Nomadic

by Judy Johnson

'This afternoon while looking for my watchI found a love letter from your mistress.In 1947 while searching for his lost goata Bedouin boy found the Dead Sea Scrolls.'The poems in Nomadic fuse myth, culture, history and emotion. Judy Johnson is alert to the complex interplay between the external world and the often terrifying inner one we carry with us. An earlier version of this book won the Wesley Michel Wright Prize."This powerful collection deals eloquently and humanely with the difficulties of experience. There are many fine psychological studies, taking us into worlds of childhood and adult pain, while being equally sensitive to private rapture. I am struck by how much gets into these poems - how much openness, how much imagination." Peter Boyle"Judy Johnson's poems are strong and sure-footed. The world has presence: animals, voices, histories, objects are all given existence through her remarkable understanding and curiosity. This is a poetry at once worldly and refined." Judith Beveridge

124 pages, Paperback

About the author

Judy Johnson has published four poetry collections, a verse novel and two chapbooks, a novel with another forthcoming in November 2014.

She has won many prizes for poetry including the Victorian Premiers award, Wesley Michel Wright Prize twice, Josephine Ulrick and Val Vallis award and been shortlisted in many others including the West Australian Premier's Award.