Natural Wonders

The natural wonders in Andrew Sant's new collection of poems are unpredictable. They are not necessarily famous and unique. There are exceptions. Yellowstone National Park provides the setting for a herpetologist's comical overnight excursion; Mount Etna serves as a metaphor for seismic Italian cooking. Gondwanaland appears in a cartographer's dream. Often overlooked as wonders are spiders, snails, wasps, and snakes. Though not here. Nor is an attention-seeking seal or a lone turtle laying her eggs late at night. Elsewhere, a mischievous thief becomes a 'nocturnal wonder', the Yangtze River perceived as a casualty of human hubris at this globally pivotal time. Where there are famous natural wonders there are people, often crowds. In one of the poems this is provided with a counter perspective: 'Death, as a gate,/ makes mass tourism look quaint./It must have caravans of fans.' It too is a wonder.Andrew Sant is a substantial yet elusive figure in contemporary Australian poetry. - Australian Book Review