Recently noticed, this comment about (among others) Andrew published in The Australian newspaper earlier this year and written by the esteemed Austalian poet, Geoffrey Lehmann:

If I were to prepare an alphabetical list of Australian poets who are outstanding and whose first books have been published since 1980, my list would be ridiculously long. It would have to include Judith Beveridge, Kevin Brophy, Elizabeth Campbell, Caroline Caddy, Jennifer Compton, Tricia Dearborn, Stephen Edgar, Peter Goldsworthy, Philip Hodgins, Carol Jenkins, Andrew Lansdown, Anthony Lawrence, Bronwyn Lea, Emma Lew, Stephen McInerney, Homer Reith, Gig Ryan, Philip Salom, Andrew Sant, Shen, Craig Sherborne and Alex Skovron. Some of these poets are very different from each other and might look askance at their bedfellows. But all have written memorable and exciting poems. 

Quoted from “New poets mine rich seam of language”, Geoffrey Lehmann, The Australian, 21 February 2009 (emphasis added)

Andrew’s poem, “Sighting”, appears in the December issue of Quadrant magazine:

Sighting

On visiting the Bull Ranges with a traditional landowner

 

Pluck out the detecting eye,

break off the pointing finger,

shut up the exclaiming cry—

if only somehow I could!

 

But it’s too late to stifle

myself now or stop my friend,

who snatches up his rifle

and follows swiftly after

 

the wallabies I sighted,

the small wild rock wallabies

whose survival I blighted

simply because I saw them

 

and cried aloud, delighted.

            © Andrew Lansdown

The Katharine Susannah Prichard Foundation invited Andrew to judge the 2009 Karen W Treanor Poetry Awards. Andrew delivered his Judge’s Report at the Awards Ceremony on Sunday, 6 December. He said:

I was pleased to receive an invitation by the Katharine Susannah Prichard Foundation to judge the Karen W Treanor Poetry Awards. Given that this is the inauguration of the Awards, I felt doubly honoured to be entrusted with this responsibility. My thanks to Fay Dease, Glen Philips, Paula Jones, Katrin Kuenstler and others involved with by the Katharine Susannah Prichard Foundation.

      Sixty-nine poems were entered in the Karen W Treanor Poetry Awards, which is a good number for a new competition. As is to be expected, the poems varied greatly in subject, theme, style and tone. Although the quality of the poems was uneven, most were cogent and accessible. This is praiseworthy in an age when pretension and ambiguity are often passed off as profundity.

      Before commenting on the winning and commended poems, I would like to make a comment on the submissions generally. I noticed several faults reoccurring in the poems and it may be helpful to mention two of these faults.

      The first fault involves the use of clichés. … CLICK HERE TO READ ANDREW’S FULL REPORT 

Eminent Western Australian poet and critic, Shane McCauley, launched Andrew’s latest collection of poetry, Birds in Mind: Australian Nature Poems, on Saturday 24 October 2009. Speaking to a gathering of about seventy people, Shane McCauley said:

I was very touched, and of course honoured, when Andrew Lansdown asked me to launch his wonderful collection of poems, Birds in Mind: Australian Nature Poems. Ours has been a long acquaintance and friendship, going back to the mid-1970s or so. For a while, we were always the youngest WA poets to appear in anthologies such as Quarry, edited by Fay Zwicky in 1981. And I note that several of our near contemporaries in that anthology have gone on to either better or worse things, but Andrew and I have somehow managed to stay in the poetry-writing business.

Initially, there are several things to note about Birds in Mind. Firstly, the sheer size and scope of the subject matter. The joy in birds is apparent from the title, but they are only some of the creatures and plants the poet celebrates and sometimes mourns. You will also find superbly spare descriptions of, and reactions to, shells, frogs, lizards, kangaroos, crabs, fish, sunflowers, bamboo, orchids, trees in abundance—karri, jarrah, marri, redgum—and much, much more.

Another initial observation concerns the variety of places in which these poems have been published—they have obviously appealed to many different editors, and the Acknowledgements page is really mind-boggling. Apart from appearing in countless Australian journals and anthologies, many have been published overseas, in Japan, the USA, the UK.

A third observation is in regard to the quality of the book’s production itself and the generous 223 pages—no “slim” volume of verse this! … CLICK HERE TO READ FULL ADDRESS

Andrew has a new collection of poetry coming out next week.

Birds in Mind: Australian Nature Poems will be launched by the eminent Western Australian poet and critic, Shane McCauley.

Published by Queensland publisher Wombat Books, Birds in Mind contains over 200 pages of nature poetry.

If you live in Perth, Western Australia, you are welcome to come to the launching of Birds in Mind. 

Venue: Morley Baptist Church hall, Vera Street, Morley

Date: Saturday, 24 October 2009

Time: 3.00 pm

Andrew’s new chapbooks are cheaper than birthday cards or thinking-of-you cards - and yet the texts are immensely richer. Consolations is a 28 page collection of 48 tanka and Little Matters is a 24 page collection of 89 haiku and senryu. Both cost just $3.60, postage included. So why not send a chapbook instead of a card to those you are thinking of?

Consolations, and Little Matters are available through this website - click here. Or they can be ordered through the publishers website at www.picaropress.com.

Andrew was the Special Guest reader at the Perth Poetry Club on Saturday 26 September. He read from his recently published chapbooks, Consolations and Little Matters, and from his larger collections, Between Glances and Fontanelle. Promotional details on the PPC website: http://perthpoetryslam.com/perthpoetryclub/node/35

Andrew read 18 poems from three of his poetry collections on Twin Cities 89.7 FM on Thursday, 17 September. The radio program was hosted by Robyn Holmes and Andrew appeared courtesy of the Peter Cowan Writers Centre.

Picaro Press has published a collection of 89 haiku and senryu by Andrew Lansdown. The 24 page chapbook, titled Little Matters, is available through this website for $3.60, postage included. Alternatively, it can be ordered through the publishers website at www.picaropress.com. To download an order form from this website, click here.

Picaro Press has published a collection of 48 tanka by Andrew Lansdown. The 28 page chapbook, titled Consolations, is available through this website for $3.60, postage included. Alternatively, it can be ordered through the publishers website at www.picaropress.com. To download an order form from this website, click here. 

Tags: News

One of the merchants on Amazon.com is offering to sell a new copy of Andrew’s fantasy novel, With My Knife, for US $130.56. This website, along with many an Australian bookshop, offers to sell new copies of With My Knife for just AU $15.95!

Download an order form to purchase a copy of With My Knife for $15.95, plus postage.

Order Form - Books by Andrew Lansdown

Three new poems by Andrew have just been published in the July-August issue of Quadrant magazine. One of them, posted here, is a gunsaku (haiku sequence):

About Autumn

            i

Liquidambar—

anticipating autumn

with a red leaf.

 

            ii

Liquidambar—

the evergreens envy your

changing colours.

 

            iii

Liquidambar—

educating evergreens

about autumn.

 

© Andrew Landown

Tags: Poems

Andrew has begun a FELLOW WRITERS’ page on his website in honour of various Australian writers who are among his friends and acquaintances. The first writer to be included is the poet and novelist, Hal Colebatch. Have a look. More writers to follow.

In 2007 the Australian Haiku Society appointed the haiku poet John Bird to conduct a survey of “haiku definitions” as used by haiku poets in Australia. John recently asked Andrew for his definition of haiku. Andrew offered two definitions, both of which were posted on the Australian Haiku Society’s website, HaikuOz, on 31 March 2009:

(1) “Haiku are poems modelled on the seventeen-syllable three-line poems of the ancient Japanese. Being poems, haiku are a form of literature and may employ literary techniques and may be judged by literary standards. Generally speaking, haiku stir emotion and stimulate reflection in the reader through simple precise objective depictions of things in nature.”

(2)
“Haiku are pebbles
poets lob into the pond
of our emotions.”

© Andrew Lansdown

This second “definition” is a haiku taken from Andrew’s poetry collection, Waking and Always, which was republished last year by Picaro Press.

Read more haiku definitions on the Australian Haiku Society’s website at: http://www.haikuoz.org/

The March 2009 issue of Quadrant magazine contains 4 of Andrew’s poems, including the following choka (a traditional Japanese poetic form):

Western Yellow Robin 

 

When the Almighty

spoke yellow-bellied robins

into bright being

and told them to multiply,

he already knew

I would observe this robin,

this gentle-grey bird

too shy to wear its colour

on its petite breast,

this yolk-yellow-under bird

drawn from the forest

by the feather-grey and -fine

smoke of my campfire—

and he also foreknew that

I would by virtue

of his implanted image

want to celebrate

and recreate this bird by

speaking it into a poem.

 

© Andrew Lansdown

The March 2009 issue of Quadrant magazine contains 4 of Andrew’s poems, including the following tanka (a traditional Japanese poetic form):

Sheep

 

Only three days since

they were shorn and already

their whiteness is gone.

Still, who of us has managed

even that long in this world?

 

© Andrew Lansdown

Amazon.com is now selling copies of Andrew’s short story collection, The Dispossessed. The book can be purchased for US$17.95. This is an economical price for readers in the United States. Go to: http://www.amazon.com/Dispossessed-Other-Stories-Andrew-Lansdown/dp/1876819308/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1235820886&sr=1-7 

The Dispossess can also be purchased from this website (which, given postage and dollar conversion rates, would be a cheaper option for readers in Australia). Click here to download an order form.

Omibus Books/Scholastic Australia has reprinted Andrew’s fantasy novel, The Red Dragon. This is the third print run of The Red Dragon, which was first published in 2006 and is the third novel in the Chronicles of Klarin trilogy.

Omibus Books/Scholastic Australia has reprinted Andrew’s fantasy novel, Dragonfox. This is the fourth print run of Dragonfox, which is the second novel in the Chronicles of Klarin trilogy.

Andrew’s essay, “Reading and Reflecting on Haiku”, which was recently published in Zest, the online magazine of the Australian Poetry Centre, is now available on this website. Click here to read the essay.

Australian poets Les Murray, Andrew Taylor, Andrew Burke and Andrew Lansdown enjoyed a chinwag over coffee at Andrew Taylor’s house in Mount Lawley (WA) in March 2008. Andrew L was surprised recently to find photographs of that gathering on Andrew B’s blogsite, Hi Spirits (http://hispirits.blogspot.com/search?q=Andrew+Lansdown). One of the photographs is reproduced below, having been brazenly lifted from Hi Spirits:

Poets Les Murray (left) and Andrew Lansdown (right)

Photographed by poet Andrew Burke at poet Andrew Taylor’s house in March 2008

In October (2008) Andrew Burke asked several fellow Western Australian poets, including Andrew Lansdown, to provide a poem-with-comments for his blogsite, Hi Spirits (http://hispirits.blogspot.com/). Andrew L sent Andrew B the poem “Finishing Up”, which Andrew B (confusing, isn’t it!) posted on 22 September 2008. The poem and brief explanatory comments are posted below:

Finishing Up 

 

Nightfall … and I am still here
in the school at the prison farm.

My children will be at the table, filling
their mouths with food and chatter.

And the littlest one will be asking
her mother, “Where is Daddy?”

I am where my resignation
has led me. My roguish students

are in the compound, locked up
for the night. Except for the sentries

the guards are gone. I am alone,
finishing up. Did I miss someone

when I said goodbye? Does it matter?
We have been good to one another,

these bad men and I. I try not
to think I will never see them again.

I am alone. I look out the window.
The forest is in silhouette.

On the lawn, almost dissolved
in the dusk, a young kangaroo

hunches on its haunches to graze.
It was not there a moment ago and

in a moment when I open the door
it will not be there again.

Although “Finishing Up” was published for the first time in Quadrant magazine in March this year [2008], it is a poem that I began writing in 1987. At the time, I didn’t feel the poem was good enough to publish and I couldn’t work out how to make it good enough. However, I did feel it had “something” and so I kept it in a file with other “almost” poems. I came back to it last year [2007] and substantially revised it into its present form. And I am pleased with it now.

     The gist of the poem is clear from the text of the poem. But a few specific details may be of interest. I was at the time the education officer-in-charge of the education centre at Barton’s Mill Prison Farm. The farm held minimum security male prisoners and was located near Pickering Brook in Western Australia. I had been granted leave without pay for a year in order to write a book on the Swan waterways with the painter Donald Green. The poem picks up on my mood as I stayed late to pack up my things on the last day at the prison.

© Andrew Lansdown

Over the years, various poets have paid tribute to Andrew and his work by dedicating poems to him. Among them are the eminent Australian poets Les Murray, Shane McCauley and Peter Kocan. Click here to view their poems.

Andrew’s fantasy novel, The Red Dragon, has won the Hoffman Award, which is part of the West Australian Young Readers Book Award (WAYRBA).

     WAYRBA is a readers’ choice award, organised on a statewide basis for young readers. The Award has two broad categories: Younger Readers and Older Readers. Children and youths are invited to nominate, through their libraries, recently published books of fiction that they have enjoyed. These nominations are then considered by the WAYRBA committee and the two lists are drawn up. Young people are then asked to read titles on the lists and evaluate them as ”terrific”, “good”, “okay” or “awful”. (Information taken from the WAYBRA website: http://www.wayrba.iinet.net.au.)

     The Hoffman Award is given to the highest ranked Australian/Western Australian book on the young readers’ list. This year, thanks to the “terrific” votes of West Australian young readers, the Hoffman Award has been given to The Red Dragon!

     Andrew accepted the award in person, and gave a reading from The Red Dragon, at the WAYRBA Awards Presentation Night at the Subiaco Theatre on Friday 24th October.

     The Red Dragon is published by Omnibus Books/Scholastic Australia and is the third novel in the Chronicles of Klarin trilogy. The other novels are With My Knife and Dragonfox. 

The respected Western Australian poet, Andrew Burke, has published Andrew’s poem, “Finishing Up” on his website, Hi Spirits. Andrew (Lansdown!) has written some background comments to accompany the poem.

You can read the poem and comments at: http://hispirits.blogspot.com/search/label/Lansdown

Zest, the online magazine of the Australian Poetry Centre, has published an article by Andrew titled “Reading and Reflecting on Haiku”.

The article can be accessed at: http://www.australianpoetrycentre.org.au/?page_id=37

Tags: News

Poem in Quadrant

October 19th, 2008

Quadrant magazine published one of Andrew’s tanka, “Becoming”, in its October 2008 edition:

Becoming

A girl from my girl

and her love … A new human

being has become …

So becoming—this person

who soon will call me “Grandpa!”

 

© Andrew Lansdown

Tags: Poems

Picaro Press has just released the new edition of Andrew’s 1987 poetry collection, Waking and Always.

The book is published as part of Picaro Press’s Art Box Series, which “aims to provide low-cost access to significant Australian poetry titles which, for whatever reason, are no longer generally available to the public.”

The new edition of Waking and Always can be ordered through this website (download an order form) or through the publisher’s website at: www.picaropress.com. RRP $15.00.

The Weekend Australian newspaper published Andrew’s haiku sequence, “Mosquito Haiku”, in its “Review” pages on 26-27 July 2008.

Mosquito Haiku

 

            i

Might as well tow

a bright sign as that high sound,

doomed mosquito!

 

            ii

A round of applause

for the mozzie skywriting with

sound instead of smoke!

 

            iii

Off and on all night,

a miniature winged syringe

disturbing my dreams.

 

            iv

Ha, that mosquito

just heard the mystical sound

of two hands clapping!

 

            v

I’m the only one

here—so it must be my blood

in the mosquito!

 

© Andrew Lansdown

Five of Andrew’s poems and two of his stories have been included in the newly released anthology, Grow: Under the Southern Cross, edited by Lyn Hurry and Anne Hamilton, with illustrations by Rowena Evans. The anthology contains poems, stories and activities for children and young teenagers by various Australian and New Zealand writers. It is especially suited for classroom and homeschool use.

     The book also comes with a CD that contains readings of ten poems and eight stories. One of Andrew’s poems and one of his stories are included on the CD.

     Copies of Grow: Under the Southern Cross can be purchased for $29.95 from Writerlynks GROW Magazine, P.O. Box 603, Kenmore, Qld 4069. For further information, email growmag@bigpond.com.

ABC Radio National recently broacast a two-part series on “Australian Haiku”. Described as “A detailed exploration of this burgeoning poetic form with some of Australia’s leading practitioners”, the series was produced by Ron Sims for Radio National’s Poetica program.

     Twenty-six of Andrew’s haiku, along with excerpts of an interview he did with Ron Simms, were included in the series.

     “Australian Haiku - Part 1″ was broadcast on Saturday 21 June and again on Thursday 26 June. “Australian Haiku - Part 2″ was broacast on Saturday 28 June and again on Thursday 3 July. Both parts of “Australian Haiku” can be heard on the ABC’s website at: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/poetica/.

Andrew’s fantasy novel, With My Knife, has gone into an eighth print run. Omnibus Books (an imprint of Scholastic Australia) reissued the book at the end of May 2008.

     With My Knife is the first novel in the trilogy, The Chronicles of Klarin. The other two novels (which have also gone into additional print runs) are: Dragonfox and The Red Dragon.

Picaro Press has undertaken to published a new edition of Andrew’s 1987 poetry collection, Waking and Always.

     Apart from minor revisions to several poems, the new edition will be the same in content as the original edition.

     The new edition of Waking and Always will be published in Picaro Press’s Art Box Series.

     According to the publisher, “The Art Box Series aims to provide low-cost access to significant Australian poetry titles which, for whatever reason, are no longer generally available to the public.”

     Advance orders for Waking and Always can be placed through this website (download an order form) or through the publisher’s website at: www.picaropress.com. RRP $15.00.

Tags: News

Andrew was invited to address the Society of Women Writers (WA) in Perth on Tuesday 20th May 2008. He spoke about his writings and read from The Dispossessed, Fontanelle, Between Glances and Waking and Always.

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 Fu

is quite wrong. Apart from man,
all creatures simply are happy.
No duck ends the day with regret.
We alone aspire to something

Other. 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)

Click here to view/download a pdf of the full-size panel bearing the poem.

Waking unwell,
wondering how I will cope
with a new day,
I glance out the window to
see a thornbill
hopping lightly in the twigs
of a wandoo—
and it flits into my mind
to set that bird
in a poem, catch it in words
as a distraction from pain.
© Andrew Lansdown
Published in Studio, No. 108, 2008

A cup on a cross-
beam in the carport,

a grass cup covered
with a cobweb gauze—

the nest some goodness
has filled to the brim

with wagtail hatchlings
that lift wobbling heads

above the low rim
and gape with gladness

each time their parents
return with insects,

not to mention twit-
chings and chatterings!

© Andrew Lansdown
Published in Island, No. 112, Autumn 2008