A short essay in a newspaper cannot be but partial - I finally caught up
with it, and it seemed to me a fair generalised picture with some
interesting details. We all work (I think) in private personal spaces
which interact in unpredictable and multiple ways in a wider culture; the
pettiness alas is part of it, something which drove me mulishly
underground in the early 90s, when I saw nobody and spoke to no one apart
from a couple of friends for something like four years, and still find
hard to take... I think John's correct, though, to highlight a
pluralistic vitality in Australian poetry, and to see these disagreements
as a healthy sign; it's something I too sense.
Best
Alison
>> that have interesting implications for
>> poetic discourse in australia and elsewhere. and of course there are
>> many interactions/dialogues in sydney etc. i highlighted one that i
>> believe will develop into a dialogue with 'external' spaces.
>
>
>But there are many others which may also be significant - about 'spaces',
>about language, about the 'written' poem, etc, etc. Just because those
>taking part haven't been anointed by the old or new guards of anthologisers,
>critics, reviewers doesn't negate that. It just means they don't have the
>right mates. And hasn't that always been true?
|