Samuel Wagan Watson
Authorised visits,
temporarily easing Grafton Correctional Centre blues,
a young girl walks shadow-hardened corridors to see a black inmate,
observe her little brown fingers
Born in Brisbane 1972, Samuel’s poetry has collected numerous accolades and opportunities. His writing is featured in anthologies, public art works, films, and on-board the international space station. Love Poems and Death Threats is his latest collection with University of Queensland Press. He recently won the 2015 ...
... (read more)'Conversation with a Decommissioned Electric Chair' by Samuel Wagan Watson | States of Poetry QLD - Series Two
Circa September, 2015
Powerhouse Museum, Sydney
I first admired your arms, brown and unrefined like mine, the scars and veins unhidden. Straight
back. Strong neck. An inanimate object that would never be cau ...
'Conversation with a Decommissioned Electric Chair' by Samuel Wagan Watson | States of Poetry QLD - Series Two
For my late mentor,
(Kumantjayi) Uncle Martin Harrison
Be sharply accustomed to the anatomy of your writing; inside and out...Where you have
slivered the bones of your storyline, mark the points of ruin and resurrection ... Count the
gouges ... Here is where you lunged ... Careful! ... There was a finely delivered se ...
'A Self-Help Book for Broken Writers: Some Zen notes' by Samuel Wagan Watson | States of Poetry QLD - Series Two
(1)
< ...for Aunty Suzie Wilson
We’d often give Dad a lift to work along this bent stretch of the river.
Maiwar curved here like a boomerang hook. Ghosts that tasted heavy
of pork bones hung in the dawn; most of Murrarie had been invaded by
K.R. Darling Downs. You would almost hear the unified groan at 5 am,
when all the workers formed a single-file; it wa ...
'When we dreamt like Kerouac' by Samuel Wagan Watson | States of Poetry QLD - Series Two
Where Logan Rd and Creek intersect there used to be an old
gas station that looked beat even when it was new. You could
feed a fuel-pump shiny 20-cent pieces at any hour of the day
when petroleum was 17-cents a litre. The solid steel rods of the
tram lines were stapled into the Earth, under Kagaar Mabul;
home of the s ...