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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'For the best part of a decade, from the early 1980s to the early 1990s, my family and I were included in the informal list of house guests at Abydos, Dr Val Vallis's rainforest retreat at The Knoll, North Tamborine. Dr Vallis (1916-2009), who preferred to be known as Val, a distinguished poet and Reader in English in what was then the University of Queensland's English Department, had been a friend and mentor to me during my undergraduate years. Val's offer to lend me the key to Abydos was a gift that opened the way to a place of profound natural beauty, inspiration and creativity, and the poems in this Tamborine Mountain collection, Green Dance, are the direct result of that magnanimous gesture.' (Foreword introduction)
Notes
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Dedication:
In tribute to the Mountain's traditional custodians,
past and present; in memory of Val Vallis;
for my son Romany, and for Janis Bailey
Contents
- I Chose This Dayi"Cold light pierces through your kitchen", single work poetry (p. 1)
- The House on the Mountain (i"I go there when my brain is numb", single work poetry (p. 2)
- Cicadas, `Abydos'i"Their first adagio, still somnolent", single work poetry (p. 3)
- Night on the Mountain, `Abydos'i"Air, thinned by the mountain,", single work poetry (p. 4)
- The Wood Stove, Abydosi"The good wood stove leaks acrid smoke;", single work poetry (p. 5)
- Abydos, A Town near Troyi"Abydos: the word distils the essence of romance -", single work poetry (p. 7-8)
- Abydos in Ancient Egypt, single work poetry (p. 9)
- The Company at Abydosi"A night of sifting rain", single work poetry (p. 10)
- Morning Walk at Tamborinei"Delicate subconscious of the forest", single work poetry (p. 11)
- Morphing into Autumni"Now the snakes are slinking into hiding,", single work poetry (p. 12)
- Cicada Colony, Mount Tamborinei"Clamped hard against the textured bark", single work poetry (p. 14)
- Richmond Birdwing Butterfliesi"My arrival coincides with that of butterflies,", single work poetry (p. 15)
- Giant Stinging Treesi"Most unapproachable of trees, their highnesses", single work poetry (p. 16)
- Regent Bowerbirdsi"The art of taxidermy is to render dead things lifelike.", single work poetry (p. 17)
- Green Catbirdsi"Male catbirds don't build bowers,", single work poetry (p. 18)
- Greentimei"Shadows of the greentime", single work poetry (p. 19)
- Lyrei"How might this wilderness have seemed,", single work poetry (p. 20)
- Currawongs and Magpiesi"Some quality in bird call -", single work poetry (p. 21)
- Child on a Flower Farmi"Imagine waking with the earliest of birds -", single work poetry (p. 22)
- Yellow-Tailed Black Cockatoo, Tamborine Mountaini"At first, I couldn't see the maker of that desolating cry -", single work poetry (p. 23)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Tamborine Mountain Poems – Lost Poems Found
2021
single work
essay
— Appears in: Rochford Street Review , vol. 32 no. 2 2021;'A sense of anticipation stirs. I sit with a large archive box marked ‘Vallis’ at a wide wooden desk in the University of Queensland’s Fryer Library. Other boxes await. I lift the box’s lid.' (Introduction)
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Cherish, Wonder and the Want to Protect : Angela Costi Reviews ‘Green Dance’ by Jena Woodhouse
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: Rochford Street Review , September no. 27 2019;
— Review of Green Dance : Tamborine Mountain Poems 2018 selected work poetry'Some of us are fortunate to have experienced those places where nature awakens us to become its disciple. A pause on a mountain top or a walk in a rain forest compels us to contemplate our humanity. However to write about this experience without undertones of politics nor activism, rather with precise lyric and evocative tone is what Jena Woodhouse has undoubtedly achieved in her most recent poetry collection, Green Dance. Through her lens, she amplifies the micro of our natural world in such a way where you can’t help but cherish, wonder and want to protect what we have left.' (Introduction)
-
Cherish, Wonder and the Want to Protect : Angela Costi Reviews ‘Green Dance’ by Jena Woodhouse
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: Rochford Street Review , September no. 27 2019;
— Review of Green Dance : Tamborine Mountain Poems 2018 selected work poetry'Some of us are fortunate to have experienced those places where nature awakens us to become its disciple. A pause on a mountain top or a walk in a rain forest compels us to contemplate our humanity. However to write about this experience without undertones of politics nor activism, rather with precise lyric and evocative tone is what Jena Woodhouse has undoubtedly achieved in her most recent poetry collection, Green Dance. Through her lens, she amplifies the micro of our natural world in such a way where you can’t help but cherish, wonder and want to protect what we have left.' (Introduction)
-
Tamborine Mountain Poems – Lost Poems Found
2021
single work
essay
— Appears in: Rochford Street Review , vol. 32 no. 2 2021;'A sense of anticipation stirs. I sit with a large archive box marked ‘Vallis’ at a wide wooden desk in the University of Queensland’s Fryer Library. Other boxes await. I lift the box’s lid.' (Introduction)
