'To profess expertise with literary criticism and literary theory would defeat the purpose of my contribution which owes more to the heart than to nomenclature. Even if after W.H. Auden's 'The Age of Anxiety' (1947) or T.S. Eliot's 'The Waste Land' (1922) the classification of modern poetry into genres would become thoroughly inconsistent if not altogether disarrayed. So, then, under what guise do I, with only a modest literary output, dare contribute to the 'Festschrift' of one of Australia's most recognised poets, David Brooks? It is I should say from the start, no small thing for a poet to be valued in a country which has been blessed with a long line of great craftsmen of the 'word', from the Indigenous storytelling of the Aboriginal Dreamtime, to the celebrated names of our contemporary master poets with whom our duly honoured poet has for some years belonged. In short, I am enthralled by Brooks's poetry and by the sensitivity of the man himself. A learned friend once said to me when discussing the winner of the Archibald staff-choice Packing Room Prize, we all have the right to comment on what we like or do not like about art, for it is a "creative process" common to us all. This, as Horace himself tells us in his 'Ars Poetica', includes poetry: 'ut pictura poesis' ("as is painting so is poetry"). So here are some comments that might hopefully adjoin another perspective to this celebratory volume in honour of an internationally recognised literary life which continues to evolve and to regularly surprise.' (Publication abstract)
