Andrew is among 12 leading Western Australian poets to have his work represented on large free-standing panels by the City of South Perth in its new Poetry Park.
The impetus for the Poetry Park came from Dr Ken Spillman, who conceived of it as a way to acknowledge and acclaim the work of Western Austalian poets.
The dozen poets whose work was chosen for the panels lining the “Walk of Honour” in the park are all winners of the WA Premier’s Book Awards. Andrew won the Award in 1982 and 1985.
Situated in the Neil McDougal Park, Como, the Poetry Park was opened by the Mayor of the City of South Perth on Thursday 15th May 2008.
The poem printed on Andrew’s panel in the Poetry Park is “Happiness”, which is taken from his award-winning collection, Between Glances (William Heinemann Australia, 1993). It reads:
Happiness
A small green bird is hopping
up the grey trunk of a river gum.
The tree leans toward the water.
A duck floats on its reflection.The climbing bird knocks a fleck
of bark into the water. The duck
inspects it then paddles away.
The Chinese poet Tu Fu wrote,“After the laws of their being
all creatures pursue happiness.”
Watching the birds, the dragon-
flies, it occurs to me that Fuis quite wrong. Apart from man,
all creatures simply are happy.
No duck ends the day with regret.
We alone aspire to somethingOther. And we alone fall short.
© Andrew Lansdown
Published in May 2008
on a two-meter high free-standing panel
in the South Perth Poetry Park
(situated in the Neil McDougal Park, Como, WA)
See DOWNLOADS (top of page) for a PDF of the full-size panel bearing the poem.