Personal Logistics (Chris Palazzolo, Fremantle)

Chris Palazzolo is a poet based in the East Kimberley region whose works have previously won the Viva La Novella prize and the ABC Fiction Award. His latest collection, Personal Logistics, muses on the region, its vast landscape and intense climate, with poems written since his family’s relocation to the area in 2019. In his author note, Palazzolo argues against the view that ‘poetry is a kind of mystical form of personal expression’, instead putting forward the idea of a well-crafted machine and how his own ‘personal logistics’ (grabbing a bag, setting up at the library, pen hovering over paper) contribute to his mental preparedness to write poetry. The poems in this collection are not divided into sections but demonstrate a clear flow from transport and logistics of the Kimberley region (with poems often situated on the expansive highway) to the climate (and the importance of water in particular) and to the First Nations people of the region, with a distanced respect (the book makes no reference to Palazzolo consulting with First Nations peoples). Highlight poems include ‘Tribute’, narrated by the Ord River, and each of the ‘Reading’ poems, in which the poet is reading literature and philosophy in landscapes that at first appear antithetical to intellectual rigour. Personal Logistics is for poetry readers who are interested in landscapes and portraits of places, perhaps fans of Peter Skrzynecki and Les Murray.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Clare Millar is a writer, editor and children's bookseller. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

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Category: Reviews