remembering Judith Wright Did we not know their blood channelled our rivers and the black dust our crops ate was their dust? JW* come back meet us under the pepper trees rugged up against Braidwood’s autumn air in your caramel three-quarter coat beanie and flat ribbed shoes come back shuffle the years like a pack…
Category: Judith Wright at The Call to Be
Stephen Mason at “Called to Be..” inspired by Judith Wright’s poem “Water”
Here first is Judith Wright’s poem “Water” from her 1966 book The Other Half (page 240 of Collected Poems, page 223 of the Second Edition of CP) Water Water in braids and tumbles, shells of spray, heaves of clear glass and solemn greeneyed pools, eel-coils and quick meanders, goes its way fretting this savage basalt…
Andrew Fraser’s poem reflecting on his involvement with the Anti-Fracking campaign in solidarity with the Indigenous Gomeroi people near Coonabarabran
The poem below came out of my involvement with the anti- fracking campaign currently being waged by unionists, farmers and environmentalists in solidarity with the Gomeroi people. We are concerned about the impact of drilling 800 gas wells in the Pilliga.I was honoured when Gomeroi Elder, Auntie Sue Ellen invited me to read the poem…
Another poem by Andrew Fraser- with particular pertinence to Judith Wright’s horror of violence- both in Australia and overseas.
The current conflict in Gaza reminded me of one of my poems called ‘Hath Not a Jew Eyes’. The title is a quote from Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice and I was thinking of the terrible suffering of the Palestinian people at the hands of the Israelis when I wrote it. The poem questions the Zionist philosophy of…
Andrew Fraser on Judith Wright
Andrew Fraser: Thank you for your contribution – a thoughtful and creative reflection on Judith Wright’s “The Wattle Tree” which inspired your poem “Sydney Easter Show” – thank you! I first encountered Judith Wright, when I studied The Wattle Tree in Michael Griffith’s Poetry and Being class run online at the Aquinas Academy in September…
On Judith Wright: Steve Mason
Thank you Steve, for this wonderful response to some of the poems and imagery that we explored last week. You are able to fuse key moments from Judith Wright’s haiku-like poems with her deep appreciation of Francis Webb’s imagistic power. Great work! You bring our two hour session vividly to life. – Michael From Summer:…
Michael Griffith: Home Page- Literature and Life Summer 2023 