Urban Elegies by David Brooks, scribble from my notebook, and 2007 Tom Collins Poetry Prize

Maybe a poetry chat today ... because I've been away at school camp and came back to my books and my mail, all highlighting poetry.
In the mail - wehich comes in a big dirty dusty canvas bag with security belt and special green 'unbreakable' string tied to avoid any entrance by unofficial hands, flown in each Thursday and swapped for our school mail going out - David Brooks has generously sent me Urban Elegies, his new book from Island Press, that long-surviving independent poetry press with Phillip Hammial behind the scenes supplying energy and persistance. I'm only half way through but I have gained the impression that this poet and novelist who used to write sparse tight-fisted (in language terms) poems is still writing sparsely but in a more relaxed syntax - generous sentences that casually evolve down the page. A quote to show you what I mean:

Continuance

When I look back
over the past few years
and think that almost every day
has had its own new worry
or some unexpected version of the old
I'd like to think
that the years ahead will be different
and that we will not sit at the end of the next
or of some year after that
thinking how every day still has
its worry, little or great,
but I know that this is hardly likely
while you are who you are, and I am myself
and the world around us continues
the way the past has shown us that it will,
and I know too
that knowing this
will do nothing to still the stubborn voice
that will always come within me to the world's defense:

The poem sustains this gentle yet enquiring cadence for another page.

In another thoughtful poem, a memory poem, Horses, Brooks looks back at a childhood moment an hour before the adults awake, and ends with this effective image, applicable to his skill as poet:

The world
is as big
as my eyes.

Check out more at urbanelegies@fastmail.com.au


I've been scribbling myself, a little, and in 'permanent pen' on a cheap marbig notebook (not my moleskin notebooks bought as luxury pleasures for 'special words' - ha!)...

white birds cover rock-islands
in Roebuck Bay
like unironed tablecloths

three big-belly pelicans
the rest scrounged up seagulls
sunning in the late light of day

why should I know how to
fish and hunt?
I'm a suburban supermarket gourmet
riding the tides and currents
of international commerce
adrift out here
where they use fish to catch fish
frozen mullet today
to catch white-tailed llareggub

Ah, pages of scribble more, but perhaps I should work on it, shape it a little, remembering to sing with the gentle cadence of everyday speech.

Maybe a poem will evolve worth entering into the 2007 Tom Collins Poetry Prize, run by the Fellowship of Australian Writers, WA with prizes kindly donated by J.Furphy & Sons Pty Ltd.

Prizes: First $1000, Second $400, 4 x Highly Commended $150, 4 x Commended a Certificate.

For more information go to http://www.fawwa.org.au or email admin@fawwa.org.au

... but be quick! Competition closes December 31st 2007 (entries postmarked by this date accepted).