Michael Sharkey



Review Short: Anne M. Carson’s Removing the Kimono

Every poem in Anne M. Carson’s collection is appealing on account of the distinctive cast of mind revealed in a precise language that registers the author’s alertness to all senses. Three groups of poems establish a pattern of mortality and rebirth, of natural forces and human emotions.

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Recording Archives: ‘A Way with Words’

For two years, from September 2009 to October 2011, I produced A Way with Words, a weekly radio program showcasing contemporary Australian poetry. In all, 106 episodes (each of around five minutes) were produced. Presented here is a chance to listen in on six gems from the archives vault – some of my favourites, chosen for the most part because they are impossible to find elsewhere as audio. A Way with Words was broadcast weekly by ArtSound in Canberra, picked up by Ozwrite on the National Community Radio Network, Dover Road Radio broadcasting from the Isle of Wright in the UK, 2KRRR Community Radio in Kandos and 3RRR in Melbourne.

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Every Punter Wins a Prize

See how the Fates their gifts allot, For A is happy; B is not. —The Mikado At Maud Cahill’s bookshop I produce a list of books I’d sooner sell than keep on seeing on my shelves. It’s time that dust …

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Tales Out of School (2): A Gift for Teaching

The Guru, Mister Whatsup, Oblomov, The Sleeping Beaut, and Madame Lash and the Vampire Bat are ensconced in the Common Room when Mrs Ick Deen harrumphs in with the Pickled Dill and the Human Egg for the Weekly Discipline get-together …

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Tales Out of School (1): He Says, She Says

‘I’d like to know’, says the girl who intends to be married in autumn, ‘if heaven is true and it’s made up of people like us’. And she got married too. And the boy sitting next to her says, ‘I …

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A Double Abecedary on Tertiary Teaching

Academically speaking, teaching’s really spaz But who expects to make an impression when every Contact confirms your sense that your life is under a hex. Don’t give up yet though; for all you know, Education theorists may one day tumble …

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A.D. Malley: A New Ballade of the Words of Yesteryear

Opposite Sydney School of Arts the wowser slakes his shameful lust with the debauchees of gin and lime enchanted by their sirens’ wail. At length he slopes toward his bed with dreams of Lilith in his head. Where are the …

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Deb Matthews-Zott Reviews Michael Sharkey

The Sweeping Plain is Michael Sharkey's fourteenth collection of poetry and follows the publication of History: Selected Poems 1978-2000 in 2002. On the cover of this collection is Eliel Saarinen's 1912 design for the Australian Federal Capital, which was runner up (second place) to Walter Burley Griffin's design in a town planning competition for our capital city.

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