AustLit

'Ground is a meditation on the evolution and nature of Australian spaces. The collection is governed by the tensions which characterise Langford's work: between the way our spaces are projections of enlargement narratives, and the need to resist them by acknowledging the others with whom we interact.

'Enlargement narratives place the self at the centre of the world, and share an obsession with a point of arrival which is only meaningful in terms of the story from which it has arisen. Against them, Langford proposes the idea of the dance: by which he means any relationship with another in which neither is privileged which is based on attention and respect, rather than on the relegation of the other in the face of one's needs. Loosely chronological, the collection begins by locating us within the natural world, and continues with poems about our disjunctive attempts to rationalise the nature of settlement.

'There are sequences on the nature of Australian silences, on transitional periods in the nation's interior life and on the cultural layering of our suburbs. One section explores ways in which Australia has been represented, and another explores what Langford nominates as seven of the Sydney seasons. The collection culminates in a title sequence in which our interactions are conceived as dances. Grounded in ideas, this is, nevertheless, a very lyrical poetry.' (Publication summary)