Caldwell is interested in the instant.

Specifically, that point where language seems to arrive before the writer has quite decided what they are doing. He develops the idea of the “hyperconscious” to describe this paradoxical state of composition, drawing on Freud, Lacan, Keats, Eliot, Shklovsky and contemporary lyric practice to ask how much of a poem is made intentionally and how much is discovered after the fact. Some of the more interesting passages explore poetic language as a way of disrupting habitual perception, and on the coexistence of concentration and surrender required by lyric writing. 

At it's heart, it's a compact critical monograph on what consciousness is actually doing while a poem gets written. Caldwell moves between literary theory, psychology and close readings without turning the thing into a mausoleum. Especially useful for readers interested in composition, the unconscious, embodiment, negative capability and the line between making meaning and finding that you have accidentally made it.

Arcadia / Australian Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, 2018. First edition. Paperback. Very light shelf wear to covers, with minor handling marks only. Authorial inscription to title page: “Dear Michelle, with much love, Grant. x”. Internally otherwise clean and unmarked; binding firm. Near fine condition.