One of my favourite poetry collections ever. I even wrote a paper on this several years back, which was eventually published so that was nice, but I've read the collection again today and I love it as much as ever. O'Connor spent a summer working on the Reef as a scuba diver at a scientific research station, and the collection came out of that. It's a collection that's full of wonder and anger - wonder at all the marvellous creatures he sees, this chaotic bloom of life and diversity... and anger that we're so easily letting it slip away through mismanagement and neglect. It's kind of horrifying to remember that this came out in 1976 (before I was born, even) and that things now are even worse for the Reef, and getting ever more so.

Someone needs to reissue this book, is all I can say. It's as topical as ever. And it's been a horrible process, but I think I've finally narrowed down my favourite poem from it - "On a first encounter", about the crown-of-thorns starfish, which is an invasive species still wreaking absolute havoc today. I'm fairly sure O'Connor hates the thing as much as I do.