War, as everyone will attest to, is horrific. Yet we continue to indulge in it under the guise of ';defence' or ';peace keeping' or whatever. And we continue to glorify the stupidity of war (there can be no other term to be applied to Paschendale or Balaclava or Gallipoli or ';weapons-of-mass-destruction' Baghdad) with our annual parades and our demonstrations of patriotism and our pontifications on sacrifice and honour and moral debt, while learning nothing more than new ways to destroy. Janey Mac goes to war on war. And not just the boys' game of war, but the war closer to home: the war in the home, the war that has always existed in the male's attempt at domination over the female. War is more than one nation's land grab for oil or for power or for eco-political gain. It is fought daily on an individual level and the vanquished are often those without a voice, without an ally. Janey Mac tries to illuminate the wars that go unreported, as well as those that are reported in a way reminiscent of earlier poets, but at the same time, with a new eye. Lyrical poetry, this is not: it is narrative poetry and prose hoping for a lyrical response.
Determined to uncover the truth behind her brother's sudden death, a young woman returns to the haunting landscape of her youth to confront the town she thought she'd left behind and the secrets they'd rather stay hidden.';Black Mountain is a deftly written novella- effortlessly building tension as it draws the reader in. Simultaneously delicate and visceral, this is a compelling work.' Judges' Citation, Shortlisted Seizure Viva la Novella IV
The beautifully quirky title of Karen Armstrong's first collection of poetry maps the final journey of a friend who is dying of cancer. These poems capture the warmth of unselfish love; of a relationship despite trying circumstances. A pact between two friends where one shares the burden vicariously as the other faces debilitating illness and inevitable death. - Peter F. Pike, Managing Editor, FreeXpresSion With unpretentious simplicity and directness, Karen Armstrong conveys the tangled emotions defiance, confusion, anger, black humour and acquiescence experienced by two friends confronting one's imminent death. These poems, unified by images of feathers and flight, convey the fragility and lightness of being mortal. They build slowly, without sentimentality, through past memories and present moments towards the inexorable moment of parting when the future must be faced alone. These poems will strike a chord with anyone who has tackled the stony stages of loss. - Janet Upcher This collection of poetry will move you and linger in you long after the vigil is over. It will bring you out from the little black box we keep ourselves tucked into. Armstrong presents the harrowing circumstances as they are with acute sensitivity. The poems are quietly terrifying as they draw us to the bright light of death. They are a potent mix of sorrow and need, an ongoing state of mourning for the poet's friend. This is a book necessary for life. Enjoy this book. It insists. - Karen Knight
Stephen Mallick is a Tasmanian poet and artist. The poems of Just a Moment explore times past, events and memories of childhood and adolescence, the natural world, and the child's insights into a family in pain. The poems have a rich lyricism, employing subtle rhyme and rhythm rooted in the natural cadences of everyday speech. Deceptively simple, the poems build within the collection to a powerful meditation on the pains, joys and coming-to-terms of growing up.
';Raymond Evans's poetry sings with lyricism. His poems melt and explode with love, lust and clear-eyed honesty, revealing the beautiful and brutal undercurrents of a passionate life.' Venero Armanno';This collection offers a powerful and touching insight into the interior life of a well-regarded Queensland historian. Poignant childhood memories, everyday personal observations, commitment to truth in history-telling, the intricacies of love, involvement in humanitarian and political activismthese are all here, described in poetry that is authentic, unpretentious and fired straight from the hip.' Linda Stevenson';Raymond's poems provide an intimate glimpse into the challenges, hardships and sensual pleasures of a well-lived life. Sometimes they serve to illuminate one's own experiences. At others, the poetry carries one away on a compelling journey: Their emotional provocation and illustrative skill fashion an evocative and hypnotic pastiche of writings that transport the reader to worlds far beyond the anticipated and familiar. That is what these poems do.' Em O. Tomasi';Lost in deep thought as I imagine Evans's Bardon boyhood as he floats tin canoes down the neighbourhood stream. The detail commands that no stone is left unturned as magical adventures take shape and Brisbane beckons.' Fiona Foley';Raymond Evans's Half Century brims full of humble treasures. His fifty ';personal and political' narrative poems take us on a journey through time and space from the adventures of a Welsh migrant boy arriving in the raw new land of Australia; to the burgeoning sexuality and social awareness of a teenager exploring the freedom of the 1960s; to the grown man's deepening realisation of his role in history, society, and relationships. All recounted with humour, compassion and wisdom. A delight.' Michele Seminara
Jack Oats (aka Baker) is a man of all trades. Under various pseudonyms, he has been a teacher, ornithologist, conservation biologist, bureaucrat, father, grandfather and husband. He has published lots of science and years ago, he managed Biodiversity Conservation Science for the NSW Department of Environment and Conservation. Nowadays, Jack Oats makes short fictional and factual word creations as part of the Recovery Plan for the Semi-colon. In this, his first published collection of poetry, he pokes fun, casts doubts, celebrates Australia's natural heritage, shares hope and gives love.
Bella was only seventeen when her mother Elie died. Jack and Katie were even younger. Each dealt with the loss in different ways: Bella became the surrogate mother, the responsible one; Katie the arty rebellious eternal wild child; and Jack never settled, changing jobs and girlfriends, looking for the next adventure. When Bella discovers Elie's diary stashed away among her father's belongings, she and her siblings spend the next year reading it together and within its pages are given the chance to remember their childhood through their mother's eyes, challenge family narratives and discover the secrets and wisdom she didn't have time to tell them. It is a gift from her to challenge the past and face the future with a new perspective. Whispers on the Trampoline is a beautiful tale about a mother who turned everyday events into magical stories; and the chance, over a dozen years later, for her three children to finally finish the story she started telling
';The lyrical poems in this anthology invite reader participation and ongoing reflection on themes that are relevant to us all. They dig below the surface but remain accessible and vibrant. Love shines through, from marital to that conferred by grandparenting. It flows out to encompass the vexing and heartrending question of the homeless; those displaced by war and politics, and powerless to defend themselves. The challenges of advancing years are realistically addressed in terms of downsizing, and the sale of the family home and possessions treasured over decades; the need for re-evaluation of what matters most. Nature is celebrated and the small bright moments that each day can grant to those who pause and look around them. History moves into present tense, ';finds cracks lets the light shine in'.' -Beverley George';I have been reading Colleen Keating's poems for many years now and always with pleasure. Colleen has a distinctive Australian voice that combines sensitivity with clear, powerful free verse. Her images are both striking and profound. She has the ability to bring the natural world to life and is able to give a personality to a whole landscape. So her poems are imbued with a spirit of place for both the natural and man-made environments. These poems are both moving and wise, underpinned by a gentle spirituality from a woman's perspective.' - John Egan';Colleen Keating's second collection of poetry teases and tantalises. It explores the inexpressible with delightful moments of discovery. Colleen gives us a spirit of hope in a troubled world.' - Decima Wraxall
Philip Radmall's poems have been published in many anthologies and literary magazines in Australia and the UK. The poems in this collection articulate our emotional incursions into the landscape around us; how we measure our experiences of change and growth, how we resist and endure, with the land as backdrop. Poems here have been praised as ';thrilling with a supple and graceful rhythm and movement that leads to a tentative knowledge of what it means to be human' (Jennifer Harrison and Kim Cheng Boey); for sometimes ';reaching deep into the historical past which is unusual in Australian poetry' (Dennis Haskell and Jean Kent), and for ';interrogating the depths of relationship with the lightest of touches Deft, deep, subtle and fine work' (Mark Tredinnick and Anna Kerdijk-Nicholson). The poems lay out the ground we tread and connect to physically and philosophically, as they venture into our feelings about ourselves and others as we travel across.
An eclectic collection of poems written over the last fifteen years, representing a journey from an early childhood in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, to emerging adulthood in London suburbia, through life in Kent to a voluntary ';exile' in New South Wales. A journey that took me from accepting Sunday school Christianity, through scepticism and atheism to faith. A journey in which I was accompanied and encouraged for the last fifty-one years by the remarkably lovely June.
Though the poems in this book take the reader on a South American journey from Chile to the Galapagos, it is not just another travel book. It's a personal invitation in the form of a poem a day to join the writer in strange and exotic places. The spectacular beauty of cascading water at the Iguassu Falls, a weather-beaten face in a Peruvian marketplace, the roasted guinea pig on the Last Supper table in Cusco Cathedral's altar picture these were among the triggers for the daily poem. Of Llamas and Piranhas is an individual record of moments that became memories.';Valerie Volk has an eye for the fine detail. The quirky insight is something her poet's eye latches on to and the result is poetry that is dazzling in its attention to the complexities of human nature and of nature itself. Volk delves into these complexities and uses them to craft fine poetry that lingers long after the book is closed.' Antonia Hildebrand (Editor, Polestar Writers' Journal)';Valerie Volk's collection of poetic postcards from Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and The Galapagos is a literary record of her tour of South America. It's also more. These poems will spark an interest whether you've visited this beguiling continent or not!' Rob Walker (poet and critic)';In Of Llamas and Piranhas Volk walks us through the jungles of the Amazon, the ruins of Machu Picchu, the crowded streets of Buenos Aires and the churches of Santiago with the alacrity, concision and passion that can only be experienced through the eyes of the poet.' Mark Worthing (author and editor)
A trip to China in 2007 was the catalyst for this collection. Rapid changes are taking place there, yet many people are still clinging to the past. This observation led Barbara Olds to examine how our experiences colour our lives and, by inference, our souls.
Extravagance is Irene Wilkie's second collection. Throughout, she demonstrates a delight in the natural world and its inhabitants. At the same time, she treats, often with a wry humour, the more serious aspects of growing older, loss and environmental concerns. There is strong enquiry with empathy into the dilemma of humankind in the face of a vast and mindless universe, a question lightened by colour in the visual and the aural image
Life is simple and I strongly believe the most worthwhile things in life are free. An emotional person with a passionate love for nature, a keen sense of adventure and a zest for life, living most of the time in a self-confessed dream world, I have recorded impressions of a few of my thoughts and reactions to life around me.
Emigration to Australia in the 1870s was a journey into the unknown. What lay ahead and the social and political contexts that confronted immigrants were just part of the uncertainty. George and Elise Fewtrell were two such immigrants. From separate lands, Shropshire and Schleswig-Holstein, they brought to colonial Queensland different cultures and senses of identity. George, a British man who came to do the Empire's work; Elise from a war-torn home where identity was more fragile and nuanced. Each endured tragedy but ultimately they shared a life together, working to create the community of Palmwoods, raise a family of young Australians and develop a citrus orchard and the Fewtrell's Early mandarin, that continues to enhance the nutrition of millions in India and Pakistan. A compelling story of Australian lives, told in the context of their times. Archetypes of Australia's British and multi-cultural identities. Ordinary lives - extraordinary social history. 'Terry Fewtrell's clear-eyed and sensitive portrait of George and Elise places immigration at the heart of the Australian story. They are one and all: enterprising emigrants from the Old World, dispossessors and nation makers. Their story is one that touches every aspect of Australian history. Written with a deep love of both family and country, Fewtrell has succeeded in making his own family's history universal.' - Mark McKenna, historian'This wonderful book goes well beyond the standard family history, providing us with fresh perspectives on Australia's contested frontier and multicultural past. It is also intimate history, deftly connecting an earlier Australia to the present. Fewtrell as a writer is at once lucid, trenchant and, when required, scholarly. I couldn't put this one down.' - Dr David Headon, historian, Visiting Fellow, ANU'…one of the best family histories I have read' - Noeline Kyle, family story specialist, author of How to write and publish your family story in 10 easy steps'Terry Fewtrell has produced a very lucid piece of social history. His book is grounded in a keen understanding of the milieu of his family, yet at all times, Fewtrell maintains a clear and engaging manner.' - Dr Ray Kerkhove, historian
';It is a gift to take time to notice, and another to bring one's observations into creative verse. John Egan does both with craft and conciseness. He peacefully explores his world in all its potential and limitations. It is this note of quiet, unruffled integrity that makes his poetry a pleasant reading experience. We are fortunate to have the strength of his imagery to bring our Australian urban landscapes alive. We look about us anew as a result of John's penmanship.' Colleen Keating';In this new collection, John Egan demonstrates again his tender perception coupled with a poet's sensibility and an appreciation of the contradictions of the human condition. Whether responding to his favoured urban streetscapes or to the contrasts and spectacle of the natural world, John brings his trademark use of simile, and the inspiration of an educator, to craft fine and evocative poems. A joy for the reader.' David Atkinson';John Egan is a poet of brilliant images. We gasp with delighted recognition when he takes us to a familiar landscape, and know it more deeply because, by giving us words we could not have found for ourselves, he shows us the way to a new experience.' Robin Hillard, Polestar Writers Journal
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