Birds and Fish

The final collection from the award-winning poet of the Hawkesbury RiverIn the old days I used to think artThat was purely imagined could fly higherThan anything real. Now I feel a small flutteringBird in my own pulse, a connection to the sky.--from The Kingfishers SoulIn the last year of his life, with the help of friend and poet Devin Johnston, Robert Adamson put together a selection of his writings on the natural world. Birds and Fish defines the presences in his life on the Hawkesbury River and includes excerpts from his autobiography, Inside Out, as well as essays written over the years for Fishing World; some prose poems; and journal excerpts related to his bowerbird Spinoza. Adamsons prose is vivid, precise, and draws on his life on the river and his poetic sensibility. The final book will include selected black and white photographs by Adamsons partner Juno Gemes.[Adamson] is as deft and resourceful a craftsman as exists, and his poems move with a clarity and ease I find unique. --Robert CreeleyRobert Adamson is one of Australias national treasures. --John Ashbery