The Sweeping Plain

Of Michael Sharkey's 2002 collection, 'History', Anne Kellas wrote, 'There's nothing false in 'History': layers, depths, echoes and literary structures show real poems, the genuine article. I am sure that spending more time with Sharkey could well make quite a few poets wake up a bit. Listen to what he says. How he says it. He is not playing around'. ('Blue Dog: Australian Poetry') Tim Thorne remarked, 'If anyone else has written poems about jokes, floors and Vegemite, I doubt whether they have done so as movingly or with as much insight into the human condition. "The triumph of the Takeaway: A Threnody for John Forbes" is the best poetic tribute to the late great poet I have seen. It ranks with Lowell's "Words for Hart Crane" as a latter day "Adonais" and, as with the best elegies or threnodies, it is about so much more than grief or praise, Sharkey is one of the most under-rated of contemporary Australian poets.' (Famous Reporter)