micromacro
rob's collection micromacro is available a number of ways:
International orders: online via Seaview Press, Angus and Robertson and BuyAustralian.
Australian orders: post money order or cheque, ($22 + $2 postage and handling) to:
rob walker
RMB 481 Cherry Gardens Rd
Cherry Gardens, SA, 5157.
(ask me if you want it signed.)
Also available in Adelaide Bookshops Dark Horsey and Imprints
"Whether he's focussing on the minute worlds of insects or big political themes, rob walker's poetry is witty, incisive and nicely attuned to the 'mouthfeel' of language.
His black sense of humour is a bonus." - Mike Ladd, poet & presenter of poeticA
" walker grabs you by the scruff of the neck and pulls you up through a chemical mosaic of earth and ocean until you confront your earliest evolutionary ancestors. Then there are insects, spiders, birds, cats - and the human race. Are people any better than the earlier life forms, the poet asks. In reply he reserves much of his compassion for the young and the old caught in a - web? - of political and commercial institutions. In a variety of old and new forms, walker finds a wide range of subjects variously eliciting his wit, concern, outrage or empathy. He achieves memorable poems through a combination of startling visual imagery and a dialogue with language itself." - Dr Graham Rowlands, Flinders University
" rob walker combines sharp perception, compassion and humour to create crisp intersections of time and place. Airy shortcuts, sensuous imagery, and a warm sympathy combine in poems that range from insect life to human relationships, from landscape to love." - Jan Owen, poet & teacher of Creative Writing.
"micromacro is a remarkable example of new Australian poetry and rob walker’s confronting, sometimes-ethnographical approach mirrors the challenges that many artists have when it comes to accepting and digesting modern reality." - Megan Boyd, Poetry & Poetics
"There’s a quiet understatement about this book, with its black zen dice cover, its simple text and basic titles, and the matter of fact landscape it traverses. That’s something of a ruse though, as much as the quiet exterior of walker himself. Beneath the surface of the poems is a sparse intensity which bubbles through the acrostics, the modernity, and the domesticity of his subject matter.
micromacro is rooted in the modern Australian landscape, with poems about galahs, jarrah, in Mitchell Park, SA, the mouth of the Murray, detention centres, Ikea, redback spiders, gum trees, at the physiotherapist’s, or focused on current government policy. In every poem, however bleak, and some are indeed bleak, there are flashes of humour that go beyond wit." - Maggie Ball, The Compulsive Reader.
"The thing that comes across loud and clear through rob walker's recent poetry collection, micromacro, is his sense of humour. It's not that he's aiming to make you laugh -- there's no obvious punning or predictable wit -- but works like how do I shop at ikea?... and After The Big Day Out are quietly, knowingly amusing. It's not often you can say about a book of poetry that it made you chuckle, but this one did.
micromacro is a generous collection in that it gives us an insight into the author's life. So many writers work hard to disguise whatever there is of themselves in their writing, so it's refreshing to get a good feel for the poet as you read this collection. rob strikes us as someone who appreciates quiet moments, as galahs, the opening work, reveals. He communicates a sense of awe for the natural world in poems like jelly, slater, and Redback spider (Male). And he expresses an appreciation for human limitations in a number of poems, my personal
favourite being love at the physio.
Indeed, though it's not delineated by sections or other breaks, the works in this compact collection do seem grouped on the basis of their content, but in a way that avoids making reading the book predictable. Poems like Catsyntax, written from the point of view of a cat (which comes with a note that "It is not widely known that cats have their own verb-based language"), ensure that reading this book is exciting and rewarding.
micromacro is accessible and enjoyable, and manages to engage and relax the reader. For your copy, visit www.seaviewpress.com.au -- micromacro is just $22, and though we'd recommend it as a gift, I doubt you'll be able to part with this one once you get your hands on it!"
- Georgina Laidlaw editor@australianreader.com