Cirrus@Austlit

'Alchemy of the Sun is a book about journeys. Sent to ‘open up the country’, ignorant of Aboriginal strategies for coping with the terrain and climate, many of the desert explorers failed, some dying in the attempt. Today’s battle is with man-made climate change and its aftereffects, an ongoing fecklessness that has disturbed the delicate balance of elements and environment.

'These poems seek to challenge the mindset of ‘conquering’ the land, and offer instead the opportunity of mediation with the forces that shape the planet and our lives.'  (Publication summary)

'Phyllis Perlstone’s most recent poetry collection, But Now, celebrates the trajectory of a life. The preface alerts us to the scenario we are about to enter, from the time of the second world war, through the Great Depression, to a life-style in modern-day Barangaroo. Perlstone’s forte is meticulous description, metaphors built from the surrounding environment, each moment expanded to its limits.' (Introduction)

'The opening poem in this collection, ‘Ash Wednesday Windows’, provides an introduction to the kind of poetic journey we are about to embark on. After a fire, perhaps bushfire, the windows, almost personified, “lay on their backs beside the dirt driveway/ waiting for walls.” The onlooker sees soil, weeds, singed grass, “the only views he’d ever see through them”, and the poet leaves him “patrolling the melted windows,/ checking the shifts in perspective, the small distortions.” Gillett’s spare but loaded descriptions leave it to the reader to imagine the conflagration , the sense of loss and waste.' (Introduction)