The Name Says It All -Poem

Often we celebrate the shape of a poem or the patterns it presents. This poem is all about the sounds of the words, in particular the sounds of a host of towns and suburbs in Australia. These rich and varied places owe their names to our first peoples, our indigenous Australians. The names have meaning attached. Yackandandah for example, means, 'one boulder on top of another at the junction of two creeks.' The town I grew up in, Monbulk, means 'hiding place in the hills.'

The names of these places possess a musicality unique to Australia. Proud to say I've visited many of them. Come with me now and get your mouth ready to dance with delight.

I’ve Never Been to Tumbarumba

Australian towns

Have memorable names

Some of them astounding

They dance upon my tongue

Delightful in their sounding

I’ve always known in Yarrawonga

That I should try to linger longer

But should I try to chitter-chatter

If I find myself in Cabramatta?

All the kind folk of Kalangadoo

Do they chitter-chatter too?

How many people in Geelong

Start the day with a joyful song?

And I hear the coastal town, Aldinga

Is another place for folk to linger

When you visit Kalamunda

Don’t be concerned if you hear thunder

And when visiting Yackandandah

Take a walk and have a gander

Manangatang might float your boat

A tiny town though, quite remote

Chinkapook is worth a look

It’s rather quiet, take a book

And would the folk of Oodnadatta

See me coming and all scatter?

I’ve never been to Tumbarumba

-famous for its use of lumber

The residents of Jabiru

Could teach us all a thing or two

And I wonder if in Jindivick

It helps to know a magic trick

And if I went to Paraburdoo

I’d like to travel there with you.

Alan j Wright

It is Poetry Friday for everyone! This time our host is Rose Capelli at Imagine The Possibilities. Rose writes about observation and the art of reflection. She adds a poem sure to resonate with readers.

Comments

Poetry Inspired by Images and Objects

There are many ways pictures and photographs can be conscripted to support the writing of poetry. Allow me to share a few ideas with you: Old photographs are a great source of inspiration. Cynthia Rylant explored this idea with great success in her book 'Something Permanent' where she employed the Depression era photographs of Walker Evans to add a new voice to the starkness to the lives of people experienced under extreme circumstances. I have used this strategy to spark many individual poems. In ' I Bet There's No Broccoli On The Moon,' I used a photo I had taken in 2004 while living in New York to inspire a poem. The poem was based on a story related by a friend who grew up in New York. I regularly combined poetry and pictures in my writer's notebook, drawing on inspiration from the photograph and my personal memories. We can also utilize existing cartoons and illustrations to create ekphrastic poems. I frequently use the illustrations of Jim Pavlidis to co...

Opposite Poems

O pp o s ite P oem s In his book, ' How To Write Poetry,' Paul Janeczko presents the idea of opposite poems. Paul suggests they could also be referred to as antonym poems. This is wordplay and it's fun to try. Here are some examples Paul provides to help us see very clearly how these short little poems work. I think the opposite of chair Is sitting down with nothing there What is the opposite of kind? A goat that butts you from behind Paul Janeczko You will notice the poems are written in rhyming couplets. They can be extended so long as you remember to write in couplets. Paul shows us how this is done. What is the opposite of new? Stale gum that's hard to chew A hot-dog roll as hard as rock Or a soiled and smelly forgotten sock You might notice that some of Paul's opposite Poems begin with a question. The remainder of the poem answer the question posed. Opposite poems are a challenge, but it is a challenge worth trying. N...

Powerful Poetry, 'Refugees' by Brian Bilston

This week, Poetry Friday is hosted by Janice Scully @ Salt City Verse where Janice shares some original words and offers us a taste of Thomas Carlyle to ponder. I encourage you to join a host of poets from all around the globe and visit Janice's page... Almost two years to the day, I wrote a post featuring the poem 'Refugees' by Brian Bilston. The poem was included in Brian's first book of poetry, 'You Took The Last Bus Home.' A very powerful Reverso poem and technically brilliant. A Reverso poem can be read from top to bottom or bottom to top. It will often express opposite opinions depending on which way you read it. Such poems really make us think. A Reverso poem is like a picture turned upside down, a frowning face upended to reveal a smiling one. The poem read in reverse, contradicts itself with an opposing message. In 'Refugee' Brian Bilston focuses on a societal issue that tends to polarize feelings and the opposing views are clearly in eviden...

Search This Blog