Earthly Delights

by Kelen, Stephen (2006), ix+97pp., ISBN 1 74076 191 X.
AUD$18.00 (Including GST: AUD$19.8) (softcover)

This collection of poems, by one of Australia's most forceful political poets, uses raw and heartfelt language to convey anguish over international events of the present and recent past. Hard-textured and full of integrity, Kelen employs an uncompromising idiom to range across his internal and external experience. Domestic conflict and passions, travel and memory are interleaved with themes of protest against violence and injustice. While the notes of enjoyment and happiness are tempered by despair, Kelen's wit lightens the tone with ironic observation on the vagaries of adolescence and familial relationships. Earthly Delights is full of everyday details of contemporary life and living, and conveys an intense sense of being written in the present.