New book of poetry: Eigth Habitation

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Adam Aitken
Eighth Habitation
Giramondo Publishing
Poetry, Paperback, 144pp
ISBN 978-1-920882-46-4
$24.00
Publication April 2009

Eighth Habitation is Adam Aitken’s fourth collection of poetry, and takes its name from the
Buddhist-Hindu idea of purgatory, a mystical realm where the meaning of one’s life is judged.
The collection questions the nature of Australian identity, and the possibilities of being and
belonging, both at home and abroad. The poems inhabit a range of landscapes and
perspectives, in Indonesia, Cambodia,Thailand, China and Australia, with an empathy and
understanding that suggests a consciousness imbued with an Asian sensibility. Blending the
traditional, the cosmopolitan and the unexpected in their observation of detail, the poems
register the dignity and resilience of a world recovering from personal tragedy and the trauma
of history.

Was it the cow you photographed
that morning, the queues
at the dengue hospital?
Does this count as a metaphor for love,
or a kind of neglect by design, the body’s
failing to sleep and wake
at the proper time?

Throughout the collection, Aitken presents a montage of voices, both real and imagined:
colonial Brits in Malaya, an Anzac great grandfather, a hungover businessman en-route to Bali,
explorers, a failed detective, a tourist caught in a religious blackout, wanderer poets and their
muses, megalomaniac Hindu deities, terrorists, ex-lovers and other undomesticated creatures.
These are poems intensely lyrical and rich in their references, aware of life’s comedy, and
sensitive to its tragedies.

Adam Aitken grew up in London, Thailand and Malaysia, before coming to Australia in 1968.
His previous collection Romeo and Juliet in Subtitles, was shortlisted for the South Australian
Festival Award for Poetry, and the Age Book of the Year Award for Poetry. Aitken works as an
editor on a number of online journals, and as a lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney.

‘a lucid and finally lyrical voice… wholly original on the Australian scene’
– Michael Brennan

‘nuanced textures of meaning that pull you inside the words rather
than merely to them…consistenly remakes the language on the page’
– J.A. Wainwright

Giramondo Publishing Company
website: http://www.giramondopublishing.com

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