Accessibility Tools

  • Content scaling 100%
  • Font size 100%
  • Line height 100%
  • Letter spacing 100%

Nebuchadnezzar by Shelton Lea & Poetileptic by Mal McKimmie

by
October 2006, no. 285

Nebuchadnezzar by Shelton Lea

Black Pepper, $23.95 pb, 123 pp, 1876044519

Book 2 Cover Small (400 x 600)

Poetileptic by Mal McKimmie

Five Islands Press, $18.95 pb, 80 pp, 1741280923

Nebuchadnezzar by Shelton Lea & Poetileptic by Mal McKimmie

by
October 2006, no. 285

Nebuchadnezzar is Shelton Lea’s ninth and last book. Sadly, this colourful poet, a well-loved stalwart on the Melbourne reading circuit, died of cancer in May 2006, shortly after its publication.

The book begins by surveying a ‘land of fences and diatribes’ (‘1988’). It describes the inhabitants of Koori streets: ‘old men with no tomorrows / who rock on broken chairs / and stare at a bitumen sea’ (‘fitzroy’). Lea was an advocate for Aboriginal causes, and his poems often celebrate marginalised people who must summon the desire to survive. This burden of grit grounds life in harsh experience, before a remarkable lift-off.

You May Also Like

Leave a comment

If you are an ABR subscriber, you will need to sign in to post a comment.

If you have forgotten your sign in details, or if you receive an error message when trying to submit your comment, please email your comment (and the name of the article to which it relates) to ABR Comments. We will review your comment and, subject to approval, we will post it under your name.

Please note that all comments must be approved by ABR and comply with our Terms & Conditions.