Robert Adamson’s final book is a search for recognition and a poetic tribute to his love of nature

• Birds and Fish: Life on the Hawkesbury – Robert Adamson (Upswell) In 2004, Adamson published Inside Out: An Autobiography.
• Adamson grew up in Neutral Bay on Sydney’s lower north shore, which afforded him ample opportunity to pursue his interest.
• It is a terrifying, beautiful scene, recounted not by the fallen boy, of course, but the poet he became.

• What I think I was aiming for when I stared into each bird’s eyes was some flicker of recognition, some sign of connection between us.
• What I think I was aiming for when I stared into each bird’s eyes was some flicker of recognition, some sign of connection between us.
• Theories of recognition have a long history, which in the Western tradition date back at least as far as Hegel.
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Blunt and honest

• This was the year of Mr Roberts, the teacher who introduced me to poetry and what they called nature studies.
• This was the year of Mr Roberts, the teacher who introduced me to poetry and what they called nature studies.

• It helped, too, that Mr Roberts “knew a bit about birds” and that he was encouraging about projects and assignments.
• The young Adamson lights up, a recognition undimmed, even when a new teacher tells him “to forget [his] ambition”.
• Nature was blunt and honest.
• There was no third party, no good manners, no god involved – no reasoning or theology, let alone spelling and maths.
• Nature was blunt and honest.
• It is to do with the field of being; you can project yourself back to the original lores, rites and rituals.
• It is to do with the field of being; you can project yourself back to the original lores, rites and rituals.

Craig Billingham has previously received funding from The Australia Council for the Arts (now Create Australia).