AustLit
Latest Issues
Contents
- Leaf Daysi"Sweet season of the kaffir lime's pale, abundant leaf: catch its tang...", single work poetry (p. 15)
- The Pencil Sharpeneri"It's a bit disconcerting, the pencil fits in snugly But sticks out at an angle to the housing...", single work poetry (p. 17)
-
The Extraordinary Verse of Clive James,
single work
essay
(p. 18-21)'As I write, I have before me Clive James's translation of The Divine Comedy, just out from Liveright, a division of W.W. Norton, where James and I both have the superb Robert Weil as an editor. It marks a new challenge - and represents years of hard work: first in mastering Italian, then in composing in modified quatrains with masculine rhymes. Now his readers will have even more to enjoy.' (Abstract)
- The Larkin Manifestoi"Elect me! I am Unsuccess...", single work poetry (p. 21)
-
Leonie Kramer's Career as a Trailblazer,
single work
biography
(p. 22-24)
'If Joan Sutherland was a Grand Dame, Leonie Kramer continues as a dame of what seemed, for long years, inexhaustible greatness. Even her bitter opponents awarded her endless compliments, for that is what their criticisms amount to. To dull, leftist academic feminists she was not a woman to be admired, possibly remains so. Along with assertions and allegations naked of fact, and festered with feeble argument and name-calling ("devious", "authoritarian", "conservative") came as well the feigned praise of these same detractors, for she could neither be denied nor ignored. There was also generous praise from people who, at first, might seem unlikely admirers, such as Michael Kirby. She was a teacher of ability, a scholar with a surprisingly slim publications section in her curriculum vitae, and a wife and mother. She was also one of the most outstanding Australian academics of her time, male or female, as well as being successful in many other fields including administration, business and public service. Perhaps that is why the sistercrats disliked her? As she said, "In Australia, nothing fails like success."' (Abstract)
- Happy Make-believei"My mother's dressing gown is dark green velvet, three velvet buttons I love to stroke.", single work poetry (p. 25)
- In Hidingi"I avoid poets and the places where they lurk...", single work poetry (p. 35)
- Poemi"Sleep takes us one by one into its cave...", single work poetry (p. 48)
- Board Gamesi"Our ouija board brings out the dead...", single work poetry (p. 49)
- A Question of Prioritiesi"Clive James and Oliver Reed were Michael Parkinson's guests...", single work poetry (p. 49)
- Reunioni"Low men, high men Living days gone by men Wearing old school tie men Talking, talking, talking...", single work poetry (p. 67)
-
Returned to Sender,
single work
review
— Review of Forget Me Not 2013 single work drama ; (p. 72-74) Section: Family affairs - Redemptioni"It's the alcohol that makes me white the magic of intoxication suits my dreaming fine takes away the memory I want to be civilized...", single work poetry (p. 75)
- Ironwood, single work poetry (p. 78)
- Patiencei"Playing at solitaire beside an open window...", single work poetry (p. 81)
- The Bachelori"He will never marry...", single work poetry (p. 86)
- Recently in a Restauranti"I overheard a chair and table talking...", single work poetry (p. 87)
- Dash 8 from Armidale: Not Angle Grinders but Angel Grindersi"At nineteen thousand feet The propeller is 2 metres of Continuous diaphanous blade, A thin curtain of spin slicing the air.", single work poetry (p. 87)
-
The Ubiquitous Anthology and the Neglected Collected,
single work
essay
(p. 98-99)'Presently my bookshelves house twentyone anthologies of Australian Poetry and I reckon to have read twice that number in the period since 1970 when my serious interest began. Moreover, I'm aware of the same figure again that I have either disdained or neglected to consult; sixty-three claimant new assemblies of Oz Poetry in forty-two years, which is to say 1.5 per annum. While several take a theme (Religious, Family, World War One) and one or two have been annuals, each makes an identical pitch: Reader, we present you with this latest version of your Poetry scene. You will be convinced by our authority and might well come under the more pervasive trance of the thing itself, Poetry. Browse where you like among the anthologies of the past forty years - Heseltine (1972), Murray (1986) Lehmann-Gray (1991, 2011), Tranter-Mead (1991), Buckley (1991), Porter (1996), Leonard (1990, 2001, 2009), Kinsella (2009), and so on - this tendency to have a Poetry scene showcased before that of the intrigue of a singular poetic world appears to prevail in the discourse on Australian Poetry.' (Abstract)
- QLD 4069i"Steep slopes have an acoustic ring, sounds can bounce between valley walls...", single work poetry (p. 103)
