Way Stations

Stephen Gilfedder’s Way Stations features selected poems from the past 40 and more years. The chronology leads us from the contemporary to his initial fully realised work.  Throughout, people – in their various guises, locations and predicaments – are the abiding concentration.  An important aspect is the observation and recording of human mutability in time, place and circumstance. The personal dimension is explored across its contradictions, from commitment to uncertainty, to self-discovery and perseverance.  Throughout the language is rich and rhythmic, steeped in the Australian vernacular.

‘Gilfedder’s unforced and liquid vernacular is sharpened and made memorable by his vivid and exacting imagery. These poems are moments observed from the inside and outside, narratives that are as particular as the shape of a place-name in the mouth, yet as universal as the Way Stations of every life.’

Penelope Layland