Jam Tree Gully

by John Kinsella

In this daring new collection, Australia's preeminent environmental poet confronts the legacy of Thoreau's Walden. With Walden as his inspiration, John Kinsella moved with his family back to rural Australia, where he wrote the poems in this original collection exploring the nature of our responsibility and connection to the land.

from "We Spend Days in This House"

We spend days in this house but not nights.
We have seen the early morning sunlight
infiltrate the eucalypts, sunset deflected
by acacias. We have sweltered at midday.
We have walked every acre intimately.
The kangaroos recognise us and linger.
We spend days in this house but not nights.

Genres: Poetry

160 pages, Paperback

First published November 28, 2011

About the author

John Kinsella is the author of more than twenty collections of poetry. The recipient of the Christopher Brennan Award, he has taught at Cambridge University and Kenyon College. He lives in Western Australia.

Reviews

[James Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Kinsella, Australia's great poet of the environment, lives in Jam Tree Gully. His volume of poetry about his habitation of the place remembers the spirit of Thoreau's time spent at Walden Pond. In fact, many of these poems have a Thoreau quote as an epigraph. Kinsella begins there and never lets himself get too far away from the Walden experience. The poet even deliberately identifies with Thoreau by planting beans. All of Kinsella's poetry I've read has concerned itself with the nature of a place. Here he's a long way from Walden Pond. Kinsella's home is largely desert with plant life hardy enough to maintain itself there and animal life overseen by inquiring kangaroos. His poems underline his and his family's becoming at home in that place where the oppressive sun makes all things shimmer, where water usage has to be considered carefully, and where each step taken in the land kicks up dust. His writing impresses me as recording a kind of still point in the world. But he notes that the necessary sound of his typewriter tapping onto the page these vigilant poems about kangaroos and jam trees and the sun and wind they live in make it possible for it all to be perceived.

[Julianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kangaroos! Weebills (whatever those are)! Words like Wandoo and Coondle-Nunile! What's not to like in this collection of Australian poetry? Maybe one thing: sometimes I have no idea what John Kinsella is on about. One example of this would be "Pressure at the Boundaries (of Jam Tree Gully" (p. 143), in which he writes, "The blossoming trees that remain have dozens / Of bird species rerouting grief: birds dragged / Into relief, agenda of pressure. Brighten / Cautiously?" I mean, really, what does that mean?

However, other poems really made me feel as if I was making the acquaintance of the Australian bush, a place I have never been. Kinsella zeroes in on specific details, like the color and texture of sheep bones bleaching in the sun, the size of the plot of land up for sale across the street (11 acres), and the cracks in the rainwater tank. I get the feeling that just as Willa Cather managed to capture Nebraska on paper, so John Kinsella has captured Jam Tree Gully.