the cleared flat playground
dancing
or gymnastics at one end
europe, the right side
learning, irish hymns
perhaps dreadful,
I never thought to ask anyone.
Earthquakes & pleasure took over
Luckily i wasnt hospitalised,
though my rant tapes were lost
blank bits best, now marvel without stopping.
anything non-epic counterproductive.
No bush rangers
Their attacks on wombats belong in the state library archives,
not to mention harpur his prophetic dream of lawson exhuming
his grave,
saying these kangaroo-bones dont belong here with the christians,
dont ask me where all the bat specimens came
from theres only ever been one pin. Judith wright was here
another toilet activist no doubt.
locust eater by night.
31.0: EPIC
Poetry Editor Ali AlizadehReleased 1 December 2009
Index of Poems
Cover image: Eddy Burger
Our thirty-first issue was suitably gigantic, with poetry editor Ali Alizadeh selecting a wide range of epic works. Read his editorial, then check out the craziness of the sequel, POST-EPIC.
I do not understand this poem like so many other poems published in other themed issues of Cordite. I wonder if obscure, didactic poems are characteristic of poems published in this worthy journal. I read individual poems two, three, four and five times and still scratch my head trying to understand the poems.
Why is this published in the Epic edition of Cordite? It is neither an epic, nor epical, plus it's pretty boring. Who's responsible for this?
Hi Peter, Justice,
The poems in this issue were selected by Ali Alizadeh. His editorial argues, as would I, that there are many kinds of Epic. Point being, if you don't like this poem (or that poem), that's hardly the poet's fault – rather, what we're aiming for is a variety of styles in the issue. I'd never describe this poem, or any other, as 'characteristic of poems published in this worthy journal.'
Hi all,
@ Peter:
A poem shouldn't have to be 'understandable', with a single, transparent meaning, like a scientific formula, or a newspaper report. If a poem is, as you put it, sufficiently obscure and 'didactic' (right word?) to make you want to read it two, three, four and five times, then I'd say that's a rather successful poem.
@ Justice:
Not in the habit of conversing with abstract nouns (prefer a person's name) but, at any rate, I read this poem as a tongue-in-cheek deconstruction of the idea of writing an Australian national epic, e.g., the poet points out that Australia's mytho-historical signifiers (bush rangers, Lawson, etc), that is, the sort of thing that constitute the content of national epics, are “non-epic” and marginal, even comical (bush rangers attacking wombats, Judith Wright being a “toilet activist”, etc).
@ David/Cordite:
Thanks!
I agree with the ed and think it's a stunning poem, love the layers of personal history/self combined with fanciful (post)colonial referencing. I see Farrell's intellect and wit as an epic in itself. An excellent beginning to the issue.
This poem is truly hilarious – surely rather than paraphrasable meaning, you can just laugh with/at it?
Hi all; it seems no one can stop me from publishing here my own epic poem- to add to and subtract from
the variously windy arguments:
Little Napoleon
Walks up the stairs
Away from the beach
It
Is
Summer Little Napoleon
Drinks alcohol
And thinks
I am Sick
He of non-
Loves Combat
France.
Little Napoleon
==saw the passage
of recognition
over the face
of the Sphinx.
he did not imagine
It.
pedantry- I'd like to try it, apparently it's like oatcake.
Formatting error in previous post- please excuse.
Little napoleon
Walks up the stairs
Away from the beach
It
Is
Summer
And
He
Loves
France
Little Napoleon
Drinks alcohol
thinks
I am Sick
of non-
Combat
Little Napoleon
==saw the passage
of recognition
over the face
of the Sphinx
he did not imagine
It.
i think “Earthquakes & pleasure took over” is one of the best lines i've read for ages – if that doesn't convey a sense of the epic, nothing does