AustLit

'Working collaboratively with the Irish Australian poet Audrey Molloy, our research involved an investigation into the history elements in the poetry of Seamus Heaney, Ezra Pound, Michael Longley, Leonard Cohen and Elizabeth Bishop. Our research was instrumental in combining the notion of time travel with the lives of deceased poets. Our personal experience has been woven into the fabric of the stories we have taken from our research into the lives of other poets. Contribution: The contribution to the history of collaboration in poetry is significant, as the authors have created a contemporary alignment of two cultures, and provided a lyrical background against which personal, historical, poetic and geographical elements can be fixed. The poems in 'Ordinary Time' have no titles, and the poet's names have not been directly linked to the work. The reason for this is to create a seamless, rather than identifiable reading of the poetry. The contribution of new knowledge can best be seen in the dovetailing of metaphorical content from Australia and Ireland, in terms of these countries' fauna, flora, history and poetic traditions. Significance: The blending of two cultures and quite distinct poetry styles in the one collection has provided a complex mapping of ideas, philosophies and poetry influences. This collaboration took a year, during which up to seven full versions of the book were meticulously laid out and edited back together. Sections of the book have since been published in the British journal Stand, one of the oldest and most respected journals in the UK. Audrey Molloy's and Anthony Lawrence's contributions can be seen in their combined awards ('The Important Things' Audrey Molloy,(Gallery Press, Ireland, 2021), and Anthony Lawrence's 'Headwaters' (Pitt Street Poetry, 2017). The authors have already read poems from 'Ordinary Time' at a live, online poetry event, at the invitation of the Sydney Poetry Salon.' (https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au/handle/10072/410420?show=full)