Author(s): Stephen Falconer

Poetry and Short Stories

Stephen Falconer's A Place to Breathe: Poems and images from Tasmania is a jewel. It is aptly laconic, almost sparse, with observations both personal and universal. Falconer captures the rural and isolated frugality that is part of the beauty of his homeland - which he clearly loves. -Dr Dain Bolwell, 2023Author of Governing Technology in the Quest for Sustainability on EarthStephen Falconer's poetry burst like a blazing light on my poetic horizon from the first time that I encountered it some forty years ago. In the intervening years it has remained a constant source of imaginative stimulation and refreshment. Stephen writes with the electricity of the Word, like the French Symbolists, Rimbaud and Verlaine, to whom he is a worthy successor. He senses the sparks that fly between images that defy rational explanation. Do not try too hard to explain, simply surrender to the flashes by which Stephen's poems penetrate: travel with them, both into the depths and into the light, and be nourished. -Melvyn Cann, 2023Ex-lecturer in Philosophy at La Trobe University