Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Australian Poetry
- The Cambridge Companion to Australian Poetry
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Chronology
- Introduction
- Part I Change and Renewal
- Part II Networks
- Part III Authors
- Part IV Embodied Poetics
- 13 The Strength of Us as Women
- 14 “Country Snarled / in Borders”
- 15 Australian Poets in the Countries of Others
- 16 Writing the Body
- 17 Not the Poem Alone
- Part V Expanding Form
- Further Reading
- Index
- Cambridge Companions To …
- References
17 - Not the Poem Alone
In Medias Res
from Part IV - Embodied Poetics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 June 2024
- The Cambridge Companion to Australian Poetry
- The Cambridge Companion to Australian Poetry
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Chronology
- Introduction
- Part I Change and Renewal
- Part II Networks
- Part III Authors
- Part IV Embodied Poetics
- 13 The Strength of Us as Women
- 14 “Country Snarled / in Borders”
- 15 Australian Poets in the Countries of Others
- 16 Writing the Body
- 17 Not the Poem Alone
- Part V Expanding Form
- Further Reading
- Index
- Cambridge Companions To …
- References
Summary
This chapter argues that ecopoetry is too easily absorbed back into the logics of capitalism and colonialism. Aware of the delimiting forces surrounding its own context, the chapter argues to be taken not as an essay but as an action. It argues that for a poem to bring about environmental change, it must be part of connected interventions. The chapter outlines the poetic yarning between John Kinsella and Charmaine Papertalk Green, a member of the Wajarri, Badimaya, and Nhanagardi people of the Yamaji Nation, as a means of generative protest. It also provides an example of poems written in medias res in the collective resistance to a proposal to build bike trails on Walwalinj, a mountain sacred to the Ballardong Noongar people. This example demonstrates a poem is shaped by the particular situation and how the poem is one part of a network of actions that formed a campaign that was led by Aboriginal elders. The chapter also includes collaborative poetry written during the Roe 8 Highway protests in 2016 and poetry protesting the proposed destruction of the Julimar Forest by mining companies.
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- The Cambridge Companion to Australian Poetry , pp. 292 - 312Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024