AustLit

'This is a selection from a poet who believes that Australia still has countless stories to tell, re-tell and imagine. These are works by someone intrigued by the varieties of poetic forms, who is a lover of verse satire and a believer in the contemporary power of dramatic monologues. Tradition is for Alan Wearne of continuing relevance since as he tells us: ‘I work for an outfit called Narrative Verse in English, company founder being a man called Geoff, Geoff Chaucer.’

'Alan Wearne rampages through the timid, dismal and so terribly polite terrain of contemporary English language culture and poetry, blowtorch at hand, laying waste the cant, hypocrisy, delusional self-narratives, rapaciousness and just plain unkindness, be it politicians or other insalubrious types. Wearne’s energy, range and variety are without equal, whether in free verse, rhyming couplets or villanelle. Any poet of equivalent unbridled intelligence and coiled ferocity would be denied entry in America at Customs or put under house-arrest by the local Woke Taliban. A very naughty boy is on the loose. Bravo. – August Kleinzahler

'The depth and breadth of these narratives and monologues are extraordinary. Wearne’s narrative strategies, psychological insights, and understanding of history, politics, as well as the dynamics that can play out in relationships are gripping. These poems explore and reveal much of the dark underbelly in Australian society and culture. Public and private worlds play off against each other in searing ways. Wearne is a master of tone and voice, of giving his poems a colloquial authenticity few can match. His wit and technical skill are enduring pleasures. – Judith Beveridge'  (Publication summary)

'This is a volume of (mainly) prose poems, derived by its compiler/adaptor/author Ross Gibson, from a large dossier of New South Wales Police records. If these can be described as ‘found’ poems (even if they have been edited) it would be as likely to refer to them as ‘accidental’. Certainly, these portraits and narratives may be challenging and at times infuriating, but when fully firing they are art, very entertaining and most instructive. Centred on criminals and missing persons, the cache Gibson has discovered seems to have been made for poets to find, they being much too important for writers of contemporary Australian prose fiction. One could of course imagine plenty of such material appearing in an historical Selected Documents anthology, in particular the prologue section ‘Notes for Detectives and Men in Plain Clothes.’' (Introduction)

'The narrator's father was a member of the Whitlam Government and the Melbourne suburb is pronounced Ver-mont...' (Introduction)

'Alan Wearne specialises in monologues and verse narratives. A young widow in post-war Melbourne fends off the approaches of her best friend’s husband; a retired femocrat recalls her lovelorn Maoist youth; a single mother falls into an abusive relationship with a drifting musician; a heroin addict is haunted by his dealer’s murder of a youth. Also included is ‘The Sarsaparilla Writer’s Centre’, a collection of satires on music, football, religion, politics, and poets.'(Synopsis)

'From near two decades, with well over 450 personnel employed in their making these group efforts are maddeningly memorable examples of what collective brain power can do when it bends the rules, and let's face it plenty of today's poetry could do with a solid amount of rule-bending. Name the muse and she was doubtless invoked.' (Publication Summary)