My New Collection of Poetry, ‘Time of Fire’

Hello everyone and I’m excited to tell you about my new collection of poems, Time of Fire. It was launched here in Braidwood on 6th August 2023 and I’m thrilled with the response I’ve been getting. People saying they’ve had to read it right through in one sitting. Couldn’t put it down! I’m not used to hearing this in connection with poetry so it’s music to the ears. Time of Fire is my first book on one theme. It’s in three sections Before, Fire and After. A strong narrative sweeps the first two parts along and then the pace is more reflective and the tone redemptive, even hopeful. I’m going to indulge myself now and quote from the blurb: Put bushfire and a poet together and you get an electrifying, rare, poetic insight into the drama of fire and its aftermath. Time of Fire, Harry Laing’s fourth poetry collection, zeroes in on his experience in the 2019/20 bushfires – both as a landholder living on the edge of Monga National Park on the NSW Southern Tablelands and as a volunteer with the NSW RFS. It’s as if the fire itself was dictating these poems. Fire as the elemental force driving the narrative – from lightning strikes in a time of extreme drought and heat to the sheer ferocity of the fire’s rampage followed by the ashen silence. Laing’s grief at what’s been lost is lightened by his witnessing of the regenerative power of the forest, his hearing the first treecreeper days after the fire, sighting the emerald shoots of tree ferns. And throughout he salutes the powerful depth of connection within the Braidwood community and people’s care for each other in that most threatening of times: the time of fire. You can read a couple of the poems on the poems page of this website and you can of course buy the book from the shop (on the website). I can of course sign and dedicate it for you if you would like.