The narrative voice in Samuel Wagan Watson's astonishing suite of poems Smoke Encrypted Whispers is truly an exercise in multidimensionality, Watson's tone effortlessly moving between autobiographical memories throughout his life, more immediate "author's notes" about his own writing process, and other, more elusive forms of exploration. These intimate unfoldings are sublimated into another, calmer register, that of the Spirit evolving in the energy behind everything that is formed. It is a cycle of twenty-four vignettes, all of varying distances but all richly coded with the language of consciousness; the symbol, timeless and born from the presence of experience. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"? Get an original essay Beginning with an evocative scientific warning about smoke, it is clear that one has entered a rarefied space and that one participates in the expression of the how and why of smoke. as a symbol it has meaning. The warning creates a continuum with which to bless the collection; he cites the typical negative association of smoke while introducing a subversion – that of spirit and ritual. Watson is a native Bundjalung poet based in Brisbane and his people's smoking ritual – which involves burning symbolic natural resources – can be used to welcome people to a particular area, to cleanse an area or person, or in respect. transition in the passage of elders that honors those past and present, ensuring the future. Watson's is a smoke that is omnipresent in its scale and comprehensiveness; ephemeral, toxic, sacred and a most resonant interdimensional symbol that classifies his poems as Greek epics with “The Warning” serving as a prologue. The first formal poem in the collection, "Smoke Signals" not only introduces another iteration of smoke linking it to a cultural identity, but reinforces the Greek roots by introducing prose captions or phonotext interwoven with verse verses of poetry. italicized and multi-layered that serve as distillations of autobiography—a fashion that beautifully realizes the voice of the spirit that exists not only with life but behind it. As the poet writes: “mysteriously moving the world around us, an unknown power.” This shows a remarkable depth of field spanning from 1976 to 2003, moving seamlessly across the suburban and coastal landscapes of South Brisbane, Cribb Island, Capalaba, with a return to adulthood. to the eminently and poetically useful Boundary Street in Brisbane's West End, to the Berlin Wall and to a recitation in a New Zealand pub. Initially, these are contemporary Australian landscapes of rugby league, second-hand shops and seashores where the pulses of childhood are still accompanied by the ghosts and swathes of smoke from vehicles, industrial sites and the riddles of life. fire transmitted by his uncle visiting from Arnhem. Land. There is an eloquence and subtlety revealed only in the second and third readings which shows how sublime the feeling of internal integrity is; structural choices that transcend simple thematic connections: Watson's native streets inspire his first ghosts, emerging "from the asphalt like smoke rings". These poems are a worship of the notion of kingdom: how public events – whether New Year's celebrations, street festivals featuring indigenous culture, or football matches – take place while people fish, recite their prayers, raise their.