She is the Earth

by Ali Cobby Eckermann

She Is the Earth is the luminous new verse novel from celebrated poet Ali Cobby Eckermann. It charts a journey through grief and celebrates the healing power of Country. We follow Eckermann’s soft footfalls in the open (but far from empty) spaces between earth and sky; from sandstone to wetlands, from plains to mountain ranges.
Eckermann’s writing soars in this meditative and transformative piece. Soaked in lightness and dark, history and dreaming, her words will move you, shake you, devastate you and uplift you. This book is full of unexpected beauty in slow, contemplative moments. Read it to see the ‘She’ in and around all of us.
'To read She is the Earth is to hear the timeless voice of the living Earth herself.' — Gloria Steinem

Genres: Poetry, Fiction, Australia, Indigenous

96 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2023

About the author

Ali Cobby Eckermann is a Yankunytjatjara / Kokatha kunga (woman) born on Kaurna land in 1963. As a baby Ali was adopted into the Eckermann family. After failed attempts she was assisted by Link Up to find her mother Audrey, and four years later her son Jonnie. Her journey was supported by many members of the Stolen Generations. She regularly visits her traditional family in rural and remote South Australia; to learn and to heal. After nearly thirty years in the Northern Territory, Ali chooses to live in the ‘intervention-free’ village of Koolunga, South Australia, where she is renovating the old general store and establishing an Aboriginal Writers Retreat.

Ali Cobby Eckermann enjoyed great success with her first collection of poetry, little bit long time. Her poetry reflects her journey to reconnect with her Yankunytjatjara / Kokatha family. Other collections include Kami and Love Dreaming and Other Poems, published by Vagabond Press.

Her first verse novel, His Father’s Eyes, was published in 2011 by Oxford University Press. Her second verse novel, Ruby Moonlight, published by Magabala Books, won the 2011 inaugural kuril dhagun Manuscript Editing Award and the 2012 Deadly Award for Outstanding Achievement in Literature.

She has been featured on Poetica, ABC Message Stick, and on the Poetry International Website. In 2010 she performed at the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival in Bali, and in 2012 at the Reaching The World Summit in Bangkok, Thailand. Too Afraid to Cry is her much anticipated memoir.

Reviews

[Ali]

the first time I see a cloud
I weep restated of mercy
volatile and fleet

the cloud weeps too
and within the rain I learn
I am at the mercy of self

Eckerman has the rare gift in a poet of simplicity. Her poetry in both meter and syntax welcomes the reader, eschewing the obscure or the showy. Her work will send you into reflection and rereading, not a dictionary, for meaning. And yet every line here thrums, carrying multiplicity of interpretation, hints at what you might explore.
*She is the Earth* could be read as a meditation journey by an individual, as the story of the creation of life, as an explanation of Country.

my questions
prehistoric
who was here
how long ago
my answers
nostalgic
arriving to where
I'd always been

Whatever the mode, it offers comfort through connection, meaning through movement, healing through seeing.

on the skyline
Blessing is present
as I walk towards her
she does not move
as I embrace her
she fragments
now she is tree
and grass and air
now she is Earth
and water and sky
the hills the mountains
the rivers and I
I am blessed to walk
amid the blessings

It is a remarkable read, and worth several dips, suitable for a poem which feels cyclical, leaving you with the option to begin again.

what is a threshold
if not a memory
I exist here
ready to enter
the door is closed

[ALPHAreader]

I finally got my hands on the new poetry book from one of my absolute favourites - Ali Cobby Eckermann.

I saw Sian Cain for Guardian Australia chose ‘she is the earth’ as their pick for the best Australian book of May. And I love the note about Eckermann they included, for anyone unfamiliar with her work;

“Eckermann was unemployed and living in a caravan in Adelaide when, in 2017, she won the $215,000 Windham-Campbell prize: a major US literary award given to authors who don’t even know they’re in the running. In her first release since then, ‘She is the Earth’ feels both dreamlike and visceral, the talented poet making a nebulous plane of existence feel miraculously tangible in less than 100 pages.”

And I think that’s spot-on. A stunning collection of waking and absorbing the world that abounds … it reads like stretching all parts of the imagination.

If you haven’t yet, I also recommend you read her ‘Ruby Moonlight’ - which remains one of my favourite verse novels of all time.

And these two together - an overview of Eckermann’s work to date - really hits home what a superb talent she is. One of poetry’s absolute finest here, and internationally.

and so it begins
a new beginning
not quite genesis

[Karen]

Long listed for the 2024 Stella Prize

"the sky and the sea
are defining to blue
suspended on water
I paddle through time
I strain to expand
an inception of self"

I had mixed feelings about this verse novel and feel that most of those were as a consequence of my own inadequacies rather than the writing which is very sparse. There are recurring themes often signalled by the use of synonyms (for want of a better description) eg absence - silence, vacancy, truancy, void. There is a lot of imagery and symbolism. There are sections that are love songs to country and its healing powers, and sections I read and reread to try to understand or, more often to drink in their beauty.

"when the moon is asleep
the Milky Way talks
stars raise me up
singing their names"

I have read a handful of verse novels over the years but for me this was more of a collection of verses or perhaps it is better described as a long poem rather than a novel. For me a verse novel needs to have a degree of plot and perhaps this did but it was lost to me. Despite my shortcomings I am glad I read it.

[Deb Chapman]

I read this slim volume (verse novel) twice today…and let the movement and poetry of the words sweep me up. I loved it. Moving through a landscape and a life. Very special.

P78 nocturnal an owl arrives
silent flight fast and direct

how I envy its plumage
a masterpiece of art

it stares binocular
my eyesight grown

a new protocol
I am painted now

this is my totem
this is my song

[Elena]

The narrator of this verse novel hasn't "found their belonging place in the universe", as Ali Cobby Eckermann said in an interview about she is the earth.

she is the earth is about reclaiming, relocating, and rejoining that song of the universe, the 'sounds of her ancestors'. I've always really enjoyed Cobby Eckermann's body of work. This verse novel is her at the height of her writing powers. It is a book to sit with, time and time again, to feel the words resounding, and to tune in with the universe around us. It is singing, speaking with, and embodying tromemunner.

[Kim]

2024 Stella Prize Longlist

An interesting verse novel, with quite a bit of nature content.
Unfortunately it feels overall disjointed and not very memorable, despite some lovely bits

I pause to rest
a rainbow appears

a reassuring delight
my heart is happy

as if a little child
has climbed inside

Blessing is nearby
I can feel her

Lovely but I've enjoyed some of her other work more.
Back to the library and I'm not sure that I'll pick it up again.

[Kelly]

I read Ali Cobby Eckermann’s poetry collection ‘Inside my Mother’ last year but prefer this book. It bamboozled me in the way I like to be bamboozled by poetry - enough to grasp onto but more meaning beneath the surface to ponder as you continue to think on it. 3.75 stars.

[taylah]

“the void in my heart
listens for any vow
for the inclusion of me
my scream is silent
yet reverberates
around the world”

need to read this all again and again and again.

[Victoria]

Gorgeously written and meditative

but I disliked the typesetting … why would the publisher choose a typewriter font??

[Elizabeth]

Lovely, she is the earth.
Poetry feels like it was written by the *universe*

[Linda]

Ali Cobby Eckermann is a magnificent writer and poet. I have read a number of her books and think she is one of Australia's finest writers. Reading this one aloud is rewarding - it feels beautiful on the tongue. I can't say I fully understand it, however - I will be rereading it for sure.

[Jade O'Donohue]

I become orbital
pulled in

a flood plain
offers swans

like black rocks
they steer me

wetlands bloom
lily pink

brolgas dance
and chortle

their laughter
dissipates me

[Sandra]

'as song fills air
it is hymn

as dew seals sand
it is rebirth

emotional flow
on firmer ground

the drama
is brutal

unable to grieve
unable to sing

I am exhausted
tearful grounding

I am pelican
gulping air'

[Natasha (jouljet)]

Wow, I am always completely blown away by the power of a poet to place two, four or just a handful of words together to evoke so much emotion, so much meaning, longing, or love.

An incredibly emotive book of poetry on grief, the fog of the aftermath of loss, the remembering, the reminiscing, the forever changes, and the legacy. It is also a tribute to the power of Aboriginal connection to land, sky, water and the spiritual relm. Just beautiful.

[Madilina]

I was mesmerised by how much could be conveyed in a limited number of words in just two lines and with no punctuation! I had to read the poem out aloud to appreciate it; a wonderful work of 'word' art - so not a book to be read on the train home to/from work for me.

Each verse was compiled cleverly with just the correct word(s). Amazing.

the path of life
is narrowing
in this isolation
my body subsides (pg 5)

what is a threshold
if not a memory
I exist here
ready to enter
the door is closed (pg 9)

my scream is silent
yet reverberates
around the world (pg 11)

Some verses took me a back. Like this one pg 25 and 61
my desire to belong
humilitates me

the cloud weeps too
and within the rain I learn
I am at the mercy of self

There is a lot to take in and this is solely what impressed me the most.

[Stef Rozitis]

This. This is absolutely exquisite poetry!

Absolutely beautiful book. Mystical without being self-conscious or pretentious.

It goes into dark places like the pain of the fear of not belonging but it moves to relationship with earth and with animals and elements (again without being pretentious or sentimental).

I reread quite a few pages of the beauty and balm that was in them. This is a very healing book. I will keep it and will read it again and again.

[Sean Harding]

Eckermann Enterprise #1
Beautiful stunning poetic writing which takes you in and you feel the meditative qualities, the lyrical dream like atmosphere and then sadly it is all over far too soon.
Brilliant.

[Courtney]

I don't think I was in the right frame of mind for this particular collection at this time. I will revisit it at some point.

[Blair]

I've liked some of Eckermann's poetry and was looking forward to this. It's billed as a 'verse novel' but is just a longish poem in large print and a lot of white space that left me cold.

[Sophie Weston]

This was just stunning. I felt honoured to be reading it, like I was getting a glimpse into the most personal part of the poets mind. She's masterful

[Alison]

Beautiful words and worlds. I always find her poetry potent, pregnant, fertile, maternal. But this is not a verse novel as advertised.

[Rose Wh]

not sure how to rate this, I think it was good but it almost 100% went over my head. Quick read though - like an hour or so - might read through it again and see if I pick up on anything more.

[Steven Kolber]

The world needs more verse novels!

[Alana]

Some beautiful poems

[Maxine McEwan]

3 stars. Nothing against it, just wasn't my style.

[Layne White]

I feel good after reading this. It was a meditative experience. I’ll re-read I reckon, maybe again and again, like an echo.