REVIEW #1 CONTEMPORARY AUSTRALIAN POETRY

REVIEW #1

Contemporary Australian Poetry: Martin Langford, Judith Beveridge, Judy Johnson & David Musgrave eds.
Puncher & Wattmann, 2016

In their review and critique of Australian poetry published between 1990 and 2016, the editors have selected poems from an astonishing two hundred and forty poets to represent the poetic culture of our nation. In reviewing the contenders for this anthology, the editors came to the conclusion that we have a deeper, broader and richer lode of poetic gold to mine than previously acknowledged. This, they propose, has created an unusual problem; because of the proliferation of high-quality poetry – and the dearth of critical material accompanying it – most schools resort to ignoring the talented new-comers in favour of the “tried and true.” However, this has not been a deterrent to our poets who have embraced the “critical mass of quality work (that) has been achieved” as a repository of bright ideas and new layers of thought and meaning. These poets are building our poetic tradition and our understanding of ourselves as we grapple with new tensions and challenges in society that give rise to new voices, new arguments and new forms being explored.

In the introduction, the editors seek to understand the influence of the landscape, both rural and urban, and our secular, egalitarian, anti-authoritarian, argumentative bent which has characterised us since our early colonial life and seems to have become ingrained in the Australian literary narrative. The editors conclude their overview by marvelling that “(s)omewhat astonishingly, and while no-one was looking, Australian poetry has developed a momentum and a critical mass such that it has become one more luminous field in the English-speaking imagination.”

Certainly, that is evident in the opening poems from Robert Adamson which heighten the reader’s senses to every layer of the landscape, while exploring questions of our being, our place and our impact. There is an immediacy, yet an awareness of past and of principles and of words that have sought to understand life in other times and places. It is hard to move past Adamson’s five poems; they capture your senses, your thoughts and your imagination so entirely. Here is Adamson’s final verse of “Father’s Day,” one of the many tiny nuggets of pure gold that make this anthology such a rich experience.

My brothers bob down to do their homework, into
the learning stream, heading for their lives,
biting the heads off words.

In some mysterious way, Adamson is able to marry the physical with the metaphysical and send the reader helter-skelter into worlds that touch all the senses and yet, simultaneously, into other worlds beyond the senses. Adam Aitken then drowns us in a “wounded yellow sea” with his poem “Indochine,” a poem of intense pathos and ghastly socio-historical realities that need to be acknowledged. And so the anthology progresses, one incredible offering after another.

One of the disappointments of the book was that many poets were only accorded one poem, but I admired the editors’ determination to display the extraordinary breadth of Australian poetry in this period, allowing readers to research their favourites further, after this brief introduction. Langford et al. have not forsaken our acclaimed poets such as Gwen Harwood, Bruce Dawe, Les Murray, Chris Wallace-Crabbe, Thomas Shapcott, David Malouf, Jan Owen and others. They are all represented. However, I greatly appreciated the editors’ commitment to bringing together such a wide range of Australian poets, representing the best of what has been written during the past twenty-five years.

It may seem a trivial point, but one of the most striking aspects of the anthology – apart from the quality and diversity of the poetry – was the physical accessibility of the book. When compared to the Norton anthologies (or even some of the smaller Australian offerings), this book is so light and easy to handle. It is a beautifully-bound treasure-trove of experience, informed by an Australian cultural perspective…but certainly not confined to it. Furthermore, the final poem is just as powerful as the first. I commend this anthology to you wholeheartedly.