Insomnia: Poems

by John Kinsella

In this forceful call to action, acclaimed poet John Kinsella explores deeply felt and ever more insistent ecological concerns in his signature lyrical and experimental activist poetry. Here Kinsella turns his restless, unblinking gaze to a world where art, music, and philosophy—the highest creations of the human imagination and empathy—suddenly find themselves in a time and place that not only deny their importance, but can seem to have no use for them at all. In answer, Insomnia offers poems of self-accusation and angry protest, meditations on the nature of loss and trauma, and full-throated celebrations of the natural world.


Kinsella attempts to find a still point from which we might reconfigure our perspective and examine the paradoxes of our contemporary experience. Ranging sleeplessly from Jam Tree Gully, Western Australia, to the coast of West Cork, Ireland, and haunted by historical and literary figures from Dante to Emily Brontë, Insomnia may be Kinsella’s most varied, concentrated, and powerful collection to date.

Genres: Poetry

138 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 21, 2019

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

[Mima Rambles · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’ve put off reviewing this collection for awhile but it doesn’t feel fair to give it 1 star with no justification. From memory, the only poems I somewhat enjoyed were ‘Insomnia’ and... ‘Psalm 319’? Don’t hold me to that, it has been over 2 months after all.

The main issue I had was that the poetry felt lifeless. It was like Kinsella has no passion towards his work, and there was no unique edge to his voice. It felt derivative of famous poets whose work originated decades and decades ago. An older style is not inherently bad at all, but nothing new was brought to the table. Each poem felt stretched out longer than necessary. There was potential, and definitely some good themes subtly woven in, but overall this took aspects of great poetry and, to put it bluntly, butchered them.

[Ellora Wyntrs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, the first bit was good overtime it started to drag on and didn’t feel like it had any soul. It almost just felt like poems to write just because. It was good initially, but then it started feeling forced.

[EIJANDOLUM · Rating 2 out of 5]

Your favourite colour plies
the world with shades, with slight shifts — carmine,
scarlet, vermilion, crimson, dragon’s blood where lies
the end of the spectrum as we know it.

[Ralph Burton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great poem about sharks in this book.