Even before I'd finished talking, hands shot up from the grey heads in the audience. 'I'm very concerned,' said the jowly chap with the sailor's suntan, 'that advances being made in drugs mean that most cancer patients will soon be kept alive indefinitely.' That's a problem? People who used to suffer and die will be able to live longer, quality lives. You don't hear this said about the advances in ... (read more)
Hidden Author
In this episode of Australian Book Review's States of Poetry podcast, Fiona Wright reads her poem 'Smith's Lake' which features in the 2016 New South Wales anthology.
Smith's Lake
The grass grows longer on the easeway.
A pelican swipes the sky towards the seascape we can't yet see,its webby legs outstretched:   ... (read more)
In this episode of Australian Book Review's States of Poetry podcast, Fiona Wright reads her poem 'Set Piece' which features in the 2016 New South Wales anthology.
Set Piece
Strange, that there are sequences we live as cinema, if I lookedover my shoulderI might recognise the front wall ... (read more)
In this episode of Australian Book Review's States of Poetry podcast, Fiona Wright reads her poem 'Potts Point' which features in the 2016 New South Wales anthology.
Potts Point
for Eileen
The light's olderin these sandstone suburbs,jam-thick.
A clipped-haired man held a dog leashsaying one of us is single,and even the leaveshad hunched their shouldersin the gutters.
A waiter, golde ... (read more)
In this episode of Australian Book Review's States of Poetry podcast, Fiona Wright reads her poem 'Crisis Poem' which features in the 2016 New South Wales anthology.
Crisis Poem
for Ian
And suddenly:the menare holding beersand standing roundthe trampoline,and not the barbecue;turning over toddlers,instead of steaks.The womenmake the salads.
Fiona Wright
'Crisis Poem' appears ... (read more)
In this episode of Australian Book Review's States of Poetry podcast, Fiona Wright reads her poem 'After Mutability' which features in the 2016 New South Wales anthology.
After Mutability
Perhaps the best cells are the ones we can't kill off,a persistence of the fittest, although mutation'salways painful. It's two thousand and fourteen,and I know no-one who has beenuninjured. It thinks ... (read more)
In this episode of Australian Book Review's States of Poetry podcast, Amy Brown reads her poem 'Snake' which features in the 2016 Victorian anthology.
Snake
We are following a track that loopsaround a lake impaled with trees,a pinned-down habitat for platypuses
I would like to see, so try to walksilently until a shadow across the sun-dried turf in front of me blushes
curls and slides ... (read more)
In this episode of Australian Book Review's States of Poetry podcast, Ellen van Neerven reads her poem 'Buffalo Milk' which features in the 2016 Queensland anthology.
Buffalo Milk
Suck until you burn the roomand the heat numbsreduced to a soundwetlike the come and goof the oceanwater entersmy hand in your hairmy handif you leave me childlessthis will be yours alonethese marks you makeo ... (read more)
In this episode of Australian Book Review's States of Poetry podcast, Ellen van Neerven reads her poem 'Bricks and Lightning' which features in the 2016 Queensland anthology.
Bricks and Lightning
It seems I'm always walkinginto the scene of a crimemoustached copperand fuck-off tapedon't look too closelyyou won't be able to sleepI'm new to this buildingI live now by the river wherethe d ... (read more)
In this episode of Australian Book Review's States of Poetry podcast, Ellen van Neerven reads her poem 'Chips' which features in the 2016 Queensland anthology.
Chips
Can I saywhite people really bore me sometimesto be exactI grow tired with what's unmentionedidling in surf club bathroomsnothing wrong with the chipsbut they're talking about Tasmaniamy thoughts haunted by islandsmaybe I' ... (read more)