'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.' (Publication summary)
'There’s a certain kind of poetry which gets its strength from a combination of an intriguing and original conception for each poem with a forceful expressive power. This latter can come from an intensity of language or from an ability to follow ideas through – and generate new ones – with a rapidity that often leaves the reader behind: what rhetoricians of old called “a copiousness of invention”. Damen O’Brien seems exactly this kind of poet to me, both in his first book, Animal with Human Voices, and this impressive new one, Walking the Boundary. He brings together invention and expressiveness at a high enough level to make him stand out among his contemporaries. A look at the opening section of each book will give me a chance to explain a little further.' (Introduction)
'There’s a certain kind of poetry which gets its strength from a combination of an intriguing and original conception for each poem with a forceful expressive power. This latter can come from an intensity of language or from an ability to follow ideas through – and generate new ones – with a rapidity that often leaves the reader behind: what rhetoricians of old called “a copiousness of invention”. Damen O’Brien seems exactly this kind of poet to me, both in his first book, Animal with Human Voices, and this impressive new one, Walking the Boundary. He brings together invention and expressiveness at a high enough level to make him stand out among his contemporaries. A look at the opening section of each book will give me a chance to explain a little further.' (Introduction)
