The CJ Dennis Prize for Poetry: Shortlist 2007

In the face of all those passing comments about the recent death of poetry, the judges found a large flock of contestants in this field, many of them of high quality and/or curious interest. Swaying between genres and personal idioms, between the zany and the civilised, these books of poetry kept us guessing or musing for a long time. A clear winner did not come clearly or quickly, far from it. The judges would like to commend the many publishers - large, small and tiny - who are still willing to bring out collections of this ancient art. And of course, the poets themselves.

Let us add that the three books which stand, finally, on our shortlist bear almost no relation to one another. More than ever, the house of poetry has many sheds and barns.

Judges: Chris Wallace-Crabbe (Convenor), Ellen Koshland and Emma Lew

Shortlist

	The Goldfinches of Baghdad Robert Adamson (Flood Editions) Adamson writes once again from the heart-country of his deepest experience, the Hawkesbury River with its fishing-grounds and its ever-active testimony of birds. In some poems this environment endorses moments in his Orphean quest for Eurydice, while later in the book he pays explicit or tacit tribute to his fellow poets. His voice remains lyrically assured throughout.
	Jack Judy Johnson (Pandanus Press) The verse-novel is a genre that has become fashionable, but with varied degrees of success. Jack is one of the rare triumphs in this mode. The narrative is compelling, characters powerful, and the setting at once squalid and rich. The tension sustained here between a claustrophobic pearling lugger and the seductive tropical seas is unrelenting. And so, the reader is trapped.
	Montale: A Biographical Anthology John Watson (Puncher & Wattman) This long poem, self-styled an anthology, resembles no work that has gone before it. It is a book crammed hugger-mugger with seemingly individual poems, some of which draw close to the great Italian poet Eugenio Montale, while others invent a fictive Montale from Mounteagle, NSW. Saturated  with aspects of Italy, this is also a long poem about the mind’s rich life, its jagged juxtapositions.