Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
In the Garden (2:15)
About james laidler
James Laidler is an emerging writer, poet and spoken word performer from country Victoria. His first verse novel, The taste of apple, won the 2010 IP Picks Award for ‘Best First Book’ and will be published towards the end of this year. The novel comes with a studio-produced CD of spoken word tracks that trace the novel’s main narrative thread. Rollercoaster is a track taken from this album and was produced with the assistance of Don Stewart at Unmuzzled Studios. The first chapter of James’ verse novel will also be featured as part of the Australian Poetry Centre’s Monologues Series for 2010. James’ work has been featured on Writer’s Radio Adelaide, Radio National’s 360 program, Melbourne’s RRR and Indie feed, as well as in the literary journals Going Down Swinging, Cordite and Peril.
Further reading:
This is an amazingly poignant piece. It is just perfect for inclusion in Epic. It makes me think of all the community gardens dotted around Melbourne, particularly the ones near commission flats. Is this the location the poet had in mind? This is how I am reading it. It makes me think of all the hidden epic journeys that the gardeners in those places must have experienced in their lives. Yet despite the mishmash of their cultural backgrounds, they somehow manage to find common ground through sharing in the task of tending for the earth.
This poem has given me a fresh vision of 'the Garden of Eden': a chain meshed enclosure where somehow something epic has been preserved in all its broken goodness.
The poem talks about ‘reflecting hope inwards.' But maybe it's doing even more than that.
Thankyou so much for this poem James.
Thanks for your comment, Missy – there's certainly something about this piece, and not it's just the earworm piano line!