In the section of new poems, ‘Koi’ leaves a vibrant, thought-provoking imprint of the brocaded carp, ‘liveried escutcheoned’, its freedom diminished, ‘impounded in a hotel lobby’; illusory beauty belies reality. ‘Wave Rock’ is similarly rich, precisely observed, provoking reflections on the nature-culture dichotomy in an imaginative leap that ingeniously bridges Australia and China. ‘Maringarup Pools’, ‘Stirling Ranges’ and ‘Wheat-bins’ anchor us vividly in Western Australia. Although set in home territory, poems such as ‘Thunder’ and ‘Kittens’ evoke wider interrelationships within nature; Caddy connects us with the physical world and the cosmos, as in ‘Starwoman’, and with mysteries of creative power in ‘Burning Bright’.

Several poems from her earlier collections reveal an inveterate traveller journeying both to exterior and interior worlds. Caddy’s understanding of the power of language is nowhere more apparent, ironically, than in ‘Aphasia’, which conveys an Antarctic experience she finds almost inexpressible. With few exceptions (e.g., ‘House of Women’, ‘Cosmos’, ‘Sky’) these carefully crafted poems are refreshing journeys of discovery which open up unfamiliar places, bringing them potently alive.