Song of the Shadow of a Seed

Debut collection from a Whadjuk Nyungar poet. Seeds are sacred. They are the minutiae of all life, along with Boodjar (Country), Beeliar (rivers), women, and all bodies and vessels that carry living things. Mitchell's debut collection is divided into different cycles around the life of a seed - elders, memory, language, hunger, burning, flowering, flight - and the poems within reflect the ways in which a seed, a person and a nation can contain the long history of what has been, as well as the promise of what is to come. These poems open conversations about connection to Country, the resilience of culture, and the complex articulation of identity as a First Nations descendant. Inventive, moving and accessible, Mitchell's work includes conversations-in-poetry with family members that weave connection and shared history into every line. They are a call to listen, to learn, and to engage with the lived truths of Whadjuk Nyungar Country.