Poems
We have lots of poetry books in the library, and a large number of these poems relate to landscapes and/or natural events, but if you are into contemporary issues, try slam poetry - a type of performance poetry used to give powerful personal responses to issues such as race, environmental destruction and gender stereotypes. Here are some of my favourite slam poems that make use of place as a metaphor. If you google slam poetry, you'll find lots more.
The poems in the clips below include poems about:
If you're interested in environmentalism and spoken word poetry seems your thing - contribute your own poem
here
The poems in the clips below include poems about:
- Australian Aboriginal understandings of country (Alice Eather)
- the difference between Aboriginal and corporate understandings of country (Alice Eather)
- a refugee's perspective on national borders (Denise Frohman)
- race from the point of view of a mass murderer sitting in a church (Denise Frohman)
- the gap between rich and poor in Lagos, Nigeria (Sonuga Titilope)
- the graphic vioence of a terrorist attack on a school, which the media has forgotten about (Sonuga Titilope. Sorry - can't find the video. audio and text here: https://www.lyrikline.org/en/poems/hide-and-seek-12593)
- the process of migration using an aeroplane metaphor (Sonuga Titilope)
- the gap between trans and cis understandings of gender using a church metaphor (Lee Mokobe)
If you're interested in environmentalism and spoken word poetry seems your thing - contribute your own poem
here
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Poetry Anthologies
Poetry anthologies can be found in the Non Fiction Collection at A821 (Australian poets) or 808.1 (Mixed Anthologies) 811 (American Poets) and 821 (English poets). You could also look for poems from non English speaking cultures later in the 800s (eg Pablo Neruda at 895)
Here is a selection of poetry books you might enjoy.
Here is a selection of poetry books you might enjoy.
Thematic anthologies
Canonical Poets
Australian anthologies
Here are some Australian poems by famous writers that might be suitable for this task. You can find most of these poems online by googling the titles:
- Bruce Dawe: "The city: midnight", "Life cycle", "suburban lovers", "phqantasms of evening" "Homecoming",
- Alison Whittacker: "Not a Lake" or "Vote" (In Blakwork)
- Emily Dickinson: "One need not be a chamber to be haunted" "I know some lonely houses off the road"
- A B Paterson: "Man from Snowy River", "In Defence of the Bush", "With the Catttle, "In drought"
- Kominos: "Ballad of King St", Glebe Point Road", "Lygon Street" Fotscray Station"
- Gwen Harwood: At hte water's Edge", "estury", Littoral"
- Rosemary Dobson: "A walk in Richmond Park", "Ghost Town, New England", "The Wildwood", "The ship of ice"
- Keneth Slessor: "Five Bells", "William Street"
- T S Eliot: Preludes, rhapsody on a windy Night (or the song "Memory" from the musical Cats, which is based on these poems!)
- Kominos:
Multicultural Poets
Speeches
Speeches (worth one star each if you're doing the Riverside Reading Challenge).
- This is my message to the Western World - Nemonte Nenquimo, an influential leader from Ecuador's Amazon rainforest tells it like it is.
- No one is too small to make a differnce - Greta Thunberg, environmental activist (NF333.72 THU)
- Chief seattle's Speech - C19th american First nations activist
- Sermon to the Birds - St Francis of Assissi, C13th Itlaian monk
- independence speech - Jawaharlal Nehru, Indian leader
- Redfern Speech - Keating, Australian PM