Charmless, and 'despondent' despite a seemingly endless run of luck, Ken Bolton managed - with an ineptitude profonde - the Lee Marvin readings, and Dark Horsey, the Experimental Art Foundation's bookshop. In Adelaide, a figure trailing rumour and scandal, and associated, for example, with the louche set surrounding Noah Banens, his recent collections include Starting at Basheer's (Vagabond) and 2022's Fantastic Day (from Puncher & Wattmann). Shearsman (UK) issued a Selected Poems in 2013, replacing an earlier Penguin Selected.
The author's book on Life at Sea - A Pirate Life - was published by Cordite in 2023.
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'Writing that is buoyed by indeterminacy, in which a blithe surface both collapses and embodies intellectual enquiry … the work is also a meditation on poetry.' - Gig Ryan, Australian Book Review
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'[We find] the familiar use of floating lines, repetition, loose jaunty rhythms, tonal shifts, proper names and explicit references to other poets … a rabbit warren of ideas and tangents grounded in the act of composition. In fact, no other Australian poet, with the possible exception of Pam Brown, pays quite so much attention to the physical and mental act of actually writing poetry.' - Liam Ferney, Rabbit magazine
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'The pieces are lyrical, thoughtful, dreamily associative and easily distracting … my recommendation is to read/savour only a few poems at a time, and then have the pleasure of returning to the book at a later time and having another very enjoyable session.' - Lynne Lancaster, Sydney Arts Guide
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'Poetry that draws on moments of apparent ordinariness, and ever so subtly transforms them into lines of understated enchantment … Lonnie's Lament decries enclosure and conformity, while celebrating the quiet joy of close and loving connections, adding another impressive and humanistic work to its maker's extensive and generous oeuvre.' - Nathanael Pree, Cordite Poetry Review
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'One of the few Australian poets who is able to write about writing (even down to the exact materials and implements) without seeming self-absorbed or self-regarding. There's nearly always a characteristic Bolton offhandedness, which will charm many and perhaps≠ irritate a few.' - Geoff Page, Australian