Storm in Poplars and Saplings   Poplars and saplings caught in storm blowing, Rage – wrap around to hurl back the challenge – Though groaning and sighing you bend from your growing, And strewn, rootless dust claims lost leaves’ spiral end. Rock shadows beckon down all weeping ages:      “Bend from the tumult to mid-moss of boulders –       Away from the flushed…

Climate guessing body The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change (IPCC) argues boldly that the world’s temperature has risen by one degree above pre-industrial levels. How would they know? There were few reliable weather stations in Africa and Asia 150 and more years ago. Latin America and Russia could not contribute much. Our world then was not yet technically developed enough to…

CHASING AFTER THE WIND by Kerryn Redpath The Mickie Dalton Foundation, Coffs Harbour Paperback: 286 pages Price: AUD$24.99 Reviewed by Jacqueline Gwynne The title of Kerryn Redpath’s book published last year describes the experience of a drug addict: chasing a feeling that is unattainable. Her story details the personal account of addiction that began as a teenager experimenting with alcohol…

THE WEAVER’S SON: Odyssey of an Australian Surgeon by Donald Hossack Melbourne UP, Carlton Paperback: 422 pages Price: AUD$29.99 Reviewed by Julia Patrick Donald Hossack’s story is both a personal memoir for his family and a social history of the time. His life in medicine is the backdrop for how he overcame adversity to follow a distinguished career and an…