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Graeme Hetherington Graeme Hetherington i(A23659 works by)
Born: Established: 1937 Latrobe, Latrobe - Port Sorell area, Northwest Tasmania, Tasmania, ;
Gender: Male
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Works By

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Queenstown Graeme Hetherington , sequence poetry
Three Hittite Kings Graeme Hetherington , sequence poetry
Correspondences and Echoes in Myth Graeme Hetherington , sequence poetry
Parthenon Graeme Hetherington , sequence poetry
An English-Van Diemen's Land Marriage Graeme Hetherington , sequence poetry
London Graeme Hetherington , sequence poetry
1 Hands On, Hands Off i "Teased, bashed up on my way to school", Graeme Hetherington , 2023 single work poetry
— Appears in: The Mozzie , June vol. 30 no. 9 2023; (p. 9)
1 From A Tasmanian Epic Poem i "The generations pass and still", Graeme Hetherington , 2023 single work poetry
— Appears in: The Mozzie , August vol. 31 no. 2 2023; (p. 12)
1 Aftergate 1994 i "No pearly gate of Paradise", Graeme Hetherington , 2023 single work poetry
— Appears in: The Mozzie , December vol. 31 no. 4 2023; (p. 11)
1 Christmas i "'Don't choke on the wishbones", Graeme Hetherington , 2023 single work poetry
— Appears in: The Mozzie , December vol. 31 no. 4 2023; (p. 7)
1 y separately published work icon The Persistence of History Graeme Hetherington , Port Adelaide : Ginninderra Press , 2023 26940912 2023 selected work poetry

'‘The majority of poems in The Persistence of History describe Graeme Hetheringtons engagement with David Keelings paintings. As a form of ekphrasis, Hetheringtons responses to Keelings art are rarely detailed descriptions of the paintings themselves, but rather personal responses to the works evoking memories of his own lifes circumstances and reflections on the human condition. The subjects of Keelings Young Couple in Developing Landscape 1988”, Frontier Foundation 1994” and To The Island 1989” stimulate memories of the poets unhappy first marriage by focusing on particular features of the paintings that sharpen the tragedy of that relationship – the movement of the Glover-eucalypts” that asphyxiate”, the convict-dug pit” representing the fall into the hell of splitting up” compounded by the symbolic image of the pitchfork. Similarly, in poems responding to Keelings Veil 1991–92”, Gate 1994”, Curios 1999” and “‘Everything Must Go 2003”, Hetherington remembers his mother living in her insane interior” veiled by drawn blinds and curtains, his granny” who only lifted the veil of her black hat to terrify the young poet, and the gate at his homes entrance on which he would perch to greet his grandfather after work and which protected him from Bully-boys living opposite”. But more striking is the poets reading” in Keelings paintings of an ecologically debased / And troubled earth” facing irreversible defeat” as the ultimate corpse”. The strength of Hetheringtons response to this theme is conveyed by brutal imagery depicting the world as a concentration-like gaol in which we dance with death” in a devastated landscape which has become a massive mastectomy” of dry mounds / Arranged in pairs like shorn-off breasts”. Hetherington accuses humankind of fouling” the earth. His depictions of the desecration of the symbols and rituals of the Christian Mass, and his questioning of the nature of Christs Second Coming in response to Keelings Shroud 1994”, The Cunning Fox 1998”, Other Edens 1998” and Plenty 1994”, reinforce the poets feelings of misanthropy. The poets ultimate despair for the future of humankind is portrayed in his engagement with Keelings The Persistence of History 1994”. Using the timeless images of art and the theatre, the poet suggests that conflict, dispossession and murder have always been a part of the human condition, as have peoples indifference to such states of being. Confronted by this theatre of the absurd”, the poet finds some reprieve and even redemption in Keelings two paintings of The Road 2002” where light appears to create cooling transparent pools” and ultimately becomes a healing blaze”. – Ralph Spaulding' (Publication summary)

1 Taking It Out On The Wood i "On Sunday afternoons behind", Graeme Hetherington , 2023 single work poetry
— Appears in: Quadrant , September vol. 67 no. 9 2023; (p. 90)
1 From 'A Tasmanian Epic Poem' i "The east redeems the scowling", Graeme Hetherington , 2023 poetry
— Appears in: The Mozzie , May vol. 30 no. 8 2023; (p. 8) The Mozzie , October vol. 31 no. 3 2023; (p. 13)
1 [Untitled] Graeme Hetherington , 2023 single work poetry
— Appears in: The Mozzie , March vol. 30 no. 7 2023; (p. 6)
1 Betrayal i "I sang along with mother to", Graeme Hetherington , 2023 single work poetry
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 11-12 February 2023; (p. 21)
1 In the Time of Plague i "You say I'm blessed having in time", Graeme Hetherington , 2022 single work poetry
— Appears in: The Mozzie , September vol. 30 no. 3 2022; (p. 14)
1 Message i "To the exclusion of all else, My handyman-father set great Store by traditional male skills", Graeme Hetherington , 2022 single work poetry
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 30 July 2022; (p. 18)
1 1 y separately published work icon The Divided Self Graeme Hetherington , Port Adelaide : Ginninderra Press , 2022 24896346 2022 selected work poetry 'Graeme Hetherington’s ninth collection of poems portrays the poet’s troubled journey to escape an ‘afflicted self ’shadowed with loneliness and paranoia. During the journey, the poet feels ‘twisted and deformed ’as he confronts a personal sense of psychological dislocation – a divided personality and confused sexual identity. Such feelings are the poet’s ‘demons of despair ’that prompt in him a sense of complete dispossession, emptiness and rejection of humankind. No matter how long the journey and how far from the past the poet travels, he is trapped and haunted by these demons whose power colours the diction and imagery of his poetry. Tautly crafted short stanzas with references and images connoting blackness, punishment and curse, such as Mount Black’s shadows on Tasmania’s West Coast, the cat-o’-nine-tails, Coleridge’s albatross and the scourge of Christ’s crucifixion, convey the depth of the poet’s despair. Despite the poet’s desire to escape the ‘darkness of the past’, the reader senses that the power of his personal psychological drama will challenge his search for transcendence. The poet will certainly continue to seek poems that ‘soar beyond ’the theatre of the self, but they will provide perhaps only temporary respite as he continues to experience personal uncertainties and pain.' (Publication summary)
 
1 y separately published work icon Upper Heights and Lower Depths : Poems by Vivian Smith, Sid Harrex, Margaret Scott, Graeme Hetherington Ralph Spaulding (editor), Graeme Hetherington (editor), Port Adelaide : Ginninderra Press , 2022 24654627 2022 anthology poetry

'The four poets in this collection were born in the 1930s: Vivian Smith at Hobart in 1933; Margaret Scott at Bristol in the United Kingdom (1934); Syd Harrex at Smithton (1935) and Graeme Hetherington at Latrobe (1937). Apart from Gwen Harwood (born in the previous decade), these four writers made one of the most extensive contributions to Tasmanian poetry in the last decades of the twentieth century. Collectively, over one thousand of their poems have appeared in magazines and selected works from 1950 to the present day, and thirty-three editions of their poetry have been published (eleven by Smith, eight by Hetherington and seven by both Scott and Harrex).'  (Publication summary)

1 Renison Bell Loners, West Coast, Tasmania i "Mine manager’s son, I would meet", Graeme Hetherington , 2022 single work poetry
— Appears in: Quadrant , March vol. 66 no. 3 2022; (p. 71)
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