Sadly, this year I’m missing the buzz of one of the world’s great literary festivals. But a package of the 3 recently-launched Friendly Street poetry publications arrived on my apartment doorstep a couple of days ago and I’m madly devouring. There will be reviews soon. Incidentally, it’s exactly two years ago that Louise Nicholas and I launched the anthology THIRTY:
06/03/06:  “Thanks to all concerned who made the Launch of our  3 Friendly Street publications a great success at Adelaide Writers’ Week yesterday. Special thanks to Sandy McCutcheon for taking the time not just to launch THIRTY, but to have read the entire collection prior to the day & pass on his positive comments to the poets. Thanks too to Jaya Savige for selecting the winner of the NOVA prize for best unpublished poet. The winner was a very excited Helen Lindstrom. Congratulations, Helen” 

Looking back through the archives yesterday I realised it was 4 years since my poem Heads in the clouds was published in the Australian Education Union Journal. Prior to that it was only the second poem of mine to be published in an anthology. (UNO, ed. Verian Thomas.) I still get a kick out of having work selected for a collection. It’s an affirmation that someone else appreciates something you’re trying to say and values the way it’s expressed. (Note that, apart from the oblique biblical reference, the school next-door to my State school is a catholic school, Emmaus, which always gets our weather a few seconds later!)

Heads in the clouds

( the road to Emmaus )

Children’s souls are sympathetic to the Elements..

A windy day

 fractious, hyperactive

  niggly.

   Like birds before a storm.

After lunch

 The wispy bank of clouds from the Gulf

  blows across the Ranges

   over the mortgaged houses..

The skylight frames

 a corner

  of sky.

As the pushingshoving gaggle explodes into the room..

LOOK!

 A five year old voice thrills.

Smokelike, wispingtrails

 Overhead Teutonic Window

  Wind’s eye

  Virtual Reality screen

They lie on wrigglingbacks and watch in wondering awe as trails of vapour     dissipate against a square of blue in theceiling

 While i improvise on Emin7 and Amin7 andcall it  Music for Watching       Clouds By.

The guitar finishes.

Silence.

Infants mesmerised.

Becalmed.

i join them on their backs on the carpet

 watching the exhiliration of the Commonplace

  through their unwearied eyes.

It’s deeply gratifying for me that Adelaide Writers’ Week has opened with a dedication to the late Colin Thiele. We are only just beginning to realise what an amazing contribution Colin made to Australia’s literary heritage and our awareness of environmental issues. It’s only in recent years I’ve  become acquainted with the quality of Colin’s early poetry. The poem I wrote on hearing of his death on the same day as Steve Irwin’s is not of the same quality as Thiele’s work, but it is heartfelt.  

Elegy for Colin Thiele  
You didn’t wrestle crocodiles, die tragically or young

or driving cars in circles round the track.

Brought up in Eudunda, your praises won’t be sung

in Washington. You won’t be coming back.

I grew up with your Bruno, saw the sun upon the stubble

Your poetry was subtle, wry and deft.

You realized fifty years ago the planet was in trouble,

that if we don’t wake up, there’s nothing left.

You recognized our ancient land in all its muted beauty,

the pelican, the Coorong’s fragile dunes.

Your writing and your teaching, your gift – perhaps your duty –

May future generations hear your tunes.

There’ll be no lavish funeral provided by the State –

You’re in our hearts, though, Colin. Goodbye old humble mate…

© rob walker, September, 2006. First read at Friendly Street 03/10/06. First published AEU Journal, November, 2006.

This Sunday in far-away Adelaide,  Friendly Street’s latest annual anthology Rewired (edited by Gaetano Aiello and Maggie Emmett) will be launched at Adelaide Writers’ Week. (MORE…) Four years ago today was the launch of Another Universe (ed. Steve Evans and Kate Deller-Evans.) I remember this Friendly Street Reader well, (as it was the first to include a poem of mine, on first looking into Chapman’s fritz!)