John,
Poetry, for all its failings, communicates. Of course, it communicates
better when people read each other's work (apropos of recent comments on
the list)! Your overviews of the Australian poetry scene exhibit a breadth
and generosity of response, balance, and a sense of the quest - that is
truly rare and doubly valued for that. I hope you'll keep doing them.
The 'idea of Australia'. It can mean so much. We have to make it mean more.
The pessimism under Howard reminds me of the pessimism during endless years
of Menzies, and in Victoria, Bolte Govt. That was the story of the 50s and
60s. A feeling that Australia was just a subsidiary, a quarry for the
moneyspinners.
Best wishes,
Katherine
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