical, sensual world, unsurprising in one who makes his living by farming in the Southern Tablelands of NSW, a muscularity of language and a fondness for the striking image. But here it seems is a more assured handling of material, a poet more reflective and celebratory without any loss of accessibility and immediacy. He ranges from a suburban childhood to delicate and joyful pieces welcoming the birth of a granddaughter, from moving elegies for parents, to songs of loss, particularly the prize-winning 'And Still', and of course poems which have grown from the earth of his farming life. Each poem is, in its own way, a map of a small country into which the reader is invited to enter and share.