How
pleased I am to be included in the recent anthology: The House is Not Quiet and The World is Not Calm edited by Kit
Kelen and Geoff Page (ASM/Cerberus Press and Poetry at the Gods 2014).
It gives
a great spread of writing from the Canberra Region’s poets both living and not,
and shows the diversity of style and interests. I got a lot from Geoff Page’s
introduction together with his selection of poems in Part 1 by Canberra’s major
deceased poets. There are 44 current poets included, with one to several poems
each. This is quite a stately looking publication with its grey tones, clean
white text and sexy matte satin finish.
I’m
dipping at the moment. I have discovered the piercing beauty and loss of
Michael Thorley’s Lipsticks, the powerful
merging of human, beast and boulder in Nicola Bowery’s The Muster and the winging words and observations of Omar Musa in My Generation. I just love Charlotte
Clutterbuck’s Snail Wisdom – both
jolting and slimy, the freshness and grace of Luke Whitington’s Antipasto Orazio and the anguish in
Kathy Kituai’s potent Tanka Sequence.
KA Nelson’s Tying Up Loose Ends had me both cringing and
chuckling while Victoria McGrath’s poem The
Last Say is a biting and hilarious take on relationships. (And here I must
declare friendship with both Kathy and Victoria.)
Canberra
is as much home to me as Binalong NSW where I actually live. Canberra is where
I found my flocks of a feather. First by attending Fellowship of Australian
Writers meetings, then working fulltime in arts and publishing. Becoming a part
of the writing scene there - reading in a ton of events, organizing many. Going
to workshops, facilitating workshops and other things. Many of my poems have
been written in or inspired by Canberra.
I’m
lucky these days – I have poetry and artist friends in Binalong and in nearby
Yass too. Binalong nestles – as adorable villages do – in the Yass Valley in
the Southern Tablelands, a very beautiful region. Foxes step out in front of
you, ducks fly across your windscreen, eagles circle above, sheep bleat in the
paddocks. Often a poem will hover just within reach.
My poem The Architecture of Pear (p. 78) has influences
(a honing of images for example) from exhibitions in both Canberra and the
Southern Tablelands. The domestic elements are from home in Binalong and the
newspaper is very likely the Saturday Canberra
Times. The poem written in Binalong won the artsACT’s national Rosemary Dobson
Poetry Prize (joint) in 2011. A straddling of place through pears, papers and
paintings. It’s been previously published but here it feels more at home.
I was very happy to see your pear poem again, Lizz.
ReplyDeleteThe cover reminds me of War of the Worlds...although they were tripods.