The Natural World Somersaults - Paperback

by Shaine Melrose (Author)

Just as the loop of the somersault can be exultant or disturbing, joyous or disorienting, this collection - 'The Natural World Somersaults' - includes the spectrum of a life's experiences. It starts with the particular, charting a story of growing up queer in a small Victorian town, to discovering solace and strength in the natural bush environment and in love, affinity and friendship. This is situated among many lives, continually considering connection and alienation. Though the poems witness self-hatred, rejection, homophobia, disability and illness, they are oriented towards beauty, acceptance and resilience. These poems bring a horticulturalist's eye to the details of landscape, avoiding the anthropocentric in favour of a close and respectful observation of the more-than-human. Shifting perspectives keep open the possibilities of hope, placing this amid creative and destructive forces. There are poems exploring a time when the impact of illness reduced memory and words. These poems question how poetry continues when language is curtailed. Like the forest or the river, everything reveals itself in portions, and the forms and voices of the poems in this prismic collection are filled with reflection, wonder, curiosity and hope.