Thanks to the 2015 Stella Prize, I picked up Ellen Van Neervan's book, Heat and Light to discover the most extraordinary and eclectic collection of stories. I still think about them five years later. So I was thrilled when she published a book of poetry entitled Throat last year. It did not have an easy … Continue reading Throat | Ellen Van Neerven #Poetry
Dearly: Poems by Margaret Atwood was a book I savoured slowly over the Christmas/New Year period. I tucked the lovely slim volume into my work backpack to read one or two before work over my morning coffee, or to take with me to lunch. I would read a few more each time, sometimes rereading lines, … Continue reading Dearly: Poems | Margaret Atwood #Poetry
2019 was the International Year of Indigenous Languages:It is through language that we communicate with the world, define our identity, express our history and culture, learn, defend our human rights and participate in all aspects of society, to name but a few.Through language, people preserve their community’s history, customs and traditions, memory, unique modes of … Continue reading Kindred | Kirli Saunders #Poetry
Sketch of Laura as Venus C1444Early in chapter six of One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the suitor, Pietro Crespi is wooing Amaranta. He 'would arrive at dusk, with a gardenia in his buttonhole, and he would translate Petrarch's sonnets for Amaranta. They would sit on the porch, suffocated by oregano and … Continue reading The Fifteen Sonnets of Petrarch #Classic
Photo by Jack B on Unsplash | Snowdon, WalesDo not go gentle into that good night,Old age should burn and rave at close of day;Rage, rage against the dying of the light.Though wise men at their end know dark is right,Because their words had forked no lightning theyDo not go gentle into that good night.Good … Continue reading Do not go gentle into that good night | Dylan Thomas #Dewithon
In Midland still the trains go by. The black smoke thunders on the sky. Still in the grass the lovers lie. And cheek on cheek and sigh on sigh They dream and weep as you and I,In Midland where the trains go by. Across the bridge, across the town. The workers hurry up and down. The pub still … Continue reading In Midland Where the Trains Go By | Dorothy Hewett #AWW
The Peter Porter Prize is a literary prize for a new poem run by the Australian Book Review. It's an annual prize, running since 2005. It's worth a total of $9,000. This year, the judges – John Hawke, Bronwyn Lea, and Philip Mead – have shortlisted five poems. The winner will be announced on 16th … Continue reading I Am the Road | Claire G Coleman #AWW
Earl Livings is a Melbourne based poet. His first book of poetry, Further Than Night (Bystander Press), was published in 2000.An acrostic poem uses the first letter of each to line to spell out a message, or in this case, the title of a book and it's various characters.It's a little bit of fun to get … Continue reading A Poem for Thursday Moby-Dick
Photo by Christoph von Gellhorn on UnsplashDub Leffler grew up in the small western NSW town of Quirindi. He is descended from the Bigambul and Mandandanji people of south-west Queensland. He is an illustrator of children's books, including one of my favourites from 2011 Once There was a Boy (which he also wrote) and Sorry Day (2018) … Continue reading A Poem for Thursday Dub Leffler
N.B. I selected my AusReadingMonth poems over a month ago.Given the horrendous bush fires around NSW and Queensland throughout November, I felt it was important to come back to say that this poem, and my choice to post it today in no way reflects the current state of emergency in many of our national parks … Continue reading A Poem for a Thursday by Ali Cobby Eckermann
Image: James Tylor, Turralyendi Yerta (Womma) 2017 Photograph with ochre & charcoal.Place. Land. Country. Home. These words frame the settings of our stories. Griffith Review 63: Writing the Country focuses on Australia’s vast raft of environments to investigate how these places are changing and what they might become; what is flourishing and what is at … Continue reading Griffith Review 63: Writing the Country edited by Julianne Schultz & Ashley Hay
Image sourceSydney has once again woken up shrouded in bush fire smoke. Air quality is very poor and people are being asked to avoid exercising outdoors. It's hot one day, cold and blustery the next. It's hard to breath freely and it's not even summer yet.Two weeks ago it was the smoke from the fires … Continue reading A Poem for a Thursday by Melissa Lucashenko
