Journal of the First Step

These poems seek to evoke the often subtle yet ultimately profound shifts in awareness which occur during meditation and in daily life, as the non-dual perspective enables a seeing through, or past, the formulations of experience which a dualistic mind-set presents. And they reflect on both the personal and the societal implications which attend such changes.

'...in these days of look-alike poetry from so many younger poets, a 'new' poet's...collection which has a singular, individual feeling for the world comes as a jolt...Heald's work...is spare, precise, elegant and utterly his own.' Martin Harrison, ABR, June 1999. [re Body-flame]

'Heald has written his way into the front rank of contemporary poets with consistent integrity and intelligence.' - Judges' Comments, Queensland Premier's Prize, Arts Queensland Judith Wright Calanthe Award for a Poetry Collection, 2005 [re Focusing Saturn]

'This is a remarkable and original book...a daring and triumphant project...[Heald has written] poems of great clarity and subtlety, classically direct poems...' - Robert Gray, foreword to The Moving World.