The Undertow

In the anthology Landbridge, John Kinsella writes about his work: I'm particularly interested in the 'radical pastoral' — in blending the so-called pastoral tradition with the linguistically innovative... My work may be symptomatic of late modernism (even post-modernism) in its exploration of the processes of its own creation and investigation of language as a thing-in-itself, but its concerns are primarily ethical and moral in nature. Visual art is a strong inspiration.

The Undertow is John Kinsella's first published volume in the UK. Before it appeared, readers in Britain were familiar with Kinsella's work largely through international poetry magazines. It contains work from four volumes published in Australia, together with a section of new work. The book falls into four sections: the poems in the first are selected from Eschatologies (Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1991) and Full Fathom Five (FACP, 1992); the second section gives the text of Syzygy (FACP, 1993) complete; the third is chosen from The Silo (FACP, 1995); the fourth contains 3 poems: 'Self-Portrait without Glasses', 'A (C)ode for Simon Templar' and 'Erratum' from Erratum/Frame(d) (Folio / FACP, 1995) while the remaining poems are uncollected.

Arc Publications is proud to have introduced this outstanding poet to a British readership.

Paperback
112 pages
ISBN 1-900072-07-6
Published January 1996

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