I have been reading with interest, the poetry selections in the Review Magazine of TheWeekend Australian. The poem that featured last weekend by South Australian based poet, Aidan Coleman was a real gem…
Night, from a longer sequence of poems titled Stroke Poems had a huge impact on me.
It opens:
‘The sounds of evening peel away, leave only/this carnivorous hum./ It’s not my heart but my brain/that’s beating: I’m ok, I’m ok, I’m ok, I’m ok.’
The carnivorous hum of night and pulsing of the brain, drew me immediately into the otherworldly darkness of Coleman’s first moments after waking from a stroke. And the closing lines:
‘I know for someone/ death has felt like this.’
Really knocked me out… such power, such fragility. If you have never read the work of Aidan Coleman, you can get a hit of his work at: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/poetica/features/pod/poets/genxy.htm
And just today, I had some wonderful news… one of my poems has been accepted for publication in the coming months, so I will be sure to keep you all posted when it hits the street!
If you have any tight, newspaper sized poems, you can submit them to: poetry(at)the australian.com.au. The poetry editor is Jaya Savige.
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