Here, There and Elsewhere by Vivian Smith

JUDGES' COMMENTS

Here, There and Elsewhere opens with a sequence of rhyming poems brimming with finesse, in which Ern Malley answers back and doesn't want to know about his legacy. The rest of the collection is totally assured and reflects the poet’s deep relationship with French and Australian literature. Memory, travel and literary poems, and poems for absent friends, are enjoyable and informative. The two poetic essays are concise and lightly instructive.

Writing about international influence on Australian culture, Smith says ‘there should be constant fruitful interaction [with overseas] to combat entropy and stagnation’. Those are two conditions he seems to have eschewed naturally in his long cultural life. There is such an ease in writing here that everything in the collection is a pleasure. Accomplished, no shouting, no showing off — this book communicates to any reader.