25 September 2023

I Love Poetry

Start the conversation

Reviewed by Rama Gaind.

By Michael Farrell, Giramondo Publishing, $24.00.

Farrell’s poems aspire to both importance and connotation, and to invoke new Australian realities – ‘the rhyme’s a moral that becomes a fence; a fallen-down fence is a joy forever.’

The publicity blurb does it justice. The tone is playful and ironic, more under the skin of the mind than in its face. Poems like ‘Into a Bar’, in which Blue Poles and INXS entertain themselves with digital prune juice and a video burger, or ‘Cate Blanchett and the Difficult Poem’, with the actor and Waleed Aly, add new dimensions to Australian icons.

There’s a Mad Max riff (‘Put Your Helmet On’); a One Direction revision (‘Drag Me Down’); and new appreciations of lyrebirds, kangaroos and chocolate frogs. For something unusual, there’s everything that loves poetry: Weetbix, Iron Maiden T-shirts, motorbikes, and you.

There is Sid Vicious and there are lamingtons.

‘Great Poet Snowdome’ is a story of kitsch involving Sydney and a pope – a recurring figure in the book, since he reappears as Pope Pinocchio, alongside the Professor of Milk and Sugar.

Then there’s diversity.

Start the conversation

Be among the first to get all the Public Sector and Defence news and views that matter.

Subscribe now and receive the latest news, delivered free to your inbox.

By submitting your email address you are agreeing to Region Group's terms and conditions and privacy policy.