AustLit

'Diane Fahey’s November Journal is a sequence of one hundred tanka offering glimpses of the glorious beauty of the landscape around Bundanon in New South Wales. Far from meditative, the lively sequence belies any notion that the bush is quiet and serene: all is activity, bustle, and business as usual for the furred, feathered, and scaled inhabitants of the area. Thus, she describes a vibrant landscape in “Clouds” as a “scene of growth, pulse” (47). These are painterly poems appealing primarily to the sense of sight but they are also consonant with the sounds of the countryside. Fahey has a rare gift for musicality as well as imagery.' (Introduction)