Written over years of a life lived in both the city and country, and as an ex-pat Australian in Italy and Thailand, this collection of poems covers a range of forms and subjects. Similarly, a wide range of poetic devices are employed to capture the thoughts and emotions being conveyed. There are 190 poems altogether, organised into nine categories: Cognectivities, Conversations, Crosshatchings, Suburbia, Epiphanies, Memography, Memos to Self, Poetic Memes and Poetic Distillations. I hope you will enjoy the neologisms and the new poetic forms and be both moved and challenged by the ideas being explored.

Yes! As the name suggests, this is a text book that celebrates life and language from multiple perspectives. Besides aiming to impart pleasure, this book has been designed for middle school students to acquire a greater appreciation of poetry through being able to identify the poetic forms and devices used. The tasks have been devised to employ a wide range of thinking skills from Bloom’s Taxonomy and Marzano and Kendall’s Four Levels of Cognitive Processes. They will build mastery in analysing the subject matter, recognising each poet’s perspective, and being able to articulate the intended effect of the poetic devices on the reader. Moreover, there will be opportunities to discuss the students’ understanding and apply the knowledge they have gained in the challenging writing tasks included in each unit.