Echidnas Don't Live Here Any More: Poems of loss and recovery since the Black Summer bushfires - Belinda Broughton - Bog

'This powerful collection leads readers through the harrowing reality of losing everything to bushfire. Broughton experienced the unimaginable. In one terrifying day, she and her husband lost everything: the home where they'd raised a family, all her memorabilia, her journals, all their artwork. And the landscape she'd loved and tended for over forty years was burned beyond recognition. Using a lyrical mix of free verse, Japanese form and prose poetry, this important collection explores loss and renewal on physical, spiritual and ecological levels. Intimately observed and heartbreakingly philosophical, Broughton creates a clear-eyed self-portrait of a woman gently tending hope even within the maelstrom of sorrow. Finding strength in the resilience of her bushland home, Broughton creates a lyrical personal history that speaks of what it means to lose everything, yet still trust in family, community and the natural world to sustain her through the darkest of times.' - Rachael Mead