{"id":2120,"date":"2014-09-27T16:27:21","date_gmt":"2014-09-27T05:27:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robwalkerpoet.com\/?p=2120"},"modified":"2014-09-27T16:29:54","modified_gmt":"2014-09-27T05:29:54","slug":"richard-tippings-tommy-ruff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.robwalkerpoet.com\/?p=2120","title":{"rendered":"Richard Tipping’s Tommy Ruff"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TIPPING<\/a><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t really want to do a full-on review of this, but it\u2019s a beautiful little chapbook of poems I picked up from Richard Tipping personally when he was Featured Poet at Friendly Street a couple of weeks back.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0 first time I saw Richard (as opposed to the last time by Joni Mitchell?) was when he came to read at the Mortlock to celebrate Friendly Street\u2019s 30th<\/sup> Anniversary. (Mike Ladd recorded the performance. It was one of the first times that I\u2019d had a poem broadcast on poeticA, so self-interest probably has a hand in my memory!)<\/p>\n

Richard originally hails from Adelaide \u2013 in fact he was a co-founder of Friendly Street on that fateful night of The Dismissal on Remembrance Day, November 1975. He\u2019s subsequently become better known as an artist and sculptor<\/a> \u2013 though he\u2019s never been content to sit inside of anyone else\u2019s box.<\/p>\n

So the works in this little collection are his \u201cAdelaide poems\u201d, a retrospective from 1964 to almost the present day. These are necessarily poems of \u201cplace\u201d and the fact that Richard\u2019s been coming and going for years gives him a certain familiarity yet the detached eye of an \u201coutsider.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of the poems have a time-capsule feeling about them. \u201cHackney\u201d could be written today \u2013 it\u2019s even seasonally relevant right now:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0The mornings are corkscrew tight:<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 just-Spring in Adelaide<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 and all the flowers shouting \u2013<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 almond, jasmine, wattle, nectarine.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Shocks of bright weed, over<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 thrown with caterpillars, rich<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Wanderers in brown fur coats <\/i>\u2013<\/i><\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 streets spattered with petals<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 on parked cars, sun-split clouds<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 and still-leaking roofs, red wine<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 in hand-me-down houses \u2013<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 the lions roaring from the zoo.<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Here are a few vignettes from South Australian Journal<\/i>. I\u2019m very familiar with all of the places but I think the word-pictures can be appreciated by anyone:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Flat slap of sand and oozing orange cliffs<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 vibrant as the barbeque on wheatfield\u2019s edge<\/i><\/p>\n

(from Port Julia<\/i>)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We came from the winging ridge<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 that rollercoasts through flashing green<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 down in a gasp of blue \u2013<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 land\u2019s end, the Southern Ocean\u2019s smashed<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 grey-blue and a horizon that bends<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 holding Kangaroo Island proudly, at a distance.<\/i><\/p>\n

(from Cape Jervis<\/i>)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As I said, this doesn\u2019t pretend to be a formal review \u2013 but this is a lovingly hand-crafted little booklet containing 36 pages of poetry for a paltry $10. Press Press<\/a> does an excellent job. We all know that small presses keep poetry alive in this country. We should support them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don\u2019t really want to do a full-on review of this, but it\u2019s a beautiful little chapbook of poems I picked up from Richard Tipping personally when he was Featured Poet at Friendly Street a couple of weeks back. The\u00a0 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.robwalkerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.robwalkerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.robwalkerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.robwalkerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.robwalkerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2120"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.robwalkerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2124,"href":"http:\/\/www.robwalkerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2120\/revisions\/2124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.robwalkerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.robwalkerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.robwalkerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}