John Kinsella is the author of many books of poetry, fiction and criticism. He has also written for the stage. He is a frequent collaborator with other poets, critics, fictionalists, artists, musicians, labourers, activists and friends. Recent fiction includes Tide (Transit Lounge, 2013) and Crow’s Breath (Transit Lounge, 2015); recent poetry includes Jam Tree Gully (WW Norton, 2012), Sack (Picador and Fremantle Press, 2014), Firebreaks (WW Norton, 2016) and Drowning in Wheat: Selected Poems (Picador, 2016); recent criticism includes Activist Poetics: Anarchy in the Avon Valley (ed. Niall Lucy, Liverpool University Press, 2010) and Polysituatedness: A Poetics of Displacement. He has edited many anthologies including the Penguin Anthology of Australian Poetry. John Kinsella is a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge University, and Professor of Literature and Sustainability at Curtin University.
Tracy Ryan has published four novels, the latest of which is Claustrophobia (Transit Lounge, 2014), which has also been translated into Italian. The most recent of her eight books of poetry is Hoard (Whitmore Press, 2015). She has twice received the Western Australian Premier’s Book Award for poetry (for The Willing Eye, 2000, and The Argument, 2011, both from Fremantle Press) and her work has received other awards including the Australian Book Review’s Peter Porter Poetry Prize, and the Times Literary Supplement’s Poems on the Underground Competition. The Water Bearer will be published by Fremantle Press in 2018. She has worked in libraries, bookselling, editing, and community journalism, and has taught at many universities. She has a strong interest in languages and translation.
for the poets
Contents
Introduction
George Fletcher Moore (b.1798 d.1886)
Western Australia For Me
‘A’ (n.d.)
Mount Eliza
Anonymous (n.d.)
A New Song
Delta (n.d.)
The Song of the Ticket of Leave Man
Elizabeth Deborah Brockman (b.1833 d.1915)
On Receiving From England a Bunch of Dried Wild Flowers
Sonnet
The Cedars
Requiescat in Pace
John Boyle O’Reilly (b.1844 d.1890)
The Dukite Snake
The Gaol
Henry Ebenezer Clay (b.1844 d.1896)
from Two and Two
‘Humanitas’ (n.d.)
A Blackfellow’s Appeal
Henry Charles Prinsep (b.1844 d.1922)
Josephine
Acaster (n.d.)
O’er a Native’s Grave
Alfred Chandler (‘Spinifex’) (b.1852 d.1941)
The Poet
Lights Along the Mile
Coolgardie 1893
Mary Doyle (‘May Kidson’) (b.1858 d.1942)
Perth in Morning Light
John Philip Bourke (‘Bluebush’) (b.1860 d.1914)
When I am Dead
Percy Henn (b.1865 d.1955)
A Soldier’s Funeral
Charles Wiltens Andrée Hayward (b.1866 d.1950)
Belinda
Along the Road to Cue
‘C’ (n.d.)
The Tothersider and The Perthite
Edwin Greenslade Murphy (‘Dryblower’) (b.1866 d.1939)
The Lodes that Under-lie
The Rhymes that Our Hearts Can Read
Thomas H. Wilson (‘Crosscut’) (b.1867 d.1925)
A Man was Killed in the Mine Today
The Boulder Block
The Poverty Pot
Frederick Charles Vosper (b.1869 d.1901)
The New Woman
Lilian Wooster Greaves (b.1869 d.1956)
The Farmer’s Daughter
W.C. Thomas (b.1869 d.1957)
The Terrace
F.W. Ophel (b.1871 d.1912)
His Epitaph
The Phantoms of the Dark
‘The Boulder Bard’ (‘Willy-Willy’) (n.d.)
Ode to West Australia
‘The Exile’ (n.d.)
Caste
Mingkarlajirri (d.late 1920s)
The Marble Bar Pool Spirit is Releasing a Flood
(Wurlanyalu Nganyjarranga Jurta Murru Marri)
Dorham Doolette (b.1872 d.1925)
The Ballade of Cottesloe Beach
Annie H. Mark (b.1875 d.1947)
When Morning-glory Trims a Fence
Miriny-Mirinymarra Jingkiri (d.1930s)
Koolinda in Harbour
(Kurlintanya)
At Wurruwangkanya Jawiri is Increasing the Cold
(Wurruwangkanya Jipal Pirnu Jawirilu)
Katharine Susannah Prichard (b.1883 d.1969)
The Earth Lover
Oscar Walters (b.1889 d.1948)
’17 And ’32
Old Tumbler (Yanmi aka Walaburu) (b.1890. d.1962)
Racecourse Wharlu (Water Snake)
Yintilypirna Kaalyamarra (d. early 1940s)
Rows and Rows of Rain Clouds
(Yirra, Kuji, Yirra, Karti Ngayirrmani)
The Coastline Looks Strange to Me From Out Here
(Ngurra Parta Ngayinyu Ngajapa Wangkurrungura Kapungurala)
Peter Hopegood (b.1891 d.1967)
On Ninety-Mile Beach
Wimia King (Wimiya) (b. c.1893 d.1979)
Tjanginara the Plane
Olive Pell (b.1903 d.2002)
Monte Bello
My Patriarchal Table Nest
Paul Hasluck (b.1905 d.1993)
At the Aquarium
My River
The Dead Don’t Care
Breakaways
Coppin Dale (Garargeman or Yinbal) (b. c.1908 d.1993)
Gold Fever
Baaburgurt (Bulyen, George Elliot) (n.d.)
Exile’s Lament
Wirrkaru Jingkiri (d.1960s)
Doctor’s Day
(Maparnkarra)
William Hart-Smith (b.1911 d.1990)
Cormorants, Trigg Island
Galahs
Razor Fish
Kenneth Mackenzie (b.1913 d.1955)
The Snake
A Robin, Too
The Awakening
Judith Sewing
Joan Williams (‘Justina Williams’) (b.1914 d.2008)
No Coward Colour
Alec Choate (b.1915 d.2010)
Words for a Granddaughter
Dingo
Jack Davis (b.1917 d.2000)
Rottnest
Forest Giant
Red Robin
Mining Company’s Hymn
John Pat
The First-born
Wolfe Fairbridge (b.1918 d.1950)
Consecration of the House
Karri Forest
Merv Lilley (b.1919 d.2016)
The Lesson
Swift
Dorothy Hewett (b.1923 d.2002)
The Valley of the Giants
In Midland Where the Trains Go By
Once I Rode with Clancy
Living Dangerously
The Salt Lake
Katakapu (b. c.1930)
A Stranger to this Country, I’m Following Them
(Pampanulu Jina Marna Ngurra Panalala)
Night Drive in a V-8 Buckboard
(Ngananyakarra Nganyjarra Nganil Ngarri)
Waparla Pananykarra (b. c.1930 d.1995)
It’s Standing Still After the Motor Has Been Started Up
(Ngurntirri Jipantangu Nguntuntu Karriyan)
Jirlparurrumarra Piraparrjirri
Our Poor Trees are Almost Submerged
(Pukapannya)
Griffith Watkins (b.1930 d.1969)
; Heatwave
Bar Brawl
Ee Tiang Hong (b.1933 d.1990)
Coming To
Perth
Fay Zwicky (b.1933)
Kaddish
Picnic
William Grono (b.1934)
Separation
Peter Jeffery (b.1935)
Pompeii in Australia
Randolph Stow (b.1935 d.2010)
The Land’s Meaning
Merry-go-round
Penelope
Persephone
Ruins of the City of Hay
Still Life with Amaryllis Belladonna
Glen Phillips (b.1936)
Spring Burning
Fourteen Tankas for Salt-Lake Country
Gordon Mackay-Warna (n.d.)
Grassfire
Tableland Bushfire
Mudrooroo (Colin Johnson) (b.1938)
Auntie Margaret
ImagesArtytypesStereotypes
Mick Fazeldean (d.1990s)
Whirlwind
Ian Templeman (b.1938 d.2015)
First Death
Peter Bibby (b.1940)
Wornaway Bat
Andrew Taylor (b.1940)
Swamp Poems
Dick Alderson (b.1941)
Skein
Alan Alexander (b.1941)
Limestone at Margaret River
Opportunity Shop
from Batavia Islands
Shape-Shifter
Nicholas Hasluck (b.1942)
Bikini Atoll
Yilgarn
Brian Dibble (b.1943)
A Poet Remembers the Farm
Andrew Burke (b.1944)
The Present Depression
The Old Tambourine
Caroline Caddy (b.1944)
Lake Grace
Pelican
Wheatbelt
Michael Youlin Birch (b.1944 d.1968)
2516349, Jones, Private W.
Hal Colebatch (b.1945)
Autumn Morning
The Romantic Poet Goes On a Little Journey
Mary Champion (b.1947)
Long Park
Jan Teagle Kapetas (b.1947)
Slaughtering the Lamb
Alf Taylor (b.1947)
Moorditj Yorgah
The Land
Marion May Campbell (b.1948)
Time Inside
Jimmy Chi (b.1948)
Black Girl
Dennis Haskell (b.1948)
The Basis of All Knowledge
After Chemo
No-one Ever Found You
The Trees
Beate Josephi (b.1948)
In Praise of a Second Language
Sunil Govinnage (b.1950)
I Don’t Write Poems in Sinhala Anymore
Philip Salom (b.1950)
Seeing Gallipoli From the Sky
Barbecue of the Primitives
Ode to Skin
We Called it The Engine
Annamaria Weldon (b.1950)
Coracle
Kristy Jones (b. c.1950)
The Past Still Lives
Sally Morgan (b.1951)
I Can Count
Janey Told Me
Zan Ross (b.1951)
Absolute Daily Disposable
Wendy Jenkins (b.1952)
The Silence of Mussels
Dolphin Sightings
Rod Moran (b.1952)
A Memoir of Birds
My Daughter Reading
David Brooks (b.1953)
The Pines, Cottesloe
Philip Collier (b.1953)
Grave Change
Philip Mead (b.1953)
There’s Small Grass Appearing on the Hill-side
Robert Walker (b.1953 d.1984)
Solitary Confinement
Andrew Lansdown (b.1954)
Between Glances
Emergence
Shane McCauley (b.1954)
The Dissolution of a Fox
The Cosmonauts Smell Flowers
Graeme Dixon (b.1955 d.2010)
Prison
Holocaust Island
Liana Joy Christensen (b.1955)
Idiom
Barbara Temperton (b.1955)
Splinter
Night Camp
Pat Torres (b.1956)
Gurrwayi Gurrwayi, The Rain Bird
Kim Scott (b.1957)
Kaya
Mar Bucknell (b.1957)
We Have Tried to Make Marks on the Glass
Roland Leach (b.1957)
Seven Miles to School
Grandmother
Marcella Polain (b.1958)
Zero Point Four
Paul Hetherington (b.1958)
Meckering Earthquake
Michael Heald (b.1959)
Pear Tree
Leeches
Maree Dawes (b.1960)
Gesso
Frieda Hughes (b.1960)
Wooroloo
Kate Lilley (b.1960)
South Perth Poems
Graham Kershaw (b.1961)
The Heywood Spire
Afeif Ismail (b.1962)
The Empire of My Grandmother
David McComb (b.1962 d.1999)
Behind the Garages of this Country
Blessed Be
Charmaine Papertalk-Green (b.1962)
Don’t Want Me to Talk
A White Australia Mindset
Strong Wajarri Man
Blinding Loyalty
Sarah French (b.1963)
Boy
Kevin Gillam (b.1963)
the furniture of thought
John Kinsella (b.1963)
Playing Cricket at Wheatlands
Goat
Nandi Chinna (b.1964)
Hydrology
Mags Webster (b.1964)
Nights in Suburbia
Morgan Yasbincek (b.1964)
the reindeer
with my sister at the funeral parlor
Tracy Ryan (b.1964)
Lost Property
First Burn
Jackson (b.1965)
suck faint amity
am I not?
The Antipoet (Allan Boyd) (b.1966)
fly in fly out fly in fly out
Lucy Dougan (b.1966)
The Chest
Mannequin Brides
David McCooey (b.1967)
Pink Moon
Gabrielle Everall (b.1968)
Stink
Concord as you get off the Concorde
Amanda Joy (b.1970)
Snake Skin, Roe Swamp
John Mateer (b.1971)
Ghost Wedding
Fire Imagined
The Frog-Memory
Contemplating a Migraine
Emma Rooksby (b.1972)
Garbage
Miriam Wei Wei Lo (b.1973)
Don’t Call Me Grandma
Bumboat Cruise on the Singapore River
Claire Potter (b.1975)
The Appeal of Cranes
Toby Davidson (b.1977)
H2
Scott-Patrick Mitchell (b.1977)
him
Eight Letters To A Lover, II
Jeremy Balius (b.1979)
Day 6
Shevaun Cooley (b.1979)
let down at birth into the dark well and overflowing with it
J.P. Quinton (b.1981)
Little River
Ode to C.Y. O’Connor
Caitlin Maling (b.1985)
The Break
Corey Wakeling (b.1985)
Lingo Surprise
Kia Groom (b.1986)
Phantasmagoria
Siobhan Hodge (b.1988)
Apple
References to Introduction
Biographical Notes
List of First Publications
Acknowledgements
Introduction
This anthology of Western Australian poetry is historically oriented. Poets are arranged in chronological order according to b
irthdates or individual poems by original publication date, especially with the early ‘colonial poets’ and some Aboriginal singers, whose life dates are not possible to ascertain. Such a system is not perfect, since birthdates don’t give a sense of the history of an art, but this book’s purpose is to show the range of poetry across a period of time within a specific ‘area’, not only to be an historical document.
Given that poetry’s traditions and history in the region that we most frequently term ‘Western Australia’ go back well beyond the colonial marker of the Swan River Colony, and prior to that the outpost at Albany, and prior to that the contact made by Europeans with Indigenous peoples of the Western seaboard dating back to the sixteenth century, birth-dates seem a little arbitrary and purely a model of colonial convenience.
It is difficult, if not impossible, for contemporary anthologists to represent Aboriginal song-cycles, and the emphatic presence of the ‘poetic’ in the songs’ stories and the mimetic coordinates of oral memory. But still we have a sense of the intensity of song and poem-making in the songs and chants translated from traditional communities, and from elders who passed on the poetry of communities (and sometimes aspects of their own lives, especially individual songs, such as those collected in Taruru: Aboriginal Song Poetry from the Pilbara), in their contact with ‘European’ or ‘white society’, or indeed with any of the migrant communities that make up Western Australia. The centrality to country and belonging in these songs extends through to the present day and beyond, and might be viewed as outside any chronological markers ‘Western’ thought might introduce.
Indigenous songs and poetry are not the literal start to this book, because we have placed them where they have appeared in the process of collection and translation or, for Indigenous poets writing in English, according to their birthdates. Yet we have the eternal presence of Indigenous songs and poetry as a kind of ‘starting point’ to this anthology of Western Australia poetry, and then, in a different sense, we have the undeniable influence and presence of Indigenous country in the non-Indigenous poetry that comes with and follows ‘settlement’.
Having been made welcome by Noongar people, by various accounts, many ‘settlers’ exploited this goodwill, and applied the basic principles of greed and rights accorded by the distant British crown to their appropriation of land and removal of Noongar people. We believe that underneath the early poetry of Western Australia is this knowledge — either defensively or indifferently or in the sense of denial — of non-acknowledgement of prior presence and ‘ownership’. Whatever ‘rights’ might have been accorded Indigenous peoples by the Crown, the reality was that they had few or any rights under colonial administrations. The colonising urge is a self-serving one; cultural difference, and the inability to empathise pragmatically with the colonised people/s, meant that whatever individual attitudes or perceptions were regarding Indigenous tribes, Indigenous people were only going to lose and suffer in terms of that difference. There are many poems we could have included that show basic racism at work, that are rebarbative, reductive and plain old name-caller versifying dressed up as art, or as in-house humour, but we have chosen not to include them. If readers are interested in seeing the racist rhymes (‘serious’ and/or ‘humorous’) that colonial Western Australian poets could dish up, they may take a look at Western Australian Writing: An On-line Anthology (edited by John Kinsella for the UWA Library) that shows a wider historic range of material. Here, however, our raison d’être is to show the most interesting Western Australian poetry we can from over the last 180-odd years, as well as to include the odd poem here and there indicative of broader cultural conversations going on in Western Australian communities. There are quite a few masterpieces in this selection, but there are also poems chosen to illustrate their times within the constraints mentioned.