Poetry. Robert Adamson has long been recognized as one of Australia's major poets, from his early writing as a poet maudit in Sydney through twenty books of verse and prose. In THE GOLDFINCHES OF BAGHDAD, he explores the landscape of the Hawkesbury River, sounding its waters and wildlife for psychological resonances. As Robert Creeley writes, Robert Adamson is that rare instance of a poet who can touch all the world and yet stay particular, local to the body he's been given in a literal time and place. He is as deft and resourceful a craftsman as exists, and his poems move with a clarity and ease I find unique.