Thistle - Kate Maxwell

Life doesn't always bloom the way you expect. Sometimes it prickles.

Thistle is a raw, searching collection that traces the arc from childhood wonder to middle-age reckoning - and everything bruising in between. These poems look back without flinching, finding beauty in imperfection and meaning in the mess.

But this isn't just one story. It's Australia's story too - a country and a consciousness caught between early promise and the glare of a world in slow decay. Tender and sharp by turns, lyrical one moment and shot through with wit the next, Thistle holds grief, love, and cynicism in the same breath.

Because beneath every spike, something still strives to bloom.