Tag: Anthony Lawrence

James Dickey

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by Anthony Lawrence “What a view, I said again. The river was blank and mindless with beauty. It was the most glorious thing I have ever seen. But it was not seeing, really. For once it was not just seeing. It was beholding. I beheld the river in its icy pit of brightness, in its far-below sound and indifference, in its large coil and tiny points and flashes of the moon, in its long sinuous form, in its uncomprehending consequence.”                   James Dickey, Deliverance Watching Deliverance again after many years, waiting for the…

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Fireworks Below the River

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by Anthony Lawrence Swamp Riddles: Robert Adamson In 1978, my mother met me at the door and handed me a note, saying “This is what you have to do if you’re serious and want to be a real poet.” She had written a list that included: – read everything you can get your hands on – go to second hand bookshops and start a poetry collection – write every day – say no to your friends more often I assumed that while I’d been at work, she’d had a major epiphany about poetry, and was now passing on this crucial…

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Sharon Olds: The Regret of the Body

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by Anthony Lawrence Photo of Sharon Olds by Matt Valentine Sometime in 1990 I was at home in Geraldton, WA. I was at the kitchen table, writing. It was late morning. I heard a car pull up. The front gate creaked open, there were footsteps, a thump, and then a woman shouted: “Arsehole!” When I reached the screen door, I saw her striding away. She had dark hair and was wearing a white shirt and black pants. She got into her car and drove away. I looked around. Near the door was a cardboard box. I picked it up and…

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Ambition

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by Anthony Lawrence I would like a simple life yet all night I am laying poems away in a long box. – from The Ambition Bird, Anne Sexton Ambition is normal. It’s the fuse we light when we begin. We want our poems to succeed, whatever that means. When we start out, it’s a good thing we don’t know how to file all the burrs down. Our early work, with its deep flaws and inconsistencies, is all we have. Self belief. Ambition. Faith. Trying to second-guess ourselves in the early stages kills the pilot light. Self-consciousness is the last thing…

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Paul Muldoon

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by Anthony Lawrence I thought I’d begin my Blog with a close reading from a small selection of Paul Muldoon’s poems. I consider him to be one of the major poets writing in English, and I’d like to share some thoughts on why his work has been so influential. Muldoon emerged, as did Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon, Michael Longley, Eavan Boland, Ciaran Carson and others, from Belfast into international prominence. The Belfast renaissance of the late 60’s produced a potent list of poets whose work would inspire generations and, in Muldoon’s case, many imitators. The story goes that when Muldoon,…

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Next monthly blogger – Anthony Lawrence

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A huge thanks to Joshua Mei-Ling Dubrau for her excellent posts, and for sharing her poetry with us. Next up, we have Anthony Lawrence blogging for us. His bio is below: Anthony Lawrence has published fourteen books of poems and a novel. His most recent collection is ‘Signal Flare‘ (Puncher & Wattmann, 2013).  His books and individual poems have won many major awards. In 2013 he won the Blake Poetry Prize. He teaches Creative Writing and Reading Poetry at Griffith University, Gold Coast, and lives at Cabarita Beach, on the far north coast of NSW. Photo: Lisa Joseph

Long Paddock for Southerly 72.3: Islands and Archipelagos

SoutherlyLong Paddock

Southerly 72.3 is available to purchase here. This link will take you to our old GumRoad storefront (an external site). Remaining issues will be moved to our own site, here, soon. POETRY Rebecca Law, Kalorama Park Stuart Barnes, Conversation Stephen Oliver, Rendezvous and Nocturne Petrina Barson, Cacique Dos Kate Middleton, A Reckoning pony, Ankles ESSAYS Demelza Hall, Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria REVIEWS Luke Beesley on Kate Fagan Andy Carruthers on Mez Breeze Petra White on Bonny Cassidy and John Watson Sarah Holland-Batt on Anthony Lawrence and Aly Cobby Eckerman NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS LONG PADDOCK, Southerly 72.3 – Complete   Click here…

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