Peter Rose



Review Short: Peter Rose’s The Subject of Feeling

From the beginning of the latest work by Peter Rose, the reader is given the impression of an unfolding tableau or score, the creases and outlines of which to be generously shared. A sense of intimacy is engendered from the outset: we are let in on the scales and arpeggios that a musician practises, as if each poem, or note that it reaches, ‘might lead somewhere / or fail to ascend.’

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Days and Distance

So many years ago. Cruel to dislodge them like moss in a rockery. From the plane a vasty view. First, stretched dawn like a pink elaboration. Then, on descent, sinking and buffeted (you leaning over me, whispering, closer), something called …

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The Long and Short of It and That: Some Thoughts on Book Reviews

This post is in reply to John Dale’s recent piece in The Conversation, Here they are: the rules for book reviewing, and Peter Rose’s evisceration of it In defence of book reviewers in Australia, also in The Conversation. Dale airs …

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The Victoria Markets

Storm over the old mart, closed these two hours. Slick on bitumen reflects eruptive cloud. After editorial days I go out for late beer, admire the frenzied workers. It is like a military operation, our vegetable Dunkirk. Having come from …

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Marathon

Hard to believe perhaps, but Catullus is not without magnanimity – whatever people say. Nervy Quintius sits up all night drafting an exquisite apology, one demanding new feats of masochism. Otherwise, Quintius is convinced, Catullus will trash his latest eclogues …

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David McCooey Reviews Peter Rose and Ken Bolton

The opening poem of Peter Rose’s Crimson Crop – which recently won a Queensland Literary Award – brings together illness, noise, and madness in a powerful vision of human frailty. In that poem, ‘Prelude’, the poet relates seeing a man at the Rome Railway Station banging his head on vending machines, while his countrymen ‘rushed to their trains, / fearful, cashmered, blinkered, / avoiding this glimpse / of what their brother had become’.

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Ryan Scott Reviews The Best Australian Poems 2008

When an anthology purports to represent the best poetry of a time or region, it's fair to assume someone will question the validity of its publication. 'On what criteria is this judged?' some readers might wonder. 'Can poetry really have a best?' others will ask. 'Why wasn't I included?' a few may dare voice aloud.

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