Walking the Boundary

Walking the Boundary (paperback)
Walking the Boundary (paperback)
Paperback B format 128 x 198 mm. 128 pages. Full colour cover.
ISBN 978-1-922776-14-3.
Price: A$28.00
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In this new collection Damen O’Brien’s focus roams from worlds we know all too well to worlds we don’t know at all, from the home life of the man who repairs electric chairs to a cheeky sonnet for the tardigrade, trekking the boundaries of life, love, death and the afterlife, with a cameo from the Devil’s wife. Viperous vignettes of the animal kingdom, sharp snapshots of political passions. The unifying factor is his distinctive, wry, gentle voice, a voice which has seduced poetry prize judges the world over. There is always something unexpected, something to send your thoughts in a new direction in a Damen poem. Pitt Street Poetry is delighted to welcome him aboard.

My wine warms

in its bloody bulb. It’s getting late and this is the Earth

that we are given. That’s magic, I tell you, just as

someone long ago must have spoken of their God

manifest as swan or bull. Because magic lets him do it.

Damen O’Brien

Damen is a multi-award-winning poet based in Brisbane. Damen’s poems have won many of Australia and the world’s foremost poetry prizes, having been successful in more than six countries, including The Moth Poetry Prize, the Peter Porter Poetry Prize, the New Millennium Writings Prize, the Newcastle Poetry Prize, the Bedford Poetry Competition, the Cafe Writers Competition, the Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize and many more. HIs poetry has been published in Aesthetica, Arc, New Ohio Review, Island, Overland and other journals in Australia and elsewhere. Damen works as the Senior Contracts Manager in an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle company.