The Speaking Page

By | 1 July 1997
When the tide moves again

     comes up over

          the point here

and spills

     into Parsley Bay,

          goes over

the river’s torn entrails –

     your breath becomes

          tidal

atmosphere,

     it heals deeply

          thoroughly

               then you

begin to understand

          that the river

is like a blank page

     you enter it

          differently: shape

it as you would

     a new thought

          first vaguely

with phrases

     then sentences

          until finally

its language

     starts talking –

          when the river

covers a bay

     you know its weight

          soothes

healing the savaged earth

      and the tide

          begins to make music

as it covers oysters

     as it climbs

          over the rocks

its song fills the valley:

     a baroque

          tinkling tune

its lyrics

     in a language

          easy to comprehend

of course

     it’s imagination

          weaving

the river-song, your mind’s

     invention

          is playing you

as the tide begins

     to ebb

     and you see smooth mud

cuts healing

          and there is windsong

to dance now

     with your voice.
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Robert Adamson has worked as a poetry editor and consultant with Angus & Robertson/HarperCollins and has established several small publishing companies, including Prism Books and Big Smoke. He was the poetry editor the literary magazine Ulitarra from 1993 to 1997. In 1997 he became a founding editor, along with James Taylor, of the international poetry journal Boxkite. Adamson, with Juno Gemes and Michael Wilding, established Paper Bark Press in 1986 – a small press that went on to become one of Australia's major poetry publishing companies with a backlist of over thirty books. His autobiography, Inside Out, was published in March 2004 by Text Publishing. Inside Out was shortlisted for the Melbourne Age's Book of the Year Awards 2004, the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards 2004 and NSW Premier's History Awards 2004, State Library of New South Wales National Biography Award 2004, and the NSW Premier's Literary Award's Douglas Stewart Prize for non-fiction. Adamson has presented two new anthologies of poetry, The Golden Bird: New and Selected Poems in 2008 (Black Inc.) and The Kingfisher's Soul in 2009 (Bloodaxe Books UK). Recent publications include Net Needle, (Black Ink) (Bloodaxe UK) and (Flood Editions USA) (Shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards) 2020, and his latest volume is Reaching Light (2021 Flood Editions US).

http://www.robertadamson.com/index.htm

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