Dining at the Edge

‘Charles Freyberg entices us into a midnight world where passion brings both rapture and peril. Like Kenneth Slessor, Dorothy Hewitt and Michael Dransfield, he portrays the creative denizens of Kings Cross after dark with lyrical poems mourning the devastation wrought by addiction, plague and madness.’ – Lou Steer

‘Freyberg treads the page with all the notes of Callas at La Scala. His characters are angel boys wrestling with gargoyles, in their cries we hear Chelsea Manning’s lyric of injustice, the stillness of a goanna in the noon sun, and the sound of waves beating at the bodies of our past. A daring collection, wide-eyed with hope and love.’ – Rico Craig

‘In Charles Freyberg’s dislocated world we “gather cracks” in life’s journey that demand both attention and love. In Dining at the Edge, we are confronted by scenarios of loss and degradation but also a profound joy in art as solace. In the poems there is ambiguity and subtlety as well as intensely realised, high-keyed images that surprise and confront. Freyberg writes through a compelling voice that aches and celebrates – and in this he proclaims the imperatives of love.’ – Simeon Kronenberg