'In Family Trees, Michael Farrell continues to question how humans relate – to each other, and to the nonhuman, the worlds of animals, plants and objects. Inheritance can be a heavy legacy but in Michael’s expansive rendering it frees itself: how do we connect? Through affection, and through sharing, swapping and listening. Family Trees sees the return of familiar characters such as Pope Pinocchio, alongside new figures such as Lord Marmalade, Cherry the ‘Kiama Scammer’ and Adam, a paranoid country English teacher. Presented in filmic scenarios, these characters are often busily thinking, while also participating in more mundane forms of activity – gossip and sleep and work. The book includes a number of South Coast poems that take a poking interest in how language blooms off-track. It’s about memory, fantasy and the possibilities of living in conceptual space. Anything that has roots can be a family tree.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Michael Farrell Poetry Reading
2022
24383866
2022
single work
podcast
'Hear Michael Farrell read from his beautiful collection of poems, Family Trees.'
'An unconventional poetry collection that pushes its reader to questions norms and re-imagine their world.'
'It was with trepidation and some excitement that I approached a reading of Family Trees, the most recent collection of poetry by Australian poet Michael Farrell, regarded as one of our leading contemporary experimental poets.' (Introduction)
'If I were to make gauche generalisations about the poetics of MTC Cronin, Jordie Albiston, and Michael Farrell, I might respectively write conceptual, technical, and experimental. But these established poets – each in their fifties, highly regarded – display fluency with all these descriptors, especially in their latest books.' (Introduction)
'It was with trepidation and some excitement that I approached a reading of Family Trees, the most recent collection of poetry by Australian poet Michael Farrell, regarded as one of our leading contemporary experimental poets.' (Introduction)
'An unconventional poetry collection that pushes its reader to questions norms and re-imagine their world.'
Michael Farrell Poetry Reading
2022
24383866
2022
single work
podcast
'Hear Michael Farrell read from his beautiful collection of poems, Family Trees.'
