Two of Andrew’s poems — “Recollections of Dread and Deliverance” and “Comfort” — have been published in the December 2016 issue of Quadrant. “Recollections”, written for Andrew’s wife, Susan, is reprinted below:

Recollections of Dread and Deliverance

 

Dearest, when you haemorrhaged

(I am of a sudden with hurt and horror

recalling it these near-three decades on),

 

when back in the ward after the birthing

the nurse drew down from your white face

the bedcover to uncover that swamp

 

of blood from your wounded womb,

that crimson saturation of nightdress

and sheet, I plunged to pleas and please!

 

and when they wheeled you on the trolley

away to the theatre, not now for new life

but for your life, I feared you’d gone for good

 

but by the doctor’s good hand the Hand

of God touched you, staunched you, spared you

for me and our newborn daughter and all

 

the other loved ones who loved you

as I loved you and love you still with kisses

and wide wishes and everlasting longings.

 

               © Andrew Lansdown

From time to time Andrew receives encouraging comments from school teachers and children about his fantasy trilogy, The Chronicles of Klarin (comprising the novels, With My Knife, Dragonfox and The Red Dragon, all published by Scholastic Australia under the Omnibus Books imprint).

Recently a New Zealand teacher emailed Andrew to say she had been reading the novels to her students. With her permission, her kind letter and the delightful notes from her students are reproduced below:

Dear Andrew Lansdown,

I am a teacher in a small rural school on the Coromandel Peninsula in New Zealand. There are 22 students in my class aged 8 and 9.

This term I have been reading your trilogy of fantasy novels The Klarin Chronicles, to my class. They are totally captured by them and asked to write to you when they found your website. They want to show you the cardboard box portal we made. It is a very popular quiet place for reading and writing in class time. I have attached a photo. The children all wanted to write too so I have copied their letters below.

Thank you for your inspiration and imagination.

Best wishes

Margaret Gibson (Teacher Room 4 Whenuakite School)

The children’s notes to Andrew follow:

Dear Andrew Lansdown,

Your books are so interesting. The dragonfox is scary but the red dragon looks cool. We made a cardboard box with a triangle opening. Is the circle an opening too?

Yours sincerely Courtney. I am a girl.

 

Dear Mr Lansdown,

I loved your story With my Knife but The Red Dragon is even better. I like the way Yasni is bossy to Colyn.

From Riley

To read the rest of the children’s comments (along with Andrew’s responses), click here.

Andrew’s website was hacked several weeks ago. However, thanks to the work of an expert webmaster, the website has been cleared of viruses and malware and is once again operating as it should. Security on the site has been upgraded, too, reducing the likelihood of another hack. Apologies to anyone who has experienced trouble accessing the site in recent weeks.

Andrew’s poem “Incidentals”, a 4-haiku gunsaku set in Kyoto, was published by the Canberra Times, in the weekend Panorama magazine, on 27 August 2016. The last haiku in the set is:

Blocking a water

trickle—a little levee

of cherry petals.

© Andrew Lansdown

The August 2016 issue of The Mozzie (Vol. 24, Issue 6) contains one of Andrew’s poems – a gunsaku consisting of four haiku under the heading, “Petals Scattering”.

Earlier this year Andrew was invited by Poetica Christi Press to judge the press’s annual poetry completion. Andrew completed the judging in early October. His judge’s report contains some helpful observations about the art of poetry writing and is reproduced on this website below:

Poetica Christi Press

 

2016 Annual Poetry Competition

 

Judge’s Report

 

by Andrew Lansdown

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I was honoured to be entrusted with the task of judging the Poetica Christi Press 2016 Annual Poetry Competition. There was an excellent response to the Competition, with 190 poems entered.

 

While the quality of the entries was uneven, many fine poems were submitted. The poems were wide-ranging in subject and theme, touching on family relationships, the natural world, international terrorism, biblical characters, and personal experiences. There were love poems and nature poems, laments and narratives, dramatic monologues and personal lyrics. While the majority of the poems were free form, many included rhyme, and some included regular rhyming couplets or quatrains. It was pleasing to see poets experimenting with some traditional European and Japanese forms: sonnets, villanelles, rondeaux and haiku. While these experiments were not always successful, the poets are to be commended for their endeavours to understand and master the poetic craft.

 

It was also pleasing to note that most of the poems were cogent and accessible. There were very few poems that were confused or, worse, deliberately ambiguous.

 

I noticed that two flaws kept recurring and it may be helpful to mention these.

[continue reading]

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE REPORT

Seven of Andrew’s poems have been published in the September 2016 issue of Quadrant. The poems are: “Thinking of You”, “The Festooned Pine”, “Omikuji Blossom”, “Pact”, “Travelling”, “Winter, Wisconsin” and “A Little Herd”.

“The Festooned Pine” also appears in Andrew’s latest book, Kyoto Sakura Tanka, which is composed of poems (tanka) and photographs of Kyoto in the cherry blossom (sakura) season. “The Festooned Pine” is reproduced below, with the photograph that accompanies it in the book:

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The Festooned Pine

At a Shinto shrine,

white paper slips, omikuji,

knotted to a pine—

sacred ballots of the kami,

forming a strange origami.

        © Andrew Lansdown

Andrew will be heavily involved in the Words in the Valley Readers and Writers Festival in Bridgetown on the weekend of 30-31 July.

On Saturday 30 July, he will run a poetry workshop and give an author talk. On Sunday 31 July, he we announce the winners of  the Blake in the Blackwood Poetry Prize and give a poetry reading.

Festival details from the Proximity WA website:

Bridgetown – Words in the Valley Festival

Saturday 30th July, 2016 @ 9:00am to Sunday 31st July, 2016 @ 5:00pm

Andrew was invited earlier this year to judge the Blake in the Blackwood Poetry Prize. He will announce the prize winners at the Words in the Valley Readers and Writers Festival in Bridgetown on the weekend of 30-31 July.

Andrew’s poem, “The Spider Orchids”, has been published in Little Book of Australian Orchids, published by the National Library of Australia. In addition to poems by various poets, the beautifully produced book contains colour illustrations of Australian orchids painted by various artists in the 1800s and early 1900s.

“The Spider Orchids” was first published in Andrew’s award-winning collection, Between Glances, published by William Heinemann Australia in 1993.

Andrew has had poems published in five of the National Library of Australia’s Little Book series. The other collections that include his poems are Little Book of Cats, Little Book of Butterflies, Little Book of Trees, and Little Book of Banksias.

The May 2016 issue of The Mozzie (Vol. 24, Issue 3) contains three of Andrew’s poems: “Dip”, “Blossoming Cherry, Kyoto” and “Notch”.

Rhiza Press has published a hardback book of Andrew’s poetry and photography titled Kyoto Sakura Tanka.

The setting for the collection is Kyoto city and the Kansai region of Japan. The season is spring, when the cherry blossoms (sakura) bloom. The 105 poems are modelled on an ancient form of Japanese poetry known as tanka, which is structured in 5 lines and 31 syllables (5, 7, 5, 7, 7 syllables per line). The 93 photographs are full colour and depict fascinating scenes and details of Japan’s ancient capital.

Kyoto Sakura Tanka is available postfree at a discount price of $25 from this website. Click here to buy a copy to keep … and another to give away!

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A small collection of Andrew’s poetry has been published by Life Ministries. The God of the Glimpses is a pocket-size chapbook consisting of 32 pages and 19 poems. The poems are a series of dramatic monologues–written in the voice of various characters–exploring the life of the Old Testament prophet Elijah.

Read more about the chapbook, including a sample poem, here.

The God of the Glimpses can be purchased for just $5.95 (postage included) from the BUY BOOKS page of this website.

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The May 2016 issue of Quadrant magazine contains two of Andrew’s poems–“Café Senryu” (which is a three-senryu set) and “Pond Tanka” (which is a two-tanka set). “Café Senryu” is reproduced below:

Cafe Senryu

 

i

Upmarket café—

looks like I’m the only one

without a gym pass.

 

ii

At the next table

two well-manicured women

whining and dining.

 

iii

For a bigger buzz

the mating flies plunge into

my cappuccino!

 

            © Andrew Lansdown