It is as a poet, however, that she first emerged and may well be best remembered - and perhaps as an anthologist.

Her The Penguin Book of Australian Women Poets (1986) was important in redressing a long-since vanished imbalance.

Her new book, Harbour, is a kind of mini-selected, the best of almost 20 years' poems.

It takes a few pages to swim into focus.

"Dirt" on p.7 is a salutary reminder of Llewellyn's abiding interest in gardening and, incidentally, her cheerful and affectionate dismissal of (some) men.

"Then, just when I thought / for me it was all over, / I fell in love with dirt. / Mr Right at last."

Later, she rhapsodises: "At last a faithful lover / solemn, silent, magisterial, / profound and mysterious - / all the things I like in a man."

And then ends it neatly, if blackly, with: "I've always been a bolter / but this time / I'll go to my grave with him."

As this excerpt may indicate, Llewellyn has always been sui generis. It's never been clear exactly where she comes from and who her antecedents are.

She has certainly never belonged to a group (except feminists by the larger definition).

Her tone is generally colloquial though not distractingly so. Her rhythms are mostly free verse but there is a fairly strong iambic under many of them. "I fell in love with dirt. / Mr Right at last".

This particular combination can sometimes give her poems a slightly "artless" feeling, as if the form is being used for another purpose than its own.

In an age when poets have become somewhat self-regarding about their "technique" this can be a relief, even if suspicions are awakened.

At times the poems risk being diaristic, a form in which Llewellyn also has considerable experience.

There is a substantial number of clever, highly distinctive and moving poems in Harbour, among them "The Lodger", "The Pact", "The English Tradition" and "Welcome".

Those who want a fuller sample of Llewellyn's talent would be advised also to hunt down some of her early work, going right back to Trader Kate and the Elephants (1982). There is much to be found there too.

"To the Married Man" is a good example. It begins: "While you look for your underpants / I think about the alternatives / when affairs like ours / are breaking up."