Melinda Smith writes with exuberance and verve in a variety of forms, old and new. She is personal, opinionated,quirky, and you never know what a poem of hers will do. It is like some firework of unknown make and provenance, spluttering into incandescent life with more than a hint of danger. Wide-eyed surprise is her metier and unsurprisingly she is often to be found in the dashing pages of Quadrant where Les Murray has encouraged just such qualities for many years.