From the Ashes features contributions from some of Australia’s most remarkable poets. Many are well known around the country, and indeed, the world. Others, almost completely unknown, except in their own backyards. The poems in the collection are necessarily diverse in their style and their approach, from those that express our shared fear and anxiety as the catastrophic bushfires of this season grew, to those that reflect the surreal experience of a swollen red sun in smoke-dark skies, to those that share in the horror of the destruction, the outrage at the utter failure of politicians to give any kind of adequate response to the immediate crisis, let alone to the ongoing effects of climate change, and still others that express the everyday courage of those wiping the ashes from their eyes, and fighting at the firefront, and finally, those that explore our interconnection with nature, and our wonder and joy at her resilience and burgeoning recovery.
In some ways Australian poetry is a series of small, loosely interconnecting backyards, with different groups connected through particular styles, venues, localities, online spaces, traditions. Here, all such differences have been put aside, and we have gathered in one big backyard, to reflect our shared experience of the ongoing climate catastrophe, and to lend our support.
All proceeds raised from the sale of From the Ashes will go towards bushfire relief and animal care and rescue charities. Initially we will be donating to Rocklily Wombat Sanctuary, in New South Wales, a private sanctuary who are now also feeding mobs of kangaroos and wallabies, native birds and other creatures that have lost their habitat and food supplies to bushfires. The bush will recover, but it may be a year and more before it has recovered enough to sustain much wildlife.
We will also be supporting Healesville Sanctuary, who are managed by Zoos Victoria, and not only provide sanctuary to animals who have lost their homes to bushfires, but also provide ongoing treatment and care to koalas and other creatures injured or orphaned in the bushfires.
From the Ashes is available to purchase from this site for Australian poetry readers and supporters, for $15, or for a copy signed by one of our contributing poets, $20. If you buy it for $15, $6 goes to printing and production costs, $3 to delivery costs, and the remaining $6 goes to our selected charities. If you purchase a signed copy for $20, $11 goes to our selected charities.
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For readers and poetry lovers outside of Australia, you can show your support by purchasing copies on Amazon, Book Depository, Barnes & Noble, and other online book retailers. Purchase price on international sites should be around $12 of which $4 will go towards our selected charities.
When you make your purchase, and are reading the heartfelt, poignant, pointed and beautiful poetry in this book, just remember, we poets, and the other creatures that live here, are welcoming you into our big, shared backyard. It’s the only one we have, so let’s do all we can to look after it.
