Michael Farrell has a reputation as the most adventurous and experimental ofcontemporary Australian poets, since he continually pushes the boundaries of whatour poetry can do. Cocky's Joy is likely to be his breakthrough collection, the one whichwins him a wider audience, and part of the reason for this lies in the use it makes ofAustralian history and popular culture. Farrell was born and raised in rural NSW andas its title suggests, many of the poems in this collection are rooted in the bush, whichthey present as a surreal wonderland, connected to the world in magical and oftenhilarious ways. There are love poems too, and gay riffs on such figures as the cowboy,the waiter and the 'romantic woman'. Farrell's experimentalism doesn't prevent himfrom offering really moving tributes, to parents and lovers, and scenes rememberedfrom the past. In fact, it is precisely his eye for metaphor and the strange combination,for punning and word play, that gives his poetry its humour and energy. "Catherine/designed pages for ads where tiny buffalo/ roamed a celery patch, leaving healthwarnings/ on the stalks. Why not just use ants? objected/ Heathcliff." 

'Shortlisted for the 2016 Prime Minister's Literary Award forPoetry'.