Towns in the Great Desert

Towns in the Great Desert is a significant addition to the corpus of a major Australian poet. These poems make a significant claim for Boyle's standing as one of Australia's most important contemporary poets.Towns in the Great Desert contains a new book of poems together with selections from Boyle's six previous books. The title sequence is a fabulist's journey through imaginary cities possessing suspiciously modern features, but the new work also comprises a collection of miscellaneous lyrics, a very late-night set of Nightpoems and an extended meditation on Lorca. Unusually in Australia, Boyle inhabits the alternative poetic universe of the French and Spanish traditions: within it, he has framed such powerful early poems as 'Kinderszernen', and disturbing recent work such as 'To a day in October'. Restlessly and inventively, his high styles stalk through a beautiful but difficult world, never too far away from the guardian angel of catastrophe. - Martin LangfordWith his brilliant Borgesian Apocrypha (2009) Peter Boyle also set himself a very hard act to follow. At his best, Boyle could convince us that a poet can open the doors of him- or herself, and with a Keatsean negative capability, become a vehicle for some deep, Orphic force. The doors are opened very wide here. The force is like a river in flood. That these new poems come attended by a generous selection from Boyle's first six collections makes it a rich gift to his readers. - David BrooksPeter Boyle was born in Melbourne in 1951 and has lived in Sydney from the age of 12. As well as writing poetry he has translated extensively from French and Spanish poetry. His work has received numerous awards and been translated into several languages.