Inspired by the natural worlds surrounding Tübingen in Germany, Cambridge in England, the village of Schull in southwest Ireland and the West Australian wheatbelt, Kinsella explores through his poems the protection and valuing of human and animal life, and the environment itself. Reflecting on how the local and international are in constant flux and exchange, these poems consider the plight of refugees, the degradation of the natural world, militarisation and the tensions of global violence. As Kinsella contemplates the failure of public memory to memorialise and adequately face the horrors of the past, he reflects on the unresolved issues of history such as Nazism (Germany) and colonisation (Ireland and Australia).
Influenced by William Blake's poetry and art, in particular Dante’s Divine Comedy, Kinsella evokes in his poems a strong relationship between the visual and textual. On the Outskirts is a work of strangeness and alienation, but also a work in which a light of redemption is sought — a rehabilitation in the human character and the healing power of 'nature'.' (Publication abstract)
Dedication : for Tracy, Phil, Russell and Andree.
'Since the late 1980s, the work of John Kinsella has been protean and prodigious. At times a pastoral poet (some say anti-pastoral), such as with The Silo (1995), at others an experimental one. as in Syzgy (1993), Kinsella is best known these days as an eco-poet, a term to which his work has given an almost definitional focus.' (Introduction)
'For readers daunted by the sheer size of John Kinsella’s poetic output (not to mention the at-least-superficially unappetising “experimental” books, beginning with Syzygy and finishing up with the recent publication of a three volume collected Graphology series) this new volume probably provides a welcoming introduction. If you want to get exposed to the hyperactive Kinsella poetic world, On the Outskirts (together with the earlier Jam Tree Gully) can be recommended as a good place to start. Most of the distinctive Kinsella obsessions are there but the poems themselves work in ways that will be familiar to most readers of contemporary poetry.' (Introduction)
'Since the late 1980s, the work of John Kinsella has been protean and prodigious. At times a pastoral poet (some say anti-pastoral), such as with The Silo (1995), at others an experimental one. as in Syzgy (1993), Kinsella is best known these days as an eco-poet, a term to which his work has given an almost definitional focus.' (Introduction)
'For readers daunted by the sheer size of John Kinsella’s poetic output (not to mention the at-least-superficially unappetising “experimental” books, beginning with Syzygy and finishing up with the recent publication of a three volume collected Graphology series) this new volume probably provides a welcoming introduction. If you want to get exposed to the hyperactive Kinsella poetic world, On the Outskirts (together with the earlier Jam Tree Gully) can be recommended as a good place to start. Most of the distinctive Kinsella obsessions are there but the poems themselves work in ways that will be familiar to most readers of contemporary poetry.' (Introduction)
