|
Someone Forget to Tell the Fish
Hal Judge Commended, IP Picks 2007, Best Poetry
|
||
ISBN 9781876819712 |
RRP: AUS$24 |
Poetry |
PB 78pp |
|
Reviews |
|||
Hal Judge is a energetic, risk-taking poet who is formulating a unique poetics. It is fascinating to watch something poetically ‘new’ take shape, watch it break out of its borders and boundaries and travel through different registers of language and experience. There is something of the troubadour about Judge, but a fiercely pro-active one: a combination of thrash guitarist and folk singer. He challenges the reader, he challenges the world-at-large, and he challenges his own perceptions. He is surrounded by poetry and pulls the threads together. A poet worth watching closely. – John Kinsella ...a distinctive and effective effusion of ideas and styles. Very evocative and funny. – Shaun Tan |
|||
Hal Judge
Hal Judge is an emerging provocative writer from Canberra. His poems have been published in over 20 literary publications in Australia and overseas. His concrete poem “Area Denial” won the ACT Writers Centre Award in 2006. He has performed poetry on ABC radio and at many venues around Australia. He has recited poetry in Sydney, Hobart, Launceston, Darwin, Canberra, Ubud, Jakarta and Palembang (Indonesia). Hal is an accomplished performance poet, twice winner of the Battle of the Bards in the ACT Writers Festival. The Canberra Times literature reviewers commented on Hal Judge’s ability “to cross-social boundaries” and described his poetry as “satirical, acerbic, highly successful”.
Sample
snail
she’s casual about sex
she can switch gender anytime
she makes love quietly
not like a cat.
she’ll never criticise
another mollusc
oyster, clam
or sea-slug
she never takes more
than her small share
she’s a pacifist
and vegan
she blinks like the stars
on rainy days she gets busy
her trail sparkles
silver in the sun
this is not a metaphor
about love
or ideology
it’s about a snail
Links
eNews 33: Commentary by Assistant Editor Mary Trabucco