AustLit

Forbes's copy of his first publication, Tropical Skiing, published by Angus and Robertson in their 'Poets of the Month' series in 1976. Forbes remarks in a letter to a friend that it 'looks like a Christian Theosophical Society Pamphlet. But it's not, it's MY POEMS.'  Crammed into this booklet are immortal poems like 'Four Heads and how to do Them,' 'Admonitions,' 'After the Bombs We Invent the Future,' 'Topothesia,' 'Angel,' 'To the Bobbydazzlers.'  It seems odd that so many great poems are packed into such a dodgy-looking publication, and this pamphlet takes its place in the (ongoing?) Australian Aesthetic Tradition of Terrrible Poetry Covers.

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