The Best Australian Poems 2011 (15 page)

The fact ... [the philosophers] constantly disagree with each other is sufficient proof that they do not know the truth about anything.

       —DESIDERIUS ERASMUS,
The Praise of Folly (1509)

 

Imagine my astonishment

to find a grey nurse shark

at least twenty kilometres from the sea

in my backyard swimming pool.

 

Too big to do laps, strictly speaking.

it circled while I looked on in fascination,

its dorsal fin parting the air

like the keel of a capsized boat

trapped in some endless eddy, which,

it struck me, could be a symbol of predestination –

of God's immutable and infallible power

guiding all things by necessity,

so that our will is in bondage to him

as Martin Luther expounded

in
De Servo Arbitrio
.

 

Except there was no eddy,

only a circular flow of water

drawn by the shark's own movement,

which, I reflected, could well be a symbol

of freedom of the will,

a concept defended by Erasmus of Rotterdam

in
De Libero Arbitrio

who reasoned, to deny this

would make God responsible

for the sins of the world, which is

clearly inconsistent with his righteousness.

 

The finest minds of their age unquestioning

in their belief that God is the universal moral force

and man his moral creation,

yet reaching conclusions in contradiction.

How pleasing it was to realise

this great sunken Reformation controversy

had re-surfaced in my pool.

 

There remains, however, the question of the shark.

Beneath the new stairs

that rise from the beach,

the shallow cries or calls of children

and the floating lovers,

the old remain blurred

and bowed, instantly acquiring

an archaeological air.

These constructions

rise in stages like Apollo

with platforms for viewing

or resting, the salt

prickling at your back

arriving at last at a higher

if less sanctified place.

They exchanged few

words. He:
black sand,

sea turtles, salt. Moist

shady areas
. She:
the

 

tree potentially contains

the pear
. Different

combinations of lights

informed the etiquette.

 

The sign outside is

small, in English & He-

brew. Closed Saturdays.

It's an observant shop.

Robert Adamson
's ‘The Sibyl's Avenue' appeared in the
Age
, 21 August 2010.

 

Ali Alizadeh
's ‘Public Mourning' appeared in the
Age
, 20 November 2010.

 

Chris Andrews
's ‘Function Centre' appeared in
Blast
12, Summer 2010.

 

Ken Bolton
's ‘The Funnies' appeared in
Steamer
, August 2011.

 

Ken Bolton
and
John Jenkins
's ‘Volatile Condensate' will appear in their collection
Lucky For Some
(Little Esther Books, 2011).

 

Kevin Brophy
's ‘The Sublime' appeared in
Australian Book Review
, No. 332, June 2011.

 

Pam Brown
's ‘In my phone' appeared as the title poem in the pamphlet ‘In my phone'
, Wagtail
111, June 2011.

 

Joanne Burns
's ‘tick'
appeared in the
Age
, 23 October 2010.

 

Grant Caldwell
's ‘the lights are on' appeared in the
Age
, 4 September 2010; and his collection
glass clouds
(Five Island Press, 2010).

 

John Carey
's ‘on empty' appeared in
Quadrant
, July–August 2010.

 

Bonny Cassidy
's ‘Magma' will appear in
Young Poets: An Australian Anthology
(John Leonard Press, 2011).

 

Julie Chevalier
's ‘ms marbig No. 26 16' will appear in her collection
linen tough as history
(Puncher & Wattman, 2011).

 

Justin Clemens
's ‘We begin building that which cannot collapse because it will have to have been built as if it had already fallen' appeared in his chapbook
Me 'n' me trumpet
(Vagabond, 2011).

 

Sue Clennell
's ‘Picasso' will appear in
Indigo
, Summer 2011.

 

Jennifer Compton
's ‘Four Lines by Ezra Pound' appeared in
Quadrant
, September 2011.

 

Michael Crane
's ‘Metamorphosis' appeared in
Quadrant
, June 2011.

 

Bruce Dawe
's ‘Mini-series' appeared in the
Weekend Australian Review
, 5 March 2011.

 

Suzanne Edgar
's ‘Homage to Mapplethorpe' will appear in
Antipodes
, December 2011.

 

Brook Emery
's ‘You know the way' was published, in an earlier form, as part of the Blake Poetry Prize shortlist. (www.blakeprize.com.au)

 

Kate Fagan's
‘Chrome Arrow' will appear in ‘Fifty-one Contemporary Poets from Australia',
Jacket2
(online journal), October 2011. The source texts for ‘Chrome Arrow' are Pam Brown,
‘Laminex Radio', ‘Darkenings', ‘Evening', ‘Blue Again', ‘Miracles', ‘Out and About', ‘Blues in A', ‘About a Death', ‘Every American Wins a Prize', ‘Augury', ‘City Fringe', ‘Thread Drift', ‘Fall to Float' and ‘Worldly Goods'; Alice Notley, ‘It Would', ‘Poem (“Why do I want to tell it”)', ‘Iphigenia', ‘Mid-80's', ‘Beginning with a stain, as the Universe did perhaps', ‘At Night the States', ‘Little Egypt' and ‘How Spring Comes'; Emily Dickinson, Poems 1268, 321, 318 & 754; and
Patti Smith, ‘Witt', ‘Translators (tr.)', ‘Precious Little', ‘Notice 2', ‘Music (A Woman)' and ‘The Pedestal'.

 

Diane Fahey
's ‘Terns' appeared in the
Canberra Times
, 26 February 2011.

 

Liam Ferney
's ‘Gli Ultimi Zombi' appeared in the
Age
, 26 March 2011.

 

Toby Fitch
's ‘Fluff' appeared on
The Red Room Company
, 2011. (www.redroomcompany.org)

 

Andrew Galan
's ‘The Suns Fall at Zero' appeared in
The Delinquent
(United Kingdom), Issue 14, April 2011.

 

Geoff Goodfellow
's ‘An Uncertain Future' appeared in his collection
Waltzing with Jack Dancer
(Wakefield Press, 2011).

 

Lisa Gorton
's ‘Dreams and Artefacts' appeared in
Australian Book Review
, No. 329, March 2011.

 

Robert Gray
's ‘Flying Foxes' appeared in:
That's it, for now
,
HEAT 24
new series, ed. Ivor Indyk (Giramondo, 2011).

 

Jennifer Harrison
's ‘Busker and Chihuahua, Chapel Street' appeared in the
Age
, 2 October 2010; and in her collection
Colombine: New and Selected Poems
(Black Pepper, 2010).

 

Jodie Hollander
's ‘The Humane Society' appeared in
Under the Radar
, January 2011.

 

Duncan Hose
's ‘The Truffle Hunters' appeared in
One Under Bacchus
(Inken Publisch, 2011).

 

D.J. Huppatz
's ‘FUTURE HAPPY BUDDHA vs Fake Kenny Rogers head' appeared in
VLAK – Contemporary poetics and the arts
, No. 2, 2011.

 

Mark William Jackson
's ‘The Frequency of God' appeared in
Windmills
, Fifth Edition, November 2010.

 

Evan Jones
's ‘Send in the Clowns' appeared in the
Age
, 23 April 2011.

 

Jill Jones
's ‘Break on Through' appeared in
The Diamond and the Thief,
June 2011.

 

Paul Kane
's ‘Triangulating the Tasman' appeared in
All Together Now: A Digital Bridge for Auckland and Sydney
, New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre, 2010.

 

Cate Kennedy
's ‘Temporality' appeared in her collection
The Taste of River Water
(Scribe, 2011).

 

Richard King
's ‘Expat' appeared in the
Weekend Australian Review
, 11 September 2010.

 

Samuel Langer
's ‘into the index' appeared in
Otoliths
21, 1 May 2011.

Geoffrey Lehmann
's ‘Unlicensed (from
Spring Forest
)' appeared in the
Sydney Morning Herald
, 4 December 2010.

 

Kate Lilley
's ‘Crush' appeared in the
Sun-Herald
, 12 June 2011.

 

Astrid Lorange
's ‘Lovetypes' appeared in her collection
Eating and Speaking
(Tea Party Republicans Press, 2011).

 

Anthony Lynch
's ‘Sonnet' appeared in the
Age
, 2 July 2011.

 

David McCooey
's ‘(Weldon Kees)' appeared under a different title in the chapbook
Graphic
, 2010; and in the anthology
Outside
(Salt Publishing, 2011).

 

Jennifer Maiden
's ‘A Great Education' appeared in the
Age
, 15 January 2011.

 

John Miles
's ‘Snake Lady' appeared in the
Times Literary Supplement
, 26 November 2010.

 

Peter Minter
's ‘
Claustrophilic Lavallière
' appeared in
 
All Together Now: A Digital Bridge for Auckland and Sydney
, New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre. The quote at the head of the poem is from the poem ‘Thoughts of a Young Girl' by John Ashbery (
The Tennis Court Oath
, Wesleyan University Press, 1962) and is used with permission.

 

Les Murray
's ‘Going to the City, Karachi 2010' appeared in
The Chimaera
, Issue 8, July 2011.

 

Nguyen Tien Hoang
's ‘Thursday April 21. Canberra' appeared in the
Age
, 23 July 2011.

 

Jal Nicholl
's ‘Values Meeting' appeared in the
Age
, 18 September 2010.

 

Mark O'Flynn
's ‘Our Lady of Coogee' appeared in
Page Seventeen
, Issue 8, November 2010.

 

Paul O'Loughlin
's ‘Reconfigured' appeared in
Zinewest
, October 2010.

 

Ouyang Yu
's ‘I love' appeared in
Landfall
(New Zealand), No. 221, 2011.

 

Louise Oxley
's ‘The Red Gurnard' appeared in the
Canberra Times
, 4 June 2011.

 

Geoff Page
's ‘A Manual of Style' appeared in
Extempore
, November 2010; and his collection
A Sudden Sentence in the Air: Jazz Poems by Geoff Page
(extempore, 2011).

 

Eddie Paterson
's ‘This is the only place' will appear in
Cordite
as a ‘mixtape', December 2011.

 

Felicity Plunkett
's ‘Cyclone Plotting' appeared in
VLAK – Contemporary poetics and the arts
, No. 2, 2011.

 

Claire Potter
's ‘Misreading' appeared in
Jacket
40, 2010.

 

David Prater
's ‘Cute' appeared in
Blackbox Manifold
, Issue 6, March 2011.

 

Peter Rose
's ‘Cicerone' appeared in the
Age
, 2 April 2011.

 

Penni Russon
's ‘Quote' appeared on her blog
Eglantine's Cake
, 2011. (www.eglantinescake.blogspot.com)

 

Gig Ryan
's ‘Daphnis and Chloe' appeared in her collection
New and Selected Poems
(Giramondo, 2011).

 

Andrew Sant
's ‘Mr Habitat Delivers a Speech to the Lapidarists' appeared in the
Age
, 12 February 2011.

 

Jaya Savige
's ‘January' appeared in
Jacket2
, September 2011.

 

Thomas Shapcott
's ‘Georges Perec in Brisbane' appeared in the
Weekend Australian
, 14 August 2010.

 

Michael Sharkey
's ‘Heroes of Australia' appeared in
Quadrant
, March 2011.

 

Alex Skovron
's ‘Humility' appeared in
Australian Book Review
, No. 329, March 2011.

 

Melinda Smith
's ‘Murder at the Poetry Conference' appeared in the
Canberra Times
, 26 February 2011.

 

Peter Steele
's ‘The Knowledge' appeared in his collection
The Gossip and the Wine
(John Leonard Press, 2010).

 

Amanda Stewart
's ‘Bondi rock pool. 1963.' was performed at the Australian Museum, Sydney, for the Sydney Consortium's ‘Biodiversity and the Arts' event, 11 September 2010; and it will appear in
The Noise of Exchange
, Association of Stories in Macao, China, ASM Poetry, December 2011.

 

Ann Vickery
's ‘Adventure at Sadies' appeared in
Rabbit
1, July 2011.

 

Corey Wakeling
's ‘View' appeared in the
Age
, 4 December 2010.

 

Chris Wallace-Crabbe
's ‘The Piano Inkpot' appeared in the
Age
, 5 February 2011.

 

Warrick Wynne
's ‘The Stations of the Stairs' appeared in
Eureka Street
, Vol. 21, No. 14, July 2011.

 

Mark Young
's ‘A line from Paracelsus' appeared in
E
·
ratio
14, January 2011.