Sanctuaries

Diane Fahey builds on an already rich body of poetry about birds with this fresh tribute to their exquisite intelligence, grace and splendour as they exist in the wild, and in our immediate sensory world. Vividly, she evokes the lives and contemporary plight of penguins, flamingos and myriad other birds. Sanctuaries offers a composite portrait of the suffering and the resilience, the giftedness in song and, in evolutionary terms, the self-fashioned beauty of birds.

Long Moment

‘Taking in the Vista’ – Stefan Christmann

September. _ ese emperor penguins

have translated themselves, early,

from a colony on sea ice where they paired up,

raised their chicks, to this ice shelf.

Above a white ocean, the azure of its horizon

tuned to that deeper blue within the ice,

they enhance the stillness,

stand amidst a panorama of new light.'

'As a scientist and specialist on bird biology and behaviour I can say that Diane Fahey is ever so insightful and always correct in even the smallest glimpses of biological or behavioural aspects of a species that she observes…Her poetry is like a brightly lit art gallery where one can stop and feast on each image, invited in. I hope that many will take up the invitation and partake of the unique pleasures of this book and the highlights of celebrating birds generally and native Australian birds specifically.' – Gisela Kaplan