The Grand Reopening

(Paperback)

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The Grand Reopening, Toby Davidson's third collection, was written during the post-pandemic return to 'normality', a fundamentally abnormal experience now largely consigned to the memory hole reserved for the worst of Australian history. Davidson's works refuse this forgetting and instead portray a changed world re-encountering itself, from Sydney bars to Dublin's streets to the ancient volcano beneath Santorini where, as ever, nature is teacher.

'Toby Davidson is a master of the run-on line, and his end words often create a form of spell-making that works like a lit fuse. These poems move from the accessible, fine-boned lyric to complex narratives that invite close scrutiny and make invitations, not detour signs, towards understanding. The Grand Reopening is a compelling third collection.' Anthony Lawrence

'Whether through observing a pod of passing whales, Dublin's seagulls or a drowning cicada or in musings on love or dental treatment Davidson's unfailingly precise diction and compression, and disciplined, deeply-considered structural decisions, bring us a new collection which crackles with intense, unpredictable energy. And the final sequence is a knockout.' Marcella Polain

'The Grand Reopening is a searing book of love and mortality. In its taut, short lines, the long sequence "His Blood Whisper Scolds the Deathless Intelligence" enters the mind and heart and simply will not leave.' Kevin Hart

Author Bio

Toby Davidson was born in Perth in 1977 and grew up in the beachside suburb of Cottesloe. In 2002 he moved to Sydney, then to Melbourne and Warrnambool, where he completed a PhD at Deakin University. He is presently a senior lecturer at Macquarie University, editor of Francis Webb'sCollected Poemsand author of two scholarly studies,Christian Mysticism and Australian PoetryandGood for the Soul: John Curtin's Life with Poetry.His first collection,Beast Language(free at https://fiveislandspress.com/featured-books/beast-language), was anthologised inContemporary Australian Poetry, The Fremantle Press Anthology of Western Australian Poetry, The Weekly PoemandBest Australian Poems.