Down Under Collected Poems, my password through rainbow arch, led me in springtime to Murray, McAuley, to Harwood and Dawe … giants Down Under, rooted like scribbly gums, solid as Uluru, stars ’neath the sword of Orion. Then shone the silver-tongued bard, great light of the northerly sky. Subtle in sonnet, loquacious of love, awesome with assonance, acidic in argument, surely no other! But Chaucer then sturdily led me as pilgrim to Herbert, to Blake and to Donne … And wandering on beyond clouds to daffodils’ wordsmith of Dales. Dazzled by comets and cautious, I shrank yet longed to encounter…