Small-Scale Observations

<p>The poems in James Sutherland-Smith's eighth collection move from the garden into the neighbourhood of a down-at-heel Hapsburg town and then range into the nearby forest the personal and the past. Borders are crossed and seemingly insignificant creatures suddenly gain visionary dimensions. The title poem recalls a poet whose attention to the small-scale made his work seem minor yet as Hardy wrote he noticed such things a heedfulness absent in a contemporary world where both simplistic analysis and solutions constantly fail to address threats to our very existence.</p><p><br></p><p><em>The namesake of a war criminal</em></p><p><em>has been chopping wood for three days</em></p><p><em>hefting an orange-handled axe.</em></p><p><em>Behind him three hunting dogs bark</em></p><p><em>at the nonchalant passage of a cat.</em></p><p><br></p>