The natural wonders in Andrew Sant's new collection of poems are unpredictable. They are not necessarily famous and unique. There are exceptions. Yellowstone National Park provides the setting for a herpetologist's comical overnight excursion; Mount Etna serves as a metaphor for seismic Italian cooking. Gondwanaland appears in a cartographer's dream. Often overlooked as wonders are spiders, snails, wasps, and snakes. Though not here. Nor is an attention-seeking seal or a lone turtle laying her eggs late at night. Elsewhere, a mischievous thief becomes a 'nocturnal wonder', the Yangtze River perceived as a casualty of human hubris at this globally pivotal time. Where there are famous natural wonders there are people, often crowds. In one of the poems this is provided with a counter perspective: 'Death, as a gate, / makes mass tourism look quaint./It must have caravans of fans.' It too is a wonder.
Andrew Sant is a substantial yet elusive figure in contemporary Australian poetry. -
Australian Book Review