AustLit

'One River is a series of haibun studies of the Hunter River and its tributaries. Haibun is a Japanese poetic form of prose punctuated by haiku. In this instance, the longer, but still brief, Korean sijo are employed as lively sketches of the birds, trees, weather and waterways encountered in the author's wanderings. The heart of this book are unique meditations on the river and its hinterland. In their whimsical complexity—and leaps of imagination—they constitute overlooked truths, truths distinct from those that arise from objective observation. These poems are an immersive experience, one in which the reader might find a nascent sense of their capacity for flow as is manifest in the limber movements of water falling.' (Publication summary)

'Borrowing from the title of his Bruce Dawe prize-winning poem, Steve Armstrong’s wonderful first collection is ‘a cracked and weathered prayer’. These are questing, generous poems, filled with grace and vulnerability, and reading them is like taking a walk through a magical and yet familiar landscape, a walk haunted by memory, grief, longing and hope. Highly recommended.

– Lisa Brockwell

'The intimate territory Armstrong walks attends to the wider world—in particular, wild country, forest and field, river and ridge. But also the suburbs, the kitchen, the realms of the everyday. He writes the places in themselves, and he writes them as analogues, metaphors, for the geographies of the self. His is a poetry of landscape, desire, memory, love, lust and loss. Of delight and dilemma. He is a diviner. From the broken ground he draws the sacred.

– Mark Tredinnick' (Publisher's summary)