Poetry that nourishes us
2019 was a year of memories for Toowoomba rugby league tragics.
Two of Toowoomba’s proudest clubs All Whites/ Brothers and Valleys Roosters celebrated a centenary of sport.
A cursory glance at a team of Toowoomba immortals demonstrates that when it comes to rugby league greats our town punches well above its weight.
But it’s not footy season right now. Just like nothing ever good happens out on the town after midnight – none of the rugby league stories appearing in social media or in print in the off season have anything to recommend them.
For me right now is reading season. A time to lose yourself in the pages of a book, having successfully navigated Christmas, winding your way from one year to the next.
And I would argue that when it comes to poets, Toowoomba also punches well above its weight. How many cities have a monument celebrating a poet and a poem about this place? You will find such a statue overlooking the range and celebrating our very own George Essex Evans at Webb Park.
So this Christmas one of the gifts I gave and one of the gifts I received contained the works of two Toowoomba poets.
The first was a collection of poems by singer/songwriter Paul Kelly. There are many treasures contained in his anthology titled Love is Stronger than Death, among them a poem by our very own Bruce Dawe. The gift I gave, A Bag of Verse - Poems of Place in Toowoomba by Michael the Sweeper was so good I kept one for myself.
‘The Sweeper” aka Michael Rooke is truly our poet laureate. Like Essex Evans, Michael once was a journo and wrote for this fair paper. As the name suggests he spent some time sweeping streets in the CBD which gave him many sources for the bag of verse.
‘The Sweeper’s’ work is lyrical and is meant to be read aloud. It is whimsical and light and full of imagination. It tells the story behind the story of the everyday. The collection will take you to Lake Annand, to Hume St, to the glory of the Jacaranda. It will show you the familiar in an altogether different light.
Like any piece of art the beauty is in the detail and the perspective taken.
This collection is so much more than a bag of little rhymes. It reflects back to the reader the beauty and majesty of life all around her and then lingers with a question which calls from the deep.
It is a collection for right here and now. It calls us to turn off our phones, blank out the screens, indeed unplug the internet and just listen!! To listen to the story of the wheelie bin, the temptation that lemon butter brings and the free massage that can be found on the travelator at Grand Central.
It is unfair to take some of the verse out of context and I can hear Michael protesting as I put this to paper, but I can’t help but share one of my favourite images. In The Song of the Worm, the interaction between the magpie, (that elegant bird in the black and white coat) and the worm beneath the lawn in the morning dew are brought to life.
“What sort of a noise does a magpie hear
That tells it, “Ah ha! There’s a worm very near!”
A worm doesn’t sing and a worm doesn’t speak,
But goes down that sharppointed magpie-y beak”
But the Sweeper doesn’t stop there with a simple description. He calls us to take the time to learn from our surroundings.
“And I say to myself, there’s a lot I can learn
as the magpie sings the song of the worm.
Can I sing of all that nourishes me?
I wonder what sort of a song that would be.”
A Bag of Verse Poems of Place in Toowoomba is a collection of poetry that can nourish all of us for some time to come. This backyard review was neither sought nor allowed but get in touch if you would like to access a copy of this collection.