The Taste of River Water

I heard about Cate Kennedy's latest book on Radio National's wonderful Book Show. The Taste of River Water is a collection of poetry on every phase of Australian life, but particularly life in rural Australia. A woman's response to bush people and happenings, to the loss of a baby, as well as to experiences of Australians abroad.

Cate neatly captures the stoicism and laconic attitude of country people. I worked with farmers and their animals for the first 30 years of my professional life and know well the kind of people who leave the town photographic competition for:


                                          "the long drive home,
                                          to the big bone-dry expanse of land beyond salvaging
                                          with a second prize certificate
                                          and so few words between them


                                          no speaking up
                                          no protest or complaint
                                          no claim of being wronged, or misrepresented"


She slips her knife of words between readers' complacency and piety in poems about contemporary issues. Irish commissioners too busy eating their dinner to save starving famine victims at their door are compared to our current treatment of refugees in her clever The Poor Commissioners.

"But they are with us,
trudging with the last of their energy,
thousands of miles now, from poorhouses and famine fields,
chilled and exiled, holding pitchforks or children
or unsigned paperwork,
forged, faded identifications, the wrong currencies,
they are with us and we will not see them
as they come through the valley,
spurred by a mirage of lit windows
and laughable hopes of some borrowed hearth,
they are with us, and we are done with them,
we will not meet their eyes."


Every word works to draw us in and make us culpable. The language, alliterations ('forged, faded identifications'), repetitions of phrases ('they are with us'), and metaphors reinforced with the marching rhythm skilfully lead us on.
This is an excellent and consistent collection of poetry available in e-book or hard copy from  Kobo.

Skin Divers

I introduced my sister to the delights of Canberra's Canty's Bookshop this afternoon and was thrilled to find Anne Michaels' poetry collection Skin Divers squeezed between the great males.  Her poetic prose enthralled me late last year when I discovered The Winter Vault  and then devoured Fugitive Pieces on an international flight.  I read it at a more leisurely pace crammed in an apartment in Paris, revelling in her expert layering of meaning and image.
In one of the Canadian bookshops on the Left Bank I hunkered down under the table and savoured some of her verse, unable to afford the $A50 plus price tag on our limited travelling budget.
So ... I could hardly believe it today when my eyes fell on the pristine copy of Skin Divers at a price I could easily manage.
Good old Canty's has done it again! 

3lights

I'm working on a a haiku string for the next 3LIGHTS edition.  The theme is music so I guess it's right up my alley! If you have suitable work for the new online edition see:
http://3lights.wordpress.com/submissions/

 I'd recommend a visit to 3Lights beautiful gallery of poetry at
http://www.threelightsgallery.com/foyer.html

A slip of paper
and a moment's silence
in the bare grey room.
His face empties.
The nor-westerly blasts
the loose-leaved eucalypt
beyond the window pane,
shrivelling all in its path.

In the Company of Rilke

I'm savouring Stephanie Dowrick's latest book "In the Company of Rilke" a morsel at a time. Rilke's poetry has long sharpened my awareness of the mysteries around us and this meditation on his relevance to 21st century life uncovers even greater depths to Rilke than I could ever imagine.