Sinking Lessons portrays the vitality of a world full of things and beings we too often disregard, using language that vibrates in harmony with the lively tales it tells--from small, everyday events to stories of shipwrecks and strandings, resurrections and reanimations, arctic adventures and descents into the underworld. The poems explore themes of mortality, memory, and transformation through vivid imagery and introspective reflection.

The collection features a diverse cast of characters, including members of the poet's family alongside heroes from myth and literature, such as Orpheus, Scheherazade, and Frankenstein's Creature. Crowding in upon these, at all times, a multitude of non-human protagonists: sun and stars, wind and water, mud and sand, body fluids, decaying matter, chemicals organic and inorganic, and a great many fishes and birds and beasts. Sinking Lessons is the first collection of poetry from Philip Armstrong, winner of the 2019 Kathleen Grattan Poetry Award.