'I thought new disappointments impossible'
said poor Henryman;
The whiskers flew well enough
but that bridge was a hundred foot
high
(Yes, yes, it came as a shock to all of
us)
Those five years burying Bradstreet
might have been better spent my friend –
you remember the boobs they
gave those prizes to when we were
kids
(My girl says good poems don't need
an explanation, John. I wonder about
good poets)
Your father studied the problem
from all angles, and though
you trusted in a forty-year faith
(Blossoms What?)
I have a hunch it was Mrs Smith
outside the bedroom with
the shotgun that drove you,
pal. No dream, no
song.
-Old friends you say, Bones?
(Old acquaintances would be better)
Stories of the feet by Les Wicks
First we must say something about the history of the inscription, “John Leonard”. Australian poetry, that world which is small enough that we can indeed say “world” and not “worlds” when placing it under discussion, is occupied, allegedly, by two “John Leonards”. I say allegedly here deliberately. Even if there are in fact two beings occupying time and space who have the name “John Leonard” – a reality that must be held in doubt by the many Australian readers who have never sighted individuals naming themselves “John Leonard” – there is only one inscription “John Leonard” attached to various publications and works within the world of Australian poetry.
“Sleepers Prevents Bad Poetry”
Poets come in many different shapes and forms. I'm not about to give you my ideas as to what makes a poet because I don't think I'm qualified. What I am interested in however, is all the different subsets of humanity where poetry exists. Where individuals take it upon themselves to express something in words, something they believe is representative of the way in which we all live our lives, the similarities in the human existence that highlight the fact that we are all suffering from, laughing at, celebrating, the same things. And so it was that I began to develop an obsession of sorts, that has since become an affection, for those unsung heroes, the Greeting Card writers.
