Thom Sullivan

Thom Sullivan is a poet and editor from Wistow/Bugle Ranges in the Adelaide Hills. A short collection of his poems, 'Airborne', was published in New Poets 14 in 2009. Since then he has edited or co-edited seven books of poetry, including Light & Glorie, an anthology of poems about stained glass, with Aidan Coleman. His poems have appeared in The Best Australian Poems 2014, The Best Australian Poems 2015, Australian Love Poems, Cordite, Transnational Literature, and Eureka Street. He lives in Adelaide, where he works in public policy.

States of Poetry 2016 - South Australia | 'Where Brownlee Went' by Thom Sullivan

States of Poetry South Australia - Series One • 22 February 2016

after Paul Muldoon's 'Why Brownlee Left' Where Brownlee went, and why he went,is no mystery – Brady's bar.And if a man should have fixed intentit was him; two shots of whiskey,one of Bushmills, one of Redbreast,a cheer and a slab for the house.He was then seen going out to pissin the March morning, sure and surly. By noon Brownlee was legless;they found him in the beer-garden, themodest ring u ... (read more)

States of Poetry 2016 - South Australia | 'In Camera' by Thom Sullivan

States of Poetry South Australia - Series One • 22 February 2016

A day in parallax – duco-blue –a crop of borrowed gold,in focus, replete – fibrous stems of light, agitated,and, over them, the balesof cloud dispersing. The motor tickinglong after it is silenced.And the impulse it honours: this. Thom Sullivan ... (read more)

States of Poetry 2016 - South Australia | 'Elaterid, Harbinger' by Thom Sullivan

States of Poetry South Australia - Series One • 22 February 2016

a beetle enamoured with my lamp : a harbingerof spring : as if the tree blossomingon the footpath opposite was not enough :or the budding persimmon : or the bottlebrush flowersi didn't notice until today : there's evidence of spring :in abundance : the enduring dusk : that's holdingstill : days that are shifting south : subtly :to an alternate frame of evergreens : an alternate room :throwing the ... (read more)

States of Poetry 2016 - South Australia | 'All Things Go' by Thom Sullivan

States of Poetry South Australia - Series One • 22 February 2016

is the poem nonchalant enough to reference sufjan stevens :or is he, too, passé : it's a poem in the same keyas his chicago : piped in to the auditory cortex : a private music :that the world resounds with : the city resonatesfrom the inside : lights light up in unison : traffic stops & starts : office-buildings with a swagger to their stillness :an uncertain rhythm : plane tree leaves : car ... (read more)

States of Poetry 2016 - South Australia | 'Suburban Panopticon' by Thom Sullivan

States of Poetry South Australia - Series One • 22 February 2016

i. birds have their own topography : overlaidon ours : which is vertical & detailed :with its own system of needs :its own deviations : the nerve-endsin my fingertips : & a tremor in my latissimus dorsirouse me : a domestic industrystarts up : a saw : or sander : on some abutting title :the sound raw : with alternating notes :one contention in the hypothesisof morning : suggesting whole l ... (read more)