Poetry Reviews

Fragile Content

Kristin Hannaford

Post Pressed, Queensland, Teneriffe Qld, 2007

Curlew

Shark fins as waves
six fins circling in low shin height tide

weave round rock
the afternoon light sharp jagged
almost
too bright for my large eye.
I wait for dark, for the rise of voice
as motion
the current quickens, this Woppaburra island
sounds of, a throat song
ricochets across sand and tussocks
travelling as the boats head back to the harbour
a memory of place, sharp as first incision
Curlew Curlew Curlew.

Mountain

for my father
Somewhere from the mountain
On the long train journeys
Down to the city
And back home again, you dream.
You flesh out the limits of your skin -
How comfortable it feels
on fire in early morning frost,
how cold it is without her touch.
You imagine yourself taut over a drum
Beating with an ocean below,
Only it is the sound of the train
Delivering you to the mountain.

Reviewer: Liz Huf

Love poems, sensuous, joyous, descriptions of our tropical wetlands and unique rainforest: this latest collection by CQ poet Kristin Hannaford, launched in August this year, is a delight to read. As co-writer Ross Clark suggests "Whether Hannaford's poems deal with tropical places or with the ecology of personal life they are all from the intemperate zones of the heart."

Kristin has attended and tutored several island writers workshops with Idiom 23 over the last several years, and as I read her vivid and visually sensitive verses, I can remember every detail of those weekends lost in the environment of Pumpkin and North Keppel Islands, on Kanomi, the home of the Woppaburra people, and in the Byfield Rainforest, and neighbouring Shoalwater Bay, the home of the Durrambal clan.

Images of beach curlews and their haunting cry, the grasslands, mangroves, driftwood, sea shells and fishing boats inspire Hannaford's rich visual verses, but these aren't the only inspiration for Kirstin. Her family is always present in the shadows of ther wetlands and eucalypt forests. Here are excerpts from:

Kristin's poetry has been broadcast on ABC Radio National, ABC Radio Rockhampton, and Radio NAG 91.3, has won several important awards, and the New Media version of "The Wetlands" is part of the State Library of Queensland exhibition "Writing Place".

Along the Lip's Edge

New & Selected Love Poems

T.M. Collins

Post Pressed, Teneriffe Qld, 2006

You Should Be Asleep
I said "Come and watch the night sky".
You said "You're too idle, come to bed."

I sat in the nude, the breeze somehow
hitting my feet before my upper body
through the open window, it came so
swiftly and stealthily, a wet cool touch.

Nothing moved in the drowsy darkness.
The street lights' glow seemed stretched
and worn, the stars guardsmen on duty
sparking and flashing torchlight beams.

Nothing moved outside except cars
and the occasional slow truck with
a rough roar of engine and that sick
clunk-clash sound of gears and the
expelled exhaust fumes that wafted
below the night's stretched black belly,
fumes that hung about, held firmly
by the long lonely arms of darkness.

I sat listening to these ugly sounds
the drones, the wasted noises, but
still it was a beautiful evening just
sitting alone, not in that warm bed.

Reviewer: Liz Huf

Charming, powerful, sensuous - spanning 27 years of personal journeys - each poem dedicated to a new face. "Any poet who can write a love poem today - a straight love poem and make it work, deserves our admiration. Collins does just that", says Anne L. Hael. "Collins has considerable descriptive powers and an originality of viewpoint not unlike some of the English Martian poets... a stricking denseness of imagery and ingenuity of observation" ...says Geoff Page, also writing back cover blurb on Along The Lip's Edge.

My preferred pastime is 'watching the night sky' so obviously Tim's poem "You Should Be Asleep" (for Joanne), is my special choice. Tim has published regularly with Social Alternative, Cargo, Studio, Studio 100 and has been a constant and successful entrant in Idiom 23's Buahinia Literary Awards.

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