Poem in Quadrant

Andrew’s tribute poem for the late Hal G.P. Colebatch, “Vikings”, was published in the September 2021 issue of Quadrant.

The poem is reproduced in full in an earlier post here, soon after it was first published in The Weekend Australian in March 2020.

It is fitting that this tribute should now appear in the pages of Quadrant, a magazine that regularly published Hal’s poems, stories and essays for over 40 years.

The poem reflects Hal’s passion for the sea and seafaring, his preoccupation with heroism and courage, and his commitment to the Christian faith. In keeping with the Viking analogies, the poem employs the old Anglo-Saxon and Norse poetic techniques of alliteration and kenning.

Abundance shortlisted for Australian Christian Book of the Year

Andrew’s latest poetry collection, Abundance: New and Selected Poems, published in the USA by Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers, has been shortlisted for the 2021 Australian Christian Book of the Year Award. The Award is organised by The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge Australia Incorporated (SparkLit), and further details can be learned from the official website, SparkLit – Igniting Christian Writing.

The winner will be announced on 2 September 2021.

You can read several sample poems from Abundance here. Go here to purchase a copy.

Poems in The Mozzie

The last two issues of The Mozzie each contain one of Andrew’s poems.

His poem “The Biblical Maples”, a set of four tanka, is in the June 2021 issue (Vol. 29, Issue 1) of The Mozzie.

His poem “Ascendant Maple”, a set of three light-hearted haiku, is in the July 2021 issue (Vol. 29, Issue 2) of The Mozzie.

5 poems in Quadrant

 

 

 

The latest issue (July-August 2021) of Quadrant magazine includes 5 of Andrew’s poems—”So Far South”, “Gleam”, “The Bodhisattva’s Bib”, “A Game of Anything”, and “Bamboo Triptych”.

“The Bodhisattva’s Bib” is a set of 4 haiku, while “Bamboo Triptych” is a suit for 3 tanka. “So Far South”, “Gleam”, and “A Game of Anything” are free form poems. “A Game of Anything” is reproduced below:

 

A Game of Anything

.
I am watching two little girls
like ducklings tottering

in line behind their mother—
only, they are making a game

of the going, taking care
with wing-flappings for balance

to keep in the lanky shadow
she is casting on the asphalt

as she trundles her trolly
in the late afternoon sunlight

through the shopping-centre carpark.

            © Andrew Lansdown

Andrew Burke’s missing poems

 

 

There are two outstanding poems missing from Andrew Burke’s latest, excellent New & Selected Poems—”Little White Pills”, from his 1996 collection, Pushing at Silence. , and “Pastoral”, from his first book (1975), let’s face the music & dance.

Rejoice, the missing poems have been found! You can read them on this website, here, and transcribe them into the front of your copy of Andrew Burke’s New & Selected Poems.

Poem in Eucalypt: A Tanka Journal

Eucalypt: A Tanka Journal (Issue 30, 2021) has published one of Andrew’s tanka. Andrew has titled it “This Upwelling”, although it was published without a title in Eucalypt. It is reproduced below in the house style of the magazine, without a title, an opening capital or closing full-stop:

it gladdens me,
this unceasing upwelling
of loveliness—
there are birds in the birdbath,
grandchildren in the branches

© Andrew Lansdown

Four poems in ROCHFORD STREET REVIEW

Rochford Street Review has published four of Andrew’s poem in its latest issue, Issue 31, 2021:1.

The poems are: “Little Things” (a set of 8 haiku); “After the Fishermen” (a set of 2 tanka); “Times of Fox-Dread” (a suite of 4 tanka); and “Petal Poems, Kyoto” (a 3-tanka suite).

The first haiku in “Little Things” is:

A flustering moth
on the lighted windowsill
in a gecko’s mouth.
.           .© Andrew Lansdown

The 4 tanka in “Times of Fox-Dread” were written after a visit to Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto. The first tanka in the set is titled “Possession” and reads:

In old Japan
fear of foxes polluted
everyday life:
Oh, is that maid a vixen?
Is that sickness possession?
.           .© Andrew Lansdown

You can read the poems in full on the Rochford Street Review website here.