Photo | Adeolu Eletu on Unsplash Anna Akhmatova was a Russian modernist poet (11th June 1889 Odessa - 1966 Moscow). She was part of the Acmeist group of poets in Russia from about 1910, 'their ideals were compactness of form and clarity of expression' (wikipedia). Other Acmeist poets were Nikolay Gumilev (Anna's husband for a while), Sergei Gorodetsky, Osip Mandelstam, … Continue reading A Poem For a Thursday | Anna Akhmatova #RUSpoem
Jazz Money is a poet and artist of Wiradjuri heritage, currently based on sovereign Gadigal land. Her debut collection of poetry, how to make a basket, was described by the judges of the David Unaipon Award as 'luminous and beautifully sculpted, [a] seamless collection of poems that reflect on place and passion...[and] builds on the … Continue reading how to make a basket | Jazz Money #AWWpoetry
[Kumquat] Photo by Tina Xinia on Unsplash During Poetry Month, I find that poems pop up everywhere. In chapter 10 (Furnishing the Capitol) of Cold Light by Frank Moorhouse, Edith, our charming but ageing protagonist recites a couple of stanzas of John Shaw Neilson's poem, The Orange Tree. She is inspired to do so after eating a cumquat … Continue reading The Orange Tree | John Shaw Neilson #poetrymonth
Throughout Poetry Month I am on the lookout for serendiptious poetic moments in my reading and my daily life. It's rather surprising how and where a poem will suddenly present itself. Perhaps not surprising to find a poet or a poem in a book, but a recent visit to The White Rabbit Gallery threw up … Continue reading Bao Guang | Roses Made From Water #poetrymonth
Photo by ray rui on Unsplash Have you ever felt haunted by an author? I had cause to look inside a copy of Michael Cunningham's The Hours the other day and the very first thing to jump out at me were the epigraphs. The first one was a quote from a Jorge Luis Borges poem called The Other … Continue reading The Other Tiger | Jorge Luis Borges #poetrymonth
August is turning out to be a busy, but exciting reading month. Poetry Month Red Room Poetry is once again hosting Poetry Month across Australia to promote awareness and visibility of poetry and to support the growing diversity of voices. They provide a handy list of 30 ways for the rest of us to celebrate … Continue reading August – Poetry and Austen
The Edith Readalong has been my priority of late. But before I got started with it, I was determined to finish a few of the half read books by my bed which included a trip to Nigeria, dabbling with some poetry and a peek inside a leper colony. Princeton, in the summer, smelled of nothing, … Continue reading June Mini Reviews
East Gippsland panorama | Image source Native-Born, according to Wikipedia, regularly appears in Australian anthologies. However I had never come across it until an article in The Conversation last year when Donna Mazza^ referenced it. Mazza declared that, Native-Born...is still startlingly relevant to contemporary ecofeminism by subtly linking the discovery and cremation of a dead … Continue reading Native-Born | Eve Langley #AWWpoem
This incredible book is a testament to the renaissance of First Nations poetry happening in Australia right now.UQP website Fire Front: First Nations Poetry and Power Today is an anthology of poems and essays from many well-known and emerging First Nations writers and thinkers. It is powerful and confronting stuff. It is very contemporary, yet … Continue reading Fire Front | edited by Alison Whittaker #AUSpoetry
Based on John Edward Lloyd's History of Wales, Vol I and Koch's Celtic Culture Gwerful Mechain (c. 1460–c. 1502) is considered to be one of the first female Welsh poets. She wrote about female sexuality and the domestic issues of medieval women. Her parents were Gwenhwyfar and Hywel Fychan from Mechain (a medieval cantref or land division), in … Continue reading Cywydd y Cedor | Gwerful Mechain #Dewithon22
Last month I feature a few of the prayer/poems from Carmen Bernos de Gasztold's collection called Prayers From the Ark. These simple French poems had been rediscovered by Rumer Godden and then translated into English during the 1960's. The second collection of poems, The Creatures' Choir (1965), errs more on the side of poetry than prayers. … Continue reading The Creatures’ Choir | Carmen Bernos De Gasztold #poetry
According to wikipedia a drop bear is a fictional creature, an urban myth, designed by Australians to scare tourists. It has even been given a fictional scientific name - Thylarctos plummetus. According to folklore it looks like "a predatory, carnivorous version of the koala" and lives in gumtrees, dropping onto the heads of unsuspecting bushwalkers. … Continue reading Dropbear | Evelyn Araluen #AWWpoetry
In her Preface, Louise Crisp describes her collection of poetry, Yuiquimbiang as an 'ecopoetic form that integrates political essay and environmental poetics: a project that evolved out of my double life as a poet and environmental activist'. The regions she writes about the East Gippsland and the Monaro. Crisp's poems and texts evolve from her … Continue reading Yuiquimbiang | Louise Crisp #PoetryMonth
I have written so few poetry posts over my 12 years of blogging, that I thought I might use this month, poetry month, to highlight a few of the older posts and bring some sense of order and cohesion to the few I do have. Robert Frost was one of my first attempts at poetry … Continue reading Robert Frost #PoetryMonth
Portrait of a girl, previously thought to represent Sappho the ancient Greek poetess, with tablets and pen. She is also known as Meditation. Italy. Roman. c 75 AD. Pompeii. (Photo by Werner Forman/Universal Images Group/Getty Images) I'm a book behind already in Nick's Master and Commander four year readalong of the series. I knew it … Continue reading Midnight Poem | Sappho #poem
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