Internet address of this page, approximately 35 printed pages:
http://peternicholson.com.au/archiveframe.html
Archive
The following archive, a work in progress, will include bibliographical, online and other reference materials. Dates are styled day/month/year. The archive references both published and unpublished material written since 1967 and contains the following subdivisions: Poetry, Prose, Titles and First Lines, Notes, Vocabulary and Place Names, Photographs and Documents.
ATG A Temporary Grace, SST Such Sweet Thunder, ADP A Dwelling Place
CAKC Condemned At Kangaroo Court
PN personal website peternicholson.com.au 3QD 3 Quarks Daily
Work, Date written, Date first published print *, electronically +, Excerpts ex.
All work revised and edited subsequent to initial dates of composition.
More detailed bibliographical information is available on request.
Poet. Graffiti at work place, 1991, artist/s unknown, at the time of the publication of A Temporary Grace
POETRY
NB References work published between 1967 and 1997
At The Water's Edge *ATG 28/8/1991
Australia 1967–1973 +PN 31/3/1998 *Delphic Intimations Feb 2007
New England Graveyard 1972–1973
Open Season 1967–1973
The Poet 1967–1973
Wilfred Owen 1967–1973
Final Solution 1967–1973 +PN 31/3/1998 +Soup of the day 15/7/2002
Orpheus 1967–1973
Miniatures 1967–1973
I Wasp
II Moth
III Spider
Australian History Lesson 1967–1973
Galileo 1967–1973
On The Asian Continent 1972–1973
Among The Florentine Gallery Tributes 11/1/1973–1974
Poet And State 1974
Revenant, Armidale 1974
Veni Creator Spiritus 1974
Terra Australis 1974
Pax Imperium 1974
Round Sydney Harbour 1974
Metamorphosis 1974
Pierrot 1974
At Cannes 1974–1975
Années de Pèlerinage 1976
Tribute 1976
Nuclear Nightmare 6/4/1981
Music 1975 +Ozlit 5/10/1997 +3QD 7/10/2006
Views To A Bridge *ATG 28/8/1991
While The Billy Boils 25/12/1981
Confetti Candour 1984
Sheep-Dip Muster 1984
Adelaide Festival 1984 11/3/1984
Asking Auden 31/10/1984 +PN 31/3/1998 +3QD 15/1/2007
Views To A Bridge 1984
Sydney Spring 14/11/1984
Lunch At Centrepoint 20/12/1984
And The Winner Is . . . 1984 +PN ex. 31/3/1998 +3QD 24/9/2007
In Celebration 5/1/1985
Margaret Sutherland
Grace Cossington Smith
Joan Sutherland
Rehearsal 2/11/1984
Tooth Fairy's Desertion 1984
Figures In A Landscape 13/5/1985–31/5/1985
Ode To Suburban Man 9/4/1985
Ars Poetica 10/4/1985
Elegy For Ruth 28/5/1985–2/6/1985
Shadow Of A Doubt *SST 28/4/1994
Bienvenue à Boom Boom 2/2/1986 *+ Summer 2009 PRIVATE n. 45 International Review of Photographs and Texts Development: An Ecological Question p. 33
Bad 18/7/1985
I Favourite
II At A Glance
Double 4/10/1985
Hitch 6/10/1985 +PN 31/3/1998
Poet At Work 25/10/1985
Thirty-five 8/7/1985–1/12/1985
The Speewah Ballad 28/12/1985–5/1/1986 +3QD 2/7/2007
Absolutely No Extensions Possible 11/1/1986 +PN 31/3/1998
Cold 18/1/1986
Tooth And Claw March 1986
Stone 25/3/1986–26/3/1986
Thou Swell 31/3/1986
Late News 15/31986–16/3/1986 +Ozlit ex. 5/10/1997
Swan 17/3/1986
Morning Assignation 1986
Ascent 29/6/1986–7/2/1987
Pause 1986
et je danse 5/10/1986 * Anna Bemrose Robert Helpmann A Servant of Art UQP 2008 p. 312
Passing Trade 26/10/1986
Old Acquaintance 28/10/1986
Transformation Scene 12/12/1986
In A Country Garden 27/12/1986
Evening 17/10/1986
Official Secrets 17/2/1987 +PN 31/3/1998 +ergence 2001
Prometheus 3/7/1985–May 1987 *SST 28/4/1994 ex.+14/1/2008 3QD
S.S. Snakebite *SST 28/4/1994
Top Hat 6/6/1987 +3QD 12/3/2007
Rendezvous de Fruits de Mer 7/7/1987
Circus Animals Burning 14/7/1987
Be Kind To Insects Week 14/7/1987
Summer Nights 19/7/1987 +PN 31/3/1998 *Viewing English/Korean Dec. 2000
Scorpion 1987
Mortamadonna 22/7/1987
Salt 1987 *Delphic Intimations Feb 2007
Asia-Pacific 29/7/1987
I Not A Haiku
II Haiku
To Mr W. S. 10/6/1987–14/7/1988 +PN 31/3/1998
Mirror 2/10/1987
Lustre 4/10/1987 +Ozlit 5/10/1997
Black 1988 3/11/1987
Waiting To Abort 22/11/1987
Swan Box 13/12/1987
Slept Soundly 23/12/1987
New Year Retro 3/1/1988–4/1/1988
May I Have This Dance? 15/1/1988 +PN 31/3/1998
Feedtime 15/2/1988
Micky Takes Valium 7/4/1988–8/4/1988
Country 24/4/1988
Things Wrong In The Dream Kitchen 26/10/1988–5/5/1988
Owed To Feral Face 19/5/1988
Rock Face 21/5/1988 +PN 31/3/1998
Apocalyptica 21/5/1988–1/1/1989 +Ozlit ex. 5/10/1997
Orange Penguins 17/7/1988
Decades 28/8/1989
A Patient, Found Hanged 20/9/1988–25/10/1988 +PN 31/3/1998
Greenpeace 2/12/1988
S.S. Snakebite Docks 20/5/1988
Speech To A Mountain *ADP 12/7/1997
The Path Taken 8/12/1988
Short Prayer 12/12/1988
Go 8/1/1989
A Grace 5/2/1989
Crocodile Tears 18/2/1989–16/12/1989
Apple On A Plate 27/2/1989
Clouds 28/3/1989
Green May 1989
Cut Skin 22/5/1989
ICI REPOSE VINCENT van GOGH 11/5/1989 +Ozlit 14/5/1997 + 3QD 31/8/2007
Sunday Afternoon 31/5/1989
Dear Diary 31/5/1989
Winter Solstice 7/7/1989
Gifts 25/6/1989–27/6/1989 +PN 31/3/1998
I Saw Elvis In The Supermarket Queue 16/4/1990–10/5/1990 +PN 31/3/1998
A Definition 19/7/1989 +PN 31/3/1998; +Dec. 2000 Poems about Poetry; +3QD
6/7/2007; Prosopisia Vol. 1 2008 pp. 48-50
Confused In The Pacific 22/7/1989 +PN 31/3/1998
Suit Of Our Dimension 6/8/1989
Big Stuff 10/8/1989
Now, Voyager 25/8/1989 +Ozlit 5/10/1997
On Platypus Rock 10/9/1989
An Encounter 1989
Anton Bruckner 12/11/1980–March 1990
Poet 15/11/1989 +Ozlit ex. 5/10/1997 Poetica ABC Radio National 2/3/1998
Too Serious 17/12/1989
Summer With Mosquitoes 1990
Speech To A Mountain 25/2/1990–16/4/1990
In The Making 17/5/1990
On Children Going To Sleep 1990 +PN 31/3/1998
Trophy 6/3/1990
What Horses' Eyes Have Seen 14/4/1990
Great Attractor 4/4/1990–5/5/1990
New Affection, New Noise *ADP 12/7/1997
Autumn Elegy 25/5/1990
Voluntary 14/6/1990
Emily— 15/6/1990–6/7/1990 +Ozlit ex. 5/10/1997 *Visiting Emily UIP USA 10/12/2000 +23/10/2006 3QD
What's Up, Doc? 29/7/1990–11/8/1990
Laurel 7/8/1990 +Ozlit 14/5/1997
A Dwelling Place 27/8/1990
Songlines 17/8/1990 +Ozlit 5/10/1997
Surfer 23/8/1990
Triumvirate 1990
A Prophecy 1/11/1990–5/11/1990
Cloudburst 2/12/1990
Forty 6/11/1990–22/12/1990
Word 19/12/1990 +PN 31/3/1998 +3QD 7/10/2006 *Prosopisia Vol 1 2008 pp. 55–56
Crest 4/1/1991–14/1/1991
Good Weekend 6/1/1991
New Affection, New Noise 6/1/1991 +PN ex. 31/3/1998 +Ozlit 14/5/1998
An Answer 23/1/1991
Five Shakespeare Studies 3/12/1990–29/1/1991 +Ozlit ex. 5/10/1997 +PN ex. 31/3/1998
Remembrance Near A Trace Of The Berlin Wall 24/2/1991
Geography 1991 +PN 31/3/1998
Gym Junkie Freakout 13/2/1991–14/2/1991
Star Sign 17/2/1991
In Transit 3/3/1991–16/3/1991
You, who have come thus far 12/3/1991 +PN 31/3/1998
Reversal 11/3/1991 +PN 31/3/1998
On holidays, Byron Bay, New South Wales
PROSE
Fast Forward 22/12/1979–23/3/1980 *28/8/1991 ATG
Introduction to Such Sweet Thunder 1993-1994 *28.4/1994 SST
Notebook 27/8/1993–1/4/1996 * ex.+12/7/1997 ADP ex.+3QD 19/11/2007
Ozlit editorial +8/10/1997
Personal website peternicholson.com.au +31/3/1998
Hammerhead 2003
#To Seek and Find Part 1 published electronically in 3 Quarks Daily edited Abbas Raza 3quarksdaily.com
3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2005/09/poetry_and_cult.html 6/10/2001—
December 2001 + 26/9/2006 ; Prosopisia eds. Anuraag Sharma, Pradeep Trikha Vol. 1 2008 pp. 44–56 * 28/1/2008
NB First cyberproem—digital prose plus associated poem, noted #
#To Seek and Find Part 2 3QD 3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2005/10/poetry_and_cult.html +24/10/2005
+ Blesok No. 56 Volume X September-October 2007 English/Macedonian
Benjamin Britten Music and Poetry, attendant muses at the grinding gears 3QD
3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2005/11/poetry_and_cult.html +21/11/2005
#Federico Fellini Circus Maximus 3QD
3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2005/12/federico_fellin_2.html +19/12/2005
#Poetry of the Real Six Feet Over 3QD
3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2006/01/poetry_of_the_r.html +16/1/2006
#Birgit Nilsson and Joan Sutherland The Stupendous 3QD
3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2006/02/birgit_nilsson_.html +13/2/2006
#Winged Victory The Sydney Opera House 3QD
3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2006/03/winged_victory_.html +13/3/2006
#Philip Larkin Hull-Haven 3QD
3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2006/04/philip_larkin_h.html +10/4/2006
The Best Poems Ever 3QD
3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2006/05/the_best_poems_.html +8/5/2006
Richard Wagner Orpheus Ascending complete text published *Wagner
The Wagner Society of the United Kingdom Vol 22 No 1 March 2001 pp. 3-37
Part One ex. 3QD
3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2006/06/richard_wagner_.html +5/6/2006
Richard Wagner Orpheus Ascending Part 2 ex. 3QD
3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2006/07/orpheus_ascend.html +3/7/2006
#Richard Wagner Orpheus Ascending Part 3 ex. 3QD
3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2006/08/orpheus_ascendi.html +28/8/2006
#Whatever A New York State of Mind 3QD
3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2006/09/whatever_a_new_.html +11/9/2006
Poetry of Lists 3QD (prose poem)
3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2006/09/poetry_of_lists.html +25/9/2006
#Emily Dickinson The Poem of Ecstasy 3QD
3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2006/10/emily_dickinson.html +23/10/2006
#Ern Malley Doppelgänger in the Desert 3QD
3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2006/11/ern_malley_dopp.html +20/11/2006
#Don't Curb Your Enthusiasm 3QD
3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2006/12/dont_curb_your_.html +18/12/2006
'Asking Auden' 3QD (poem)
3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2007/01/marbeck_valeria.html +15/1/2007
#My Perverse Critic: Marbeck Valerian 3QD
3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2007/02/my_perverse_cri.html +12/2/2007
#Invitation To The Dance 3QD
3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2007/03/invitation_to_t.html +12/3/2007
#‘Ah! fuyez, douce image’ 3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2007/04/ah_fuyez_douce_.html +9/4/2007
Gwen Harwood 3QD
3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2007/05/gwen_harwood.html +7/5/2007
Sir Edward Elgar: Allegro vivace e nobilmente 3QD
3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2007/06/sir_edward_elga.html +4/6/2007
#‘The Speewah Ballad’ (poem) 3QD
3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2007/07/the-speewah-bal.html#html +2/7/2007
Gustav Mahler: ‘Though I sang in my chains like the sea’ 3QD
3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2007/07/gustav-mahler-t.html +30/7/2007
‘Is your mouth a little weak?’: commitment, politics and poetry 3QD
3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2007/08/is-your-mouth-a.html +27/8/2007
‘And The Winner Is . . .’ (poem) 3QD
3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2007/09/and-the-winner-.html +24/9/2007
#‘Gut gemacht, Rex!’ 3QD
3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2007/10/gut-gemacht-rex.html +29/10/2007
Notebook 3QD ex.
3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2007/11/notebook.html +19/11/2007
A Golden Age 3QD
3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2007/12/a-golden-age.html +17/12/2007
‘Prometheus’ (poem) 3QD ex.
3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2008/01/prometheus.html +14/1/2008
Fireworks Display Exhaustion Syndrome 3QD
3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2008/03/fireworks-displ.html +3/3/2008
TITLES and FIRST LINES
NB References work written between 1967 and 2006
Titles are displayed in bold; titles within sequences are indented under the main title; titles identical to first lines are double asterixed; untitled poems are listed under their first line with an asterisk
. . .
XXVll Olympiad
Abandoned Cricket Pitch
A birthday poem at thirty-five
About The House
Above the treeline
Abraded on the golf course of our lives
Absolutely No Extensions Possible
Ache
A Collected Poems Tomb-Tome
A cup of water set against
Acquired on the beach
Across those slouching plains
Adaptation
Adelaide Festival 1984
A distant noise
A feather bears the weight of the world
A kookaburra's blubbering laugh
A letter could be the scar of a wound
Alexander, Not I
Alien P. Grotesque
All that rains in the reign of hearts
Alma
Alma Schindler Mahler Gropius Werfel—
A metaphysical option is delight
Among The Florentine Gallery Tributes
Among those hanging distances
An Armada perishes at sea
An art not deciduous
And The Winner Is . . .
And yet to tell no more
An empty cricket pitch
Angel
Années de Pèlerinage
An open grave of crows
Another morning begins in pain
Answer, An
Anti-Definition
Anton Bruckner
Anxiety On Annapurna
Apart, the stalks of green
Apocalyptica
Apple On A Plate
Appointment
Aranda, Arrernte, Bundjalung, Dharug, Gindavul, Galmahra
Are we worthy of great art?
Ars Poetica
Art isn't enough
Art is the triumph of the human race
Artist's Agony Aunt Replies, The
As a patient by a nurse touched
Ascent
A shrivelled tide
Asking Auden
Asia-Pacific
l Not A Haiku
ll Haiku
A smell of burning woke me in the night
At Cannes
At night the torrents
At night when the earth seems still
At Rydalmere the sunlight whirled
At the bottom of the world
**At The Concert
**At The Levee, Life
Australia
Australian History Lesson
Australian rules is better ideology
Autumn Elegy
Autumn swill
Aux armes!
A warm-up gesture in the wings
B
Baboon border between
Bad
l Favourite
ll At A Glance
Bad Hair Day
Barrier Reef
Battle Hymn
Battle mud at Agincourt
Bedtime Story
Begin In Gladness
Be Kind To Insects Week
Behind the clouds his face appears
Being And Somethingness
Bequest
Below the city turns
Beneath the Inverness cape of the sky
Bent sails hang in the tide
Between unconsciousness and time's ambition
Beyond the flitting brilliances
Bienvenue à Boom Boom
Big Orange Sunset
Big Stuff
Bit Black, A
Black 1988
Bliss
Blood on the screen
Blossom in fragments
Blow Of The Axe
Blue Period
Blurt
Body Politic
**Bountiful Is The Mutiny
Breathless
Brobdingnag into Lilliput doesn't go
Brought To Book
Bruised horizon
Brushing confetti from my suit
Buoyant matrix, shape unfurled
Bush Imperial
By summer pools delinquencies
Camomile
Can't know nought, far off to eighty
Century
Child soldiers of sex slaves
Chopin
Circus Animals Burning
Cloudburst
Clouded Sky Is Now Serene, The
Clouds
Cold
Compound Interest
Comrades, citizens
Confused In The Pacific
Country
Conclusion, bringing fear
Condemned At Kangaroo Court
Confetti Candour
Corrections in the printed text
Corrections, The
Could all our various lustres meet
Court Official, Chinese Textiles Exhibition
Creeper clouds
Crest
Crocodile Tears
Cryptogram
Cup Of Water, A
Curriculum Vitae
Cut Skin
Dangling from a Roman ring
Dawn breaks
Dear Diary
Death and imagination
Death isn't straightforward
Death's compounding night
Decades
Decay's insistent rush
Dedication
Definition, A
Departure, and empires end
Departures
Did you know
Digestive clod of conscience
Dogs in the distance bark
Double
Download through the internet
Down under
Dramatis personae gather for the kill
Dreaming
Dream's absurd ambition
Driving
Drought Breaks
Dry hands in a clean bed
Dust in a room at Claridge's
Dust, the crumbled edge
Dwelling Place, A
Earning the dentings of your face
Earth is turning in its velvet space
Ecstasy beneath the wing
Editors, publishers, agents-send them off at dawn
Either/Or
e je danse
El Blandino, Customer
Elegy For Ruth
Ella
Emily—
Enormous wing, enfolding Earth
En Route
Etching
Ethics
ET turns out to be
Eucalyptus grandiflora
Evening
Evening News
Everlasting spine
Every day a blessing that you live
Everything is a fault
Failed, the volute of your will
Fake
Falling there
Farewells
Father Of The Year
February
Feedtime
Feedtime. Forget time
Fiery light
Fifty
Figures In A Landscape
Final Proofs
Final Solution
Fin de Millénaire
First part going
Five Shakespeare Studies
Flamingos
Flamingos in their thousand bonding pairs
Flying down to the city of churches
For many an hour at evening
Former
Forty
Fragment
Free
From a bedroom window
From a dynasty beyond dreaming
From leaning windows
From migraine, a pool of light
From stacked paper you plucked
From Verse To Worse
From your horizontal plane
Full Frontal
Full, Half, None
Further
Galileo
Garbage in, garbage out
Generations
Getting ready for bed
Giant
Gifts
Gifts, The
Gingering the boredom
Glorious niece of language's funambulist
Go
God is a rough house artist
Going
Good for trout fishing—
Good Weekend
Governments will wring their hands
Grace, A
Gravity's puss stalks through grass
Great Attractor
Greats
Green
Greenpeace
Grey clouds at dawn
Grey slough of skins on trains at dusk
Gym Junkie Freakout
Haka or haiku
Hail And Farewell
Halfway House
Half-way up the Pyrenees
Handicap
Hauling time
Here a gold symposium
Here, at a height
Here, at a limit
Here at the tawdry burn-out points
Here flanks of sandstone roll above
Here, in the shopping mall
Here, near the edge of the heliopause
Here you sit
He wanders through the city streets
Historiographicalwissenschaftheimatland
History
Hitch
Homage To Rema Nelly
Horn of light, bright as bone
How should one dwell
How strange the air on which a shape can glide
How strange, the life that we must have
How summer has declined
I
I am burning
I am not an other
I am young, the world is old
ICI REPOSE VINCENT van GOGH
I don't write
If God exists
I have been a beneficiary of night
I haven't scored three hundred goals
I have over three hundred children
I heard some distant music
I may be some time
I listen, hearing a noise
Illumination
I'm doing press-ups in my gym
Imperator
I'm waiting till the darkness feels like killing
In A Country Garden
In A Temple
In Celebration
Margaret Sutherland
Grace Cossington Smith
Joan Sutherland
In cling shirt, skirt
In Logic Lane
In Logic Lane some memes are verified
In our barren presences
In paradise
In Parenthesis
In silence, or that movement
Insouciant, laughing spiral
In the distant suburb
In the salon while I'm giving
In The Making
In the morning we may rejoice
Intervista
Into the city of coffee and Klimt
In Transit
Invitation To The Dance
Inwards spatters the fluttering moth
I opened a packet of biscuits
I Remember
**I Saw Elvis In The Supermarket Queue
I smell presented roses and swirl the toothpaste round
Item
It had come to my attention in the local boozers' pub
It has come to this
It lands on my desk with a thud
It lives
I too have made them
It's true, I'm blue
I've got to lock my psyche in the cellar
I want to love people older than myself
I write this in cold Europe
Jambalaya
Julian P. Mauresque
Kicked by the hoof of Pegasus
Kursk
Larkin Land
l Larkin Letters
ll Hot! Hot!
Late Afternoon In The City
Late News
Laurel
Leaping on you, claw and mane
Leaving the past
Lecture, A
Left in the Outer Hebrides
Les Invalides
Letter
Life, A
Life filled with dreams
Life is an odd thing, and death is odder still
Like a giant damper, the sea
Limits to living, selvage of the soul
Literary Lickspittle
Literary windbag holding forth again
Look here
Looking at the camera
Look, scurrying there
Lost in glitter
Lunch At Centrepoint
Lustre
Lyric
Mad, diseased and tortured poets
Maestro, lover, dreaming poet
Majority
Massive flesh is gathering for a fall
May I Have This Dance?
Medium Level Sex Scene
Memorial
Memphis in myth-mist
Metamorphosis
Micky Takes Valium
Mid-Life
Millennium
Mind The Gap
Miniatures
l Wasp
ll Moth
lll Spider
Mirror
Mister Venus, articulator of bones
Modelled
Morning
Morning Assignation
Morning obeisance before the shreds of dawn
Mortamadonna
Most critics are wrong. That is their lot
Mountains of greenery
Mousetraps
Mud, monkeys, Mahler—get it.
Muse Of Fire
Music
** My Blogorama Soul
My face with autumn signatures disgraced
My hair feels like
My hundredth birthday telegram
My omnivorous eye for beauty
My pineapple book-ends
My Pineapple Book-ends Won't Meet
** My Simian Roots Are Showing
Nailed to fame
Near granite mountains
New Affection, New Noise
New England Graveyard
New Year Retro
Nice to be sure of life and life's long leavings
Night's fly
No intermediary in the passing night
No promptings, and one exit
Not another attempt
Note
Notebook
No thanks. I am not an animal
Not here the slippage
Not pasta or prosciutto
No Traveller Returns
Now silent is that throat
Now the Bride of poetry beckons
Now, Voyager
Nuclear Nightmare
Numbers there for the asking
O
Ode To Suburban Man
Odi et amo
Official Secrets
Off To The Orkneys
Old Acquaintance
Omnivore
On a beautiful day, mild as sleep
On a bent pier ocean slops
On a broken pier, away from seething crowds
On a cold day, near the end of my stay
On a television screen
Once upon this stone-stocked earth
Once you said: life
On Children Going To Sleep
One climbs the sticky stairway
One gone
One Hundredth Birthday Telegram
One is entitled to dream
One knew a grace
One should be a lover of the world
One Thing Or The Otter
On its snug peninsula of dirt
**On Platypus Rock
On Wings Of Song
On wings of song I float above
Opening curve-but the close
Open Season
Orange Penguins
Orange penguins
Or, if you like
O, Rose
Orpheus
Other
Our brave new world
Our dust sings
Our Mutual Friend
Our sum
Over-zealous Gold Coast guide
Owed To Feral Face
Palm
Panes of burnt grass
Panorama
Parlez-vous francais?
Paper bending upwards
Passing Trade
Past the sludge, fudge and bludge
Patent Pending
Path Taken, The
Patient, Found Hanged, A
Pax Imperium
Perhaps
Perhaps this sifted life is right
Philosophical Investigations
Pierrot
Pitch hard as nails
Picture those brave captains of the past
Place on its preen
Poem Of The Real
Poet
Poet And State
Poet At Work
Poet, The
Poetry Of Lists
Polar
Poolside
Posh
Posh presence by the sea
Possession of a country acre bit
Posture, prance and preen
Price Of Shark Has Gone Up, The
Problem Of The Versions, The
Process
Procession
Prometheus
Proof
Prophecy, A
Puss In Boots
Put your attempts at grandeur
Put-downs sharpen their steak knives
Q.E.D.
Quantity Surveyor
Quickly, take me to the people
Racing colours take the money
Radiance
Raptor
Reaching at skin's limit
Reaching this age
Recognition Scene
Reflection
Rehearsal
Remembrance Day
Remembrance Near A Trace Of The Berlin Wall
Reminder
Removal
Rendezvous de Fruits de Mer
Rendezvous Of Victory
Requisite aegis
Residency At London Zoo
Restored wing
Revaluation of intention
Retrospect
Revenant, Armidale
Reversal
Rising
Rising in a swirl of ash
Roadkill At The Bottom Of The Freezer
Rock Face
Roses While Cleaning Teeth
Rough House
Round Sydney Harbour
Royalties of light
Sad bouquets of life
Salt Music
Same stars tonight
Science will give you that
Scorpion
Sea Storm
Seconds are clinging to your face, minutes
Self-Portrait
September 11, 2001
Sh . . .
Shed skins chucked
Sheep-Dip Muster
Sheer demise
She sits beside me as she reads
Short History Of The World, A
Short Prayer
Signal
Sighing of skin in Whitsunday passages
Sign the cheques then put each form
Silence becomes a form of bread
Silhouette
Silhouettes chop winter skies
Sing your corrugations!
Skin slides
Skin's hugger-mugger
Skin sucks on skin
Slept Soundly
Slipping between one night and the next
Snake stirs in the cupboard
Solar hum in the cherry tree
Soldier Song
Sometimes I believe in light
Some, when they hear the word science
Somewhere between a bad habit and duty
Somnambulist of the frittering days
So much uncollected love
**Songbirds Came From Australia
Songlines
So, there on the ledge
So when the world is over, baked or frozen
Speech To A Mountain
Speewah Ballad, The
Spine
Splintered sound
Split
Spring Song
S.S. Snakebite Docks
Star crocodiles
Starnberg Quartet
Starnet Continental
Star Sign
Stars that know our destiny
Steady State
Stone
Strange
Suit Of Our Dimension
Summer Nights
Summer With Mosquitoes
Sunday Afternoon
Sunless
Sunlight fading, world in shadow
Surfer
Surfers Paradise
Swan
Swan Box
Sweatloaf
Swimmer out to sea
Swinging up from sand
Sydney
Sydney Spring
Take Me To The People Who Know
Terra Australis 1974
Text Edit
That flickers
The backward bowing of the swamp
The battle hymn of dinosaurs
The Beautiful Game
The beautiful game: not soccer, life
The bright and shining trophy of this planet
The Case Of The Baffling Planet
The changeling years conspire
The clerk, third class, goes through patents
The extra moves furniture
The face of winter darkness blends
The fetish letters God sends down appal
The God of gaps is in our nerves
The God that dies
The guillotine blade of my severed tooth
The heart turns bad, and history’s muck on your shoulder
The jungle with its hidden tracks
The lion's claw retracts, and stars glint
The other side of difference
The problem of the versions is
There's always a hitch in things
There's a picture of me
The rooms in which we live decline to dust
These lucid intervals
The prime of a plastic smile
These itsy-bitsies
The split veranda
The spurious dawn comes up
The tear shows we are human
The viscous clef of time abrades
The world is home to those who love
There you are, shagged shape
Things are not as you would wish
Things Wrong In The Dream Kitchen
Thirty-five
This Birth
This Earth-it can be good
This pretty world
This ready-to-wear life
This Sporting Life
l Unscheduled Pit Stop
ll Come In Spinner
lll Check
lV Dangling
V Sin Bin
Vl Excellent Hard Runner
Vll Australia Rules?
Vlll Hit The Gee Gee Spot
lX Flog
X Sea Swell
Though remembered millions wish us well
Those we have loved, unseasonably perished
Though blunder
Thou Swell
Through country dust
Thus
Time likes passing trade
Time, that is swifter than an acid burn
Timor Gap
Tired
Tired of verse, verse tired of me
To A Child
To a fragment
To be present at an assumption of splendour
To imagine the dead
To know of, not to know
To look for simple things
To Mr W. S.
To My Mother
Tonight I feel quite posthumous
Too much biffo matey
Too Serious
Too serious. Yep
Tooth And Claw
Tooth Fairy's Desertion
Tongue
Top Hat
To The Islands
To the land of music you will go
To this suburban block
To Those Who Come After
Tour de France
Towards The Source
Trace
Transformation Scene
Tribute
Triple bypass near the burnt bush
Trophy
Troublesome priests in my head
Trumpets, Diamonds, Flowers
Trumpets, diamonds, flowers, pure things
Truth
Tutors
Twilight Of The Gods
Two Travel Poems
l Wien
ll Berlin
Under that overhang, branches tossed
Undisclosed, from sea to sea
Unearned graces come in the sunburnt land
Unfinished
Unfinished Self-Portrait
Unrequited
Up And Away
Up cracked sides
Up To The Living
Veni Creator Spiritus
Vespers
Videots lounge in a popcorn retake
Views Of Muse
Views To A Bridge
Voluntary
Voyages of exploration
Wagner never changed a note
Waiting
Waiting for devouring
Waiting To Abort
Watching the news
We are waiting. What are we waiting for?
Well done
Well, not really; certainly less painful
Well, we've all wished to go
Well, the tooth fairy didn't bring
What ends had grandeur once
Whatever energy God might be
What Horses' Eyes Have Seen
What's Up, Doc?
What's your function in this life?
What Thin People Eat When No-one Is Looking
When banksias flower in the bush
When time has tripped you up-down you go on rocks
When thinking of the world, or tired, or excited
When you know a mouth that lies
Where treaties signed near rubble
While The Billy Boils
While the billy boils the tea is turning sour
Who'll go with you all the way
Who slept with whom, and where, and why
'Who,' the inquisitive will ask
Will the mathematics of the sky
Wind blows hard
Wind shears
Winter Solstice
With Wound
Wing
Winter fins
Wise
Woman with bright oranges
Won every prize going
World at hand, weary world
World Without Tigers
Why Chocolate Is Better Than Sex
Wilfred Owen
Writer's First Cause
X
Yesterday's world has mistakes you cannot find
You bellow at night
You belted the ball
You bend your head
You do not like what the world has become
You don't have the feet of Astaire
You knew that many died for you
You will remember, under brilliant stars
You reel in scent
Your promise was pure as it conquered
You're giving yourself a pat on the back
Your words are liberal enough
You serried ranks of critic clouds
You, who have come
You, who have come thus far
Zero At The Bone
Z Waits
Anna Bemrose Robert Helpmann A servant of art University of Queensland Press
2008 ‘et je danse’ p. 312, written 1986, first published Such Sweet Thunder 1994, p. 39
NOTES
NB References work published between 1967 and 1997 and CAKC 2002
Australian History Lesson
The poet Christopher Brennan (1870-1932) was Associate Professor in German and Comparative Literature at the University of Sydney until 1925. Brennan's poetic technique owes something to the French Symbolists, one of whom, Mallarmé, Brennan corresponded with.
Metamorphosis
The poet Francis Webb (1925-1973) died at Rydalmere Hospital, Sydney.
Tribute
The poet, critic and intellectual James McAuley (1917-1976) espoused a conservative, classicist poetic. With Harold Stewart he engineered the Ern Malley hoax poems, The Darkening Ecliptic, a cause célèbre in Australian literary history.
Années de Pèlerinage
Patrick White, novelist, short story writer and dramatist
Nuclear Nightmare
Shine! shine! shine!: Walt Whitman, 'Sea-Drift'
While The Billy Boils
On November 11, 1975 the Whitlam Labor government was dismissed from office by the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, precipitating an unprecedented constitutional crisis.
Maralinga brightness in the sky: Maralinga, in South Australia, was the site of joint Anglo-Australian nuclear tests which included above-ground explosions.
Adelaide Festival 1984
Among many events at the 1984 Adelaide Festival of the Arts, the Philharmonia under the direction of Vladimir Ashkenazy played Beethoven's nine symphonies, the Grupo de Teatro Macunaima presented Mário de Andrade's Macunaima and the State Opera of South Australia performed Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District.
The previous year bushfires, designated the Ash Wednesday fires, devastated parts of Victoria and South Australia, including the Adelaide Hills.
Asking Auden
Chester, Igor, Rhoda: Chester Kallman, Igor Stravinsky, Rhoda Jaffe
In Celebration
Margaret Sutherland, Australian composer; Grace Cossington Smith, Australian painter;
Dame Joan Sutherland, Australian opera singer, 'La Stupenda'
Rehearsal
When his heroine died a dead duck: premiere of La Traviata, a fiasco
Lunch At Centrepoint
This poem was written at a time when the Kanak Melanesians were agitating for an independent New Caledonia. At the top of Centrepoint Tower in Sydney there is a revolving restaurant with views to the ocean.
And The Winner Is . . .
After the night of the hummingbird’s plunder: a reference to the Night of the Long Knives, the Nazi SS putsch against the SA, codenamed Operation Hummingbird
Will the Timorese greet me, / Tasmanians cheer me? / (I mean the original, those Aboriginal): Indonesia annexed East Timor in 1976. There is disagreement as to why the Aboriginal population of Tasmania declined so precipitously during the nineteenth century.
Figures In A Landscape
In Utzon's white rinds: Jørn Utzon, Danish architect of the Sydney Opera House
But you'd still like to see / A Ring on the stage: fulfilled December 2004, Adelaide, State Opera of South Australia; first staging of an Australian production
And remember Andrea's voice: Andrea (Dorothea Gordon Jenner) was a popular Sydney radio personality during the 1950s and 1960s.
Bienvenue à Boom Boom
France exploded atmospheric (until 1974) and below-ground nuclear devices at Moruroa Atoll despite vociferous objections by the South Pacific nations. Testing has since ceased.
Absolutely No Extensions Possible
the sun, the sun—: Oswald Alving at the end of Ghosts, Henrik Ibsen
Tooth And Claw
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 'In Memoriam: A.H.H.' 'Nature, red in tooth and claw'
Thou Swell
Lorenz Hart, American lyricist A Connecticut Yankee 'Thou Swell' 'Thou swell! Thou witty! / Thou sweet! Thou grand!'
Your heart was frail, / A ship without a sail: Head's Up 'A Ship Without A Sail' 'Why is my heart so frail / Like a ship without a sail?'
But tender was your night: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tender Is The Night, from Keats, 'Ode To A Nightingale'
Ascent
Pippa passes: see 'Song' from Robert Browning, Pippa Passes, 'God's in his Heaven– / All's right with the world!'
et je danse
Arthur Rimbaud, Les Illuminations Xll ‘Phrases’
Though it was checkmate in the patient’s bed: Checkmate was written at the request of Sadler’s Wells Ballet for the first appearance of the company in Paris in 1937, music Arthur Bliss, choreography Ninette de Valois. Helpmann danced in the original production. It was also the last ballet in which he appeared, The Australian Ballet, May, 1986.
Helpmann was Margot Fonteyn’s first significant dancing partner.
Sir Robert Helpmann, dancer, choreographer and actor 1909–1986
Official Secrets
Sol Invictus: Roman cult of sun worship, begun under Aurelius, later adapted to Christianity
Under the weasels and whales of clouds: Hamlet III. II
Hamlet Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a camel?
Polonius By th' mass, and 'tis: like a camel, indeed.
Hamlet Methinks it is like a weasel.
Polonius It is backed like a weasel.
Hamlet Or like a whale
Polonius Very like a whale.
Prometheus
Gentleness, virtue, wisdom and endurance: taken from Shelley, Prometheus Unbound, Act lV
Black
In 1988 Australia celebrated its bicentenary of white settlement.
Uluru: Aboriginal sacred site; formerly Ayers Rock
New Year Retro
When handshakes prospered, for a moment, peace: the Gorbachev–Reagan summit in Reykjavík, Iceland
Owed To Feral Face
Semtex: odourless plastic explosive used by terrorists
Rock Face
I am I am I am, / A white flag on the horizon.: S. T. Coleridge, Biographia Literaria 'The primary IMAGINATION I hold to be the living Power and prime Agent of all human Perception, and as a repetition of the finite mind of the eternal act of creation in the infinite I AM.'; in the medieval Tristan legend the white flag was the signal of rescue
Short Prayer
The Armenian earthquake, December 7, 1988, resulted in the deaths of 25 000 people.
A Definition
When the gold myrtle wreath: When first exhibited in Australia, this wreath, displayed as part of the exhibition Ancient Macedonia and loaned by the Greek government as a gesture of goodwill to Australia for its Bicentenary, was presented as belonging to Philip of Macedon. Presently, archaeological research gives the Vergina tomb artefacts a probably-royal but otherwise indeterminate status.
just like Johnny, / It’ll be back, grinning: Jack Torrance in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining
which itself references Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show
Now, Voyager
Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass 'The untold want, by life and land ne'er granted, / Now, Voyager, sail thou forth to seek and find.'
Anton Bruckner
This prose poem refers to a performance of Anton Bruckner's Eighth Symphony given by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Stuart Challender in the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House.
Great Attractor
Some scientists have postulated the existence of a Great Attractor whose immense gravitational force would eventually absorb all matter.
What's Up, Doc?
Mel Blanc (Melvin Blank), voice actor who worked for Walt Disney and Hanna-Barbera, responsible for voice characterisations of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Sylvester Pussycat among many others
New Affection, New Noise
Arthur Rimbaud, Les Illuminations Vlll 'Départ' 'Départ dans l'affection et le bruit neufs!'
An Answer
See Emily Dickinson's letter to Dr and Mrs J. G. Holland written in the summer of 1862?:
'Perhaps you laugh at me! Perhaps the whole United States are laughing at me too! I can't stop for that! My business is to love.'
Condemned At Kangaroo Court
Taking its motto from a Greek aphorism—Zóë moû, sàs agapô—My life, I love you— wailed by Psychocat at the climax of the final trial scene, Condemned At Kangaroo Court portrays the journey of I and his unique double, the Poet, through a series of hallucinogenic psychic spaces. An unseen Mystical Chorus comments cryptically on what happens throughout. I and the Poet eventually liberate themselves from what appears to be a terminal judgment on their aspirations by Grillmaster and the three Enigma judges.
Here the emphasis is on the codependence of the poetic and real worlds—the imaginative and sensuous apprehension of the Poet and the physical and intellectual burden of the nameless I, who could be anyone or everyone, male or female, liberal or conservative.
Scene 1 'Sing 'em muck and make a million': 'Sing 'em muck! It's all they can understand!'
Advice purportedly given by Dame Nellie Melba to Clara Butt prior to an Australian tour.
the waltz from Carousel,
floating with Lemminkainen above the hellish lake,
banging in each of those Nine Inch Nails: respectively, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, the musical Carousel; Jean Sibelius, The Swan of Tuonela; rock group, lead singer Trent Reznor
Scene 3 Gone through a megamix boatload of snow: snow Colloq. cocaine
Ella, Billy, Dusty—they are just history: Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Dusty Springfield
unless like poor old Dylan, whisky-sailing: Dylan Thomas
Scene 7 'Viva Emmanuel Re d'Italia': more correctly,'Viva Victor Emmanuel Re d'Italia', Risorgimento street cry during the Italian struggle for independence
Scene 8 to all who haven't found the proper use for butter: Bernardo Bertolucci, Last Tango In Paris
Scene 9 'I have a dream . . .' Martin Luther King, Jr., Lincoln Memorial, August 28, 1963
Scene 10 he settles back down to re-read Krafft-Ebing: Baron Richard von Krafft-Ebing,
Psychopathia Sexualis, collection of psychiatric case histories
Three little maids from school are we: Gilbert and Sullivan, The Mikado
My stardust melody: Nat King Cole, Stardust
Cleanse the foul body of the infected world . . . Jacques, As You Like It, II. VII
What a piece of work is a . . .: What a piece of work is a man! Hamlet, Hamlet II. II
Scene 12 ‘. . . the last full measure of devotion.’: Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg address
November 19, 1863
‘Exoriare aliquis nostris ex ossibur ultor.’ Virgil, May some avenger arise from my bones.
‘Der Historiker ist ein rückwärts gekehrter Prophet.’ Schlegel, The historian is a prophet looking backwards.
Scene 13 ‘Il est indigne des grand coeurs de répandre le trouble qu'ils ressentent.'
Clotilde de Vaux, ‘It is unworthy of great hearts to pour out the confusion they feel.’
Reichstag, Berlin 2002
VOCABULARY and PLACE NAMES
NB References work written between 1967 and 2006
acre though Australia had adopted metrication by the nineteen-
seventies, many writers still find Imperial usages appropriate—
inch, foot, mile, penny, shilling, pound, ounce etc.
Adelaide capital city of South Australia; site of biennial Adelaide Festival of the Arts
Armidale city found in the New England district of New South Wales
artesian underground water brought to the surface through natural pressure or pumps
arvo Colloq. afternoon
Australia Felix happy Australia; name given by Major Thomas Mitchell
Balmain inner-city Sydney suburb
banksia a shrub with leathery leaves and a cylindrical head of yellow flowers; named after Sir Joseph Banks
Barossa wine making district in South Australia
beaut Colloq. good, worthwhile
Bennelong Point site of the Sydney Opera House, named after the Aborigine Bennelong
billy tin can used for boiling water over a campfire, usually to make tea
black prince Colloq. cicada, coloured black with green markings
blue Colloq. argument
blue-ringed octopus venomous inhabitant of northern coastal waters, often found in rock pools
Bondi beach popular Sydney eastern suburbs beach fronting the Pacific Ocean
bonzer Colloq. enjoyable, pleasing
box jelly fish sea wasp; deadly marine animal
broke Colloq. ruined
bunyip terrifying creature in Aboriginal mythology
bushranger person who lived by robbing travellers
Cairns coastal city in northern Queensland
Canberra capital of Australia
chocka Colloq. full
Circular Quay arrival and departure point for Sydney ferries and hydrofoils; adjacent to the Sydney Opera House
clapstick wooden sticks struck together providing rhythmical impetus in Aboriginal music
Cobb & Co. company which first developed coach transport in the eastern part of Australia
cockatoo crested Australian parrot
Commonwealth at present Australia is designated a Commonwealth by virtue of its federated states, legitimated under the aegis of the Governor-General who represents the British monarch
compo Colloq. compensation
conk Colloq. a violent blow
coot Colloq. simpleton
copper Colloq. policeman
corroboree Aboriginal tribal ceremony, usually celebratory in nature
cozzies Colloq. swimming costumes
creosote oily liquid, used to protect bottom fence posts and telegraph posts from white ant attack
currawong large bird known for its loud, ringing call
damper bread made in campfire ashes from flour, water and salt
David Jones Australia's oldest established trading store
Dandenongs range of hills outside Melbourne
dunny Colloq. outdoor toilet
echidna spine-covered monotreme
eucalypt common Australian tree with many varieties whose leaves have a characteristic scent
footy Colloq. football
funnel-web venomous spider
galoot Colloq. fool
ghost gum variety of eucalypt
goer Colloq. something that promises success
Great Dividing Range mountain range extending from Queensland through New South Wales to Victoria
Great Southern Land one of the names given to the continent thought to exist in the Southern Hemisphere before Australia's European discovery
haka Maori ceremonial dance with singing
Harbour Bridge one of Sydney's landmarks, this bridge, nicknamed 'the coathanger', was opened in 1932
Heads the entrance to Sydney Harbour is through North Head and South Head, two massive sandstone outcrops
Hills hoist rotary clothes line common to many Australian backyards
Homebush Abattoir former meat processing site in Sydney
Hyde Park large park in central Sydney; originally a racetrack in colonial times
jacaranda tropical American tree, widely found in Australian suburbs; its lavender-blue flowers are a distinctive feature of Sydney's summer landscape
kingfisher generally birds of rivers, swamps and streams; in Australia's dry climate a number of species have become hunters of small lizards
Kings Cross notorious red light and drug district in central Sydney
lamington sponge cake cubes covered in chocolate icing and coconut
larrikin Colloq. a youth who enjoys playing tricks
lucky country used to describe Australia in Donald Horne's The Lucky Country
Luna Park fun park located on the shore of Sydney harbour at North Sydney; it has undergone several transformations
magpie common black and white bird found throughout Australia
mallee scrub area of bushland where mallee gums predominate
mate Colloq. friend
Melbourne capital city of Victoria
Mount Lofty prominence overlooking Adelaide
New England region in north-eastern part of New South Wales
New South Wales central-eastern Australian state, capital Sydney
Norfolk Island island off the east coast of Australia infamous for its violent convict history
North Shore Northern suburbs of Sydney, beginning at North Sydney and extending to Hornsby
Nullarbor Plains flat, desert region extending through the southern part of South Australia and Western Australia
outback common name for the huge, sparsely populated inland area that constitutes central Australia
Pal brand name of dog food
Parramatta River one of two rivers that empties into Sydney Harbour
Perth capital of Western Australia
platypus monotreme marsupial living along river banks with webbed feet and duck-like bill
Queensland north-eastern Australian state, capital Brisbane
quokka small wallaby found in south-western Australia
red-bellied red-bellied black snake; venomous inhabitant of eastern Australia
saltbush drought resistant grazing bush
sheila Colloq. woman
Simpson Desert large desert area in central Australia
southerly buster southerly wind blowing along the south-eastern Australian coast
Southern Cross star constellation in the Southern Hemisphere; part of the Australian flag
spinifex spiny grass
Speewah mythical outback station
stump-jumped the stump-jump plough was designed to rise and fall over tree roots and stumps in newly-cleared land
sulphur-crested the yellow crest of one of the varieties of Australian cockatoos
Surfers Paradise popular seaside tourist destination found along Queensland's Gold Coast
Sydney in area, one of the largest cities in the world, with a population of over four million
Timor Sea sea separating the northern coast of Australia from Timor Island and the Indonesian archipelago
tinnies Colloq. cans of beer
tucker Colloq. food
ute Colloq. utility truck
Victa brand name for lawn mower
wattle acacia shrub with yellow flowers
waratah flower, emblem of New South Wales, it has a thick round head of flowers surrounded by red bracts
Whitsunday island and coastal region of the Great Barrier Reef, Queensland
wowsers Colloq. puritans, killjoys
West the western suburbs of Sydney
yabby freshwater crayfish
Photographs and Documents
