That forest spreading over half the earth
is almost gone, and no one marks the year
by different sorts of dropping from the deer;
our rivers have more to do with death than birth.
Still, Julian, exile, murderer and host,
your story grows in us...

                                        (from 'The Legend of Julian')

This Selected Poems by award-winning Australian poet Vicki Raymond is her first British publication, though her work has appeared widely in journals and anthologies. She is an unusually gifted poet in traditional forms, with a telling sense of humour which can be playful or savagely satirical. It is a rare pleasure to read poems of such natural virtuosity, ambitious in theme and wide-ranging in subject matter, yet unpretentious in voice and generally cheerful in tone.