AustLit

'“… an involving exploration of affection, solitude, travel and the tender intricacies of human connection … nuanced poems in which the fractures of experience are exquisitely sutured by words.”

– Paul Hetherington, Professor Emeritus, University of Canberra' (Publication summary)

'The poetry of B. R. Dionysius in Critical State holds continuity and rupture in tension as he explores the encroachments of the Anthropocene on distinctive Queensland regional environments. Focused around the poet’s nature observing adventures, the book is divided into five sections which reflect the diverse habitats of the state. These poems capture the beauty and terrible loss of wild creatures and places, and joyful glimpses of survival and recovery.' (Introduction)

'These prose poems – I would like to call them ‘moments of poetry – recall journeys and intimacies, spaces of habitation, daily practices of denial, rescue affection or assertation. They reflect on negotiations between body and mind that can so fiercely mark the experience of womanhood, striving to capture the intermittent intensity of this ‘boundless resistance’ through the impact of summer and winter storms.'

Source: Afterword.