I have a word-based contribution on cordite at the mo, part of the oz-ko (envoy) issue, which is the prelude to the forthcoming oz-ko issue that will feature Korean poets translated into English and Australian poets translated into Hangul, which, I have only recently discovered, is the name of the Korean alphabet.
Envoy is a suite of 20 untranslated poems, each of which has been chosen, according to David Prater’s editorial, because it has “illuminated some aspect of Australian culture, or else because it expresses some kind of engagement with Korean culture.” Kind of a taster for the main course of the translations. The kimchi before the bibimbap, if you will.
My contribution to this little chilli-cabbage morsel of poetry is “Mea Culpa”, a farewell to the last of our chooks who met their fox-shaped maker about a year ago now.
Also snacktastic and worthy of asking for the recipe are:
- Patrick Jones’s environmental not-quite-parable “carless”
- Emily Stewart’s (presumably) found poem, “State of Origin”, celebrating the homespun poetry of rugby commentary
- Fleur Beaupert’s cheeky, whimsical and unsettling “Calling Korea” about on-the-run refugees finding a place in contemporary Australian culture
- Geoff Page’s “The Anthologist”, a deft look at the lot of the poet/editor
- Joe Dolce’s (apologies Joe but I have to say “yes, that Joe Dolce”) “Korean Triptych” sequence of three still moments of Korean history
I’ve been published in the same magazine as the guy who wrote “Shaddap You Face”. If only my dad had been around to see it. He would’ve been as impressed with that as any of my poetic achievements to date, and then he would have gone and dug out the old, scratched single and put it on, and then sung it to himself for a week over the dishes, in the garden, in his shed, at the kitchen table…
The Other Adam Ford 