Carnival Edge: New and Selected Poems

To be able to follow, within a single volume, the evolution and refinement of a poet of Gallagher's subtlety and integrity is a fascination in itself. At its best, this is delicate, straight talking — a poetics that yokes inner generosity to outward reticence, a guileless paredness reminiscent of outback. Coming in from the heat, it's not always clear whether these poems dance or simply walk; but with a turn of phrase, a shoe-tight image, an elegant sleight of foot, everything is transformed. Reading Gallagher, one recognises there are ways of walking that are also dance.

Katherine Gallagher is a fervent watcher of the world. Like the watcher in her poem Orchid she is also a global traveller, and this informs all of her work. Her past, that antipodean patchwork, is also a rich resource comprising memory and discovery, a place where weather's a way of life... Landscape, war, family, the gains and losses of life, plus aerial meditations during long flights — all shine forth in the wide range of her subject matter, wrought in vivid colours. Gallagher is a poet of the eye, the rainbow and of all the feeling senses. In Manifesto, from the final section of new poems which crown this volume, she says: ... Bring out your gambler, / risk-taker. Surprise yourself. This book attests to the energy and insight of that statement.