Equal parts vague and implicit, singular and epic, Cobby Eckermann’s verse novella, She is the Earth, charts poignant, traumatic, healing territory – harnessing the compact power of its minimalist verse to evoke the vast unknown of land and sky, relation and place, knowledge and affect. Epic in purpose and epic in scope, this is a work that demands immersion – never once badgering, yet always occupying its own dignified territory with the deepest form of love for Country, offering insight with philosophical attention.  

It is difficult to summarise the 90 short poems, where mother and child, totem and story, country and character combine to generate a distinct poetic idiolect, more music than meaning and still, remaining cohesive. This is work steeped in identity, longing and knowledge. She is the Earth is a deceptively complex work, despite its minimalism, which pushes at the limits of form and cognisance, to deliver capacious affect.