Andrew has been invited to read at the Perth Poetry Club on Saturday, 9 July. Come and hear him read poems from his latest collection, The Colour of Life in Two Poets (Fremantle Press, 2011).
The Perth Poetry Club meets at the Moon Cafe in William Street, Northbridge, on Saturdays between 2.00 – 4.00 pm.
The City of Armadale is hosting a Getting the Word Out Poetry Evening on Tuesday 24th May, 6.30 – 8.30 pm. Andrew is one of several poets invited to read for the event. Admission is free and all are welcome.
Peter Cowan Writers’ Centre (PCWC) is running a series of 10 Advanced Poetry Workshops throughout 2011.
Andrew is one of nine professional poets invited to be a facilitator for one of the workshops. Other facilitators include Shane McCauley, Lucy Dougan, Andrew Burke and Dennis Haskell.
The Advanced Poetry Workshops are a new initiative by PCWC aimed at assisting already accomplished poets to move to a new level of achievement.
Last year, applicants had to submit five recent poems to PCWC, to be assessed by Professor Andrew Taylor (who initiated the Workshops and is also one of the facilitators). Twelve poets were chosen from over 30 applicants to attend 10 sessions on the second Saturday of each month from February to November.
Andrew’s workshop will take place on Saturday 14th May and will cover “Alternative Poetic Forms”. The synopsis of his workshop reads:
TS Eliot claimed that one poet is superior to another primarily on the basis of his or her critical faculties. Writing in traditional poetic forms supports and strengthens our critical faculties by providing objective guidance and goals. It also enhances our creativity by prompting us to think in ways that are new to us. This workshop will focus primarily on the traditional Japanese poetic forms of haiku, gunsaku, tanka and choka, all of which are conducive to contemporary descriptive, reflective and imagist poetry.
The Canadian poet, D.S. Martin has posted a brief biographical note about Andrew, accompanied by 3 of Andrew’s poems, on his site, Kingdom Poets. See it at: http://kingdompoets.blogspot.com/2011/05/andrew-lansdown.html
Writing in Island magazine, the Australian poet John Jenkins recently made the following observations about Andrew and his poem “Leaf and Load”:
Andrew Lansdown struck me, too, as being particularly gracious to his fellow readers. Sympathetic and sensitive, he was always interested in how a poem someone read came about, its inspiration and means; its sources and resources. He had an acute ear and was, clearly, a marvellous listener. He showed me a poem of his, “Leaf and Load”, which I have used in creative writing workshops: a model of direct observation, about a leaf which bends under the weight of a swollen droplet of water during a storm. It is simple, yet exquisite, Zen-like in its clarity and attention to detail. For a second, this poem communicates what we know to be impossible: the direct apprehension of subject matter—a leaf bowed by a rain-drop—somehow unmediated by poet, poem or language; as if artifice could simply erase itself, leaving only the presence of reality. In my opinion, Lansdown remains the doyen, in Australia, of this sort of exquisite, small-scale, nature poem. Easy to attempt, devilishly hard to do!
This is an excerpt from John Jenkins’ recollections of the Tasmanian Poetry Festival in 1994, written to celebrate the Festival’s 25th anniversary, and published as part of a multi-part essay, “Written in Silver: The Tasmanian Poetry Festival”, published in Island, No. 121, Winter 2010, pp. 50-51.
The poem, “Leaf and Load”, to which John Jenkins refers is:
Leaf and Load
.
The rain is breaking its phials
on the ornamental plum. From
the verandah I choose a leaf,
.
glistening with wet, and watch
until each vein becomes a rill
running into the midrib-river
.
and on to the leaf’s tip
where the waters gather in a blister
to weight the leaf downwards
.
by imperceptible degrees. Slipping
from the chlorophyll plane, the rain-
drop hangs from the leaf-tip
.
as a ball-bearing might hang
from the point of a magnet, held
by the barest contact between
.
curve and cusp. Like a miniature
transparent balloon tied by a child
to a tap, the drop swells,
.
bulges with a fragile elasticity,
bowing the leaf with its growing load,
until loosed at last by gravity.
.
Released, the leaf leaps up,
shudders to an easy equilibrium
in the light, impacting rain.
.
© Andrew Lansdown
First published in the literary magazine Westerly, “Leaf and Load” is included in Andrew’s poetry collections The Grasshopper Heart (1991) and Birds in Mind (2009).
Wombat Books has arranged a launching for Andrew’s new collection of children’s poetry, Allsorts: poetry tricks and treats.
The launching will take place at 6.30 pm on Saturday, 9th April in the hall of the Morley Baptist Church in Vera Street, Morley.
It’s late notice, but all who appreciate Andrew’s poetry are most welcome to attend.
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Many years ago Andrew published a selection of 18 poems by William Hart-Smith in Artlook magazine. That selection, along with Andrew’s introductory essay, has now been posted on this website. Read Hart-Smith’s superb poems here.
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Eminent Australian poet Geoff Page has given Andrew permission to use some poetry critiques from his book, 80 Great Poems from Chaucer to Now (UNSW Press, 2006).
Six of Geoff’s critiques have been posted on this website so far. They can be read here:
T.S. Eliot, “Journey of the Magi” –
http://andrewlansdown.com/favourite-poems/ts-eliot/
Gerard Manley Hopkins, “Carrion Comfort” –
http://andrewlansdown.com/favourite-poems/gerard-manley-hopkins/
James McAuley, “Because” –
http://andrewlansdown.com/favourite-poems/james-mcauley/
William Carlos Williams, “This is Just to Say” –
http://andrewlansdown.com/favourite-poems/william-carlos-williams/
King David, “Psalm 23” –
http://andrewlansdown.com/favourite-poems/david-king-of-israel/
Les Murray, “The Mitchells” –
http://andrewlansdown.com/favourite-poems/les-murray/
* * * * * *
Also, read nine of Geoff’s poems on Andrew’s website here:
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Wombat Books has published a new collection of poetry by Andrew titled Allsorts: poetry tricks and treats.
The book contains nature, narrative, fantasy and humorous poems in free verse, rhymed verse, limercks, haiku, ballads and sonnets.
The final 70 pages of Allsorts include personal observations from the poet about the poems in the collection, lesson/writing suggestions for students and aspiring poets, a comprehensive glossary of poetic forms and techniques, and a set of seven indexes identifying the poems that employ these different forms and techniques.
The collection is delightfully illustrated by the poet’s wife, Susan Lansdown.
Click here (or on the book cover) to read publication details and sample poems.