Dianne Firth's 2017 art exhibition 'Poetry and Place' consisted of a series of textile works inspired by poems commissioned from 14 Australian and International poets who attended the 2016 Poetry in Motion Festival at the University of Canberra. The poem printed below was my contribution to the show. As you can see from the image above, Dianne's four works (like the four parts of my poem) form an interconnected whole.
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1942
The picture is sepia-toned
like the not-too-far-distant war
the need to stay silent at mealtimes
so her father can hear
every radio news report
the need to pose paramount
in the stiff lines of this schoolgirl
reaching out a tentative hand
to the strangest of beasts
in the latter stages of dementia
my father removed her photos
replacing them with snaps
of his militaria
I don’t think she understands
what we see in this picture
the meekness before authority
the gentleness of the pose
the dark fringe of trees
in a faraway world
where my mother
has just been told
to pretend to feed
a wallaby
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1948
My father and my grandmother
crossed the Tasman
in a flying boat
for my uncle’s graduation
from Duntroon
they took off from Mechanics Bay
my father said of Canberra
there was only tenuously
a city there
even by Auckland standards
a building
trees and fields
far off
another building
like Brasilia
•
1984
They held a faculty reception
at ANU
for the visiting professor
Frank Kermode
said my buddy Claire
and somehow she
got seated next to him
she asked
d’you see that mountain over there?
he allowed he did
I just ran up and down it seven times
really? why?
to become iron woman!
bemused look
no doubt a story for
High Table
back in the real world
•
2016
Somebody snaffled my cab
that first morning
at the Premier Hotel
I’d rung up to order it
half an hour before
But after sitting stumm
in the lounge
I just had to ask
it’s coming any moment now
said the man on the desk
(hastily ordering it)
but when it did turn up
the cab-driver wouldn’t let me in
it was reserved for Paul
he said
(who turned out to be
the guy on the desk)
he’d got into trouble that way before
at one of the bigger hotels
two punters
both with the number seven
that one turned quite nasty
he said
[24-25/3; 16-17/9-4/12/16]
“Canberra Tales.” In Dianne Firth, Poetry and Place: Catalogue for the Poetry and Place Exhibition, Belconnen Art Centre, 25 August – 17 September 2017. ISBN 978-1-74088-460-0. Canberra: University of Canberra, 2017: 10.
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