There is no denying the power of poetry as thoughtful story-telling, a form of expression free from rules, conventions. It allows a safe environment for experimentation, free from the confines of traditionalism. Portraits in words, detailing the ride of life and thoughts of the mind are painted onto the canvas, where the placement of verses on a page can matter as much as the choices of words themselves.

Susie Anderson’s collection of fragmentary odes to the connection she has to her country, her body, and her life experiences, is a perspicacious example of the creativity and spirit of First Nations poetry.

Beginning with ‘time, place and country’, Anderson gently reminded me of a truth I had inherited from my own family and ancestors: ‘boundaries of Country are rivers / mountains / sea’. It was a fitting introduction to understanding her views on world, presence, and self. I imagined the different settings of inspiration that might have presented themselves during Anderson’s writing. Raised in Horsham, she descends from the Wergaia and Wemba Wemba, the latter being Country I used to work on in my early twenties, pushing me to picture the small hills and dusty plains, bordered by the dry and scant woodlands which dot its landscape. What began as a memory of the Mallee morphed into a yearning of my own Bardi Jawi homeland, and certainly its rivers and seas.