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States of Poetry

The ABR Podcast 

Released every Thursday, the ABR podcast features our finest reviews, poetry, fiction, interviews, and commentary.

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Davidson

‘The gold standard: The centenary of Francis Webb’

by Toby Davidson

This week on The ABR Podcast, Toby Davidson marks the centenary of Francis Webb with an essay on the poet. Toby Davidson is the editor of Francis Webb’s Collected Poems and a senior lecturer at Macquarie University. Listen to Toby Davidson with ‘The gold standard: The centenary of Francis Webb’, published in the January-February issue of ABR.

 

Recent episodes:


When it was nearly still acceptable
to nip the shoulder of the pleasant boy
sitting cross-legged in front of you
(leaning back and pulling the royal blue

wool of his jersey with loose teeth)
I had an elastic idea, which stretched
through the next twenty-five years. Senior
primary school's kingdom of fully grown

flax bushes and adult-sized toilets,

We are following a track that loops
around a lake impaled with trees,
a pinned-down habitat for platypuses

I would like to see, so try to walk
silently until a shadow across the sun-
dried turf in front of me blushes

curls and slides down a bank.
I stop, tell you what I've seen, smile
at the luck. You jump onto a log.

For the rest of the wal ...

You feel this way, kind of free when you lie down

_____________________

I was riding a shark through Cork, just for the exercise of course
It might seem quaint but rather it was
Gorgeous, like an early morning courtyard
Imagine the dialogue. AC/DC confronts shark
       shark repeats
       shadow prime minister's
Gaffe
You guys are the white Australian Uluru. Fancy, say ...

Who are you? You hear the song, the
Good line along with the others in the
Hair salon. That place for standing in; for< ...

 Strawberries: a mania of strawberries on a
   Turntable

   ________

Like a teacup in a snowstorm I
Find you and break you. A sentry reptile, I advise you
To return quietly to the campfire. You mistakenly took
My interest in theology for a strategy

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