AustLit
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'We clasp him to us like a package of light—the child who ran towards the reeds.
'This new prose poetry sequence from Paul Hetherington explores the power of memory and the hauntings of childhood. It takes the reader on a sensuous and richly imagistic journey into expansive ideas of self and identity. It probes and questions the nature of recollection, and how the role of the father and mother may be understood, drawing on a number of existing literary works to create elaborately poetic and deeply satisfying verbal textures.' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
An Intertextual Poiesis : The Luminous Image and a ‘Round Loaf of Indian and Rye’
2020
single work
criticism
— Appears in: New Writing , vol. 17 no. 3 2020; (p. 259-271)'Making poetry and the act of reading are intimately connected. Such reading, along with poetry research and scholarship, has the capacity to open new avenues for creative thought and fresh pathways to creative work, particularly through intertextual strategies. In this way, literary scholarship may provide a lens for seeing more deeply into one’s own creative writing practice; and reading and writing may be viewed as having intimate linking tendrils. The nineteenth-century American poet Emily Dickinson produced a large body of work characterised by numerous intertextual strategies and references, much of which speaks to the present day. Further, her poetic preoccupations focus on issues connected to the self and personal identity – and an associated critique of conventional mores – providing an exemplar for contemporary poets with related interests and preoccupations. For instance, Cassandra Atherton’s book, Exhumed, uses the metaphor of interring and disinterring to discuss a range of intertexts buried or unearthed in her prose poetry, and these works humorously interpret and self-reflexively explore the experience of women writing; and Paul Hetherington’s prose poetry sequence, Palace of Memory, makes use of significant intertexts – including from Dickinson – to assist him in ‘reading’ his own experience and making new work.' (Publication abstract)
-
'Tell All the Truth but Tell It Slant' : Poetic Truth and Indirectness
2020
single work
essay
— Appears in: Axon : Creative Explorations , May vol. 10 no. 1 2020;'In poetry, there is probably no such thing as simple or unslanted truth. This is because, as John Gibson remarks, ‘[p]oetry does not earn its claim to truth by mirroring an external world or by stating discrete, correct, “facts” about it’ (2015: 14). Yet, notwithstanding poetry’s aversion to discrete ‘facts’, poets fairly often mention truth in their work and a well-known example is Emily Dickinson’s teasing and ambiguous statement, ‘Tell all the truth but tell it slant —’ (1998: 1089).' (Introduction)
-
Re-making Memories : The Poetry of Identity
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: TEXT : The Journal of the Australian Association of Writing Programs , October vol. 23 no. 2 2019;
— Review of The Lost Arabs 2019 selected work poetry ; Palace of Memory 2019 selected work poetry'How are our identities, our sense of self, constructed? Is it the projection of others that paints who we are, or is it a construction of our own? Is it the labels we assign ourselves, or impose on others? Does it all boil down to memories? Poets Omar Sakr and Paul Hetherington attempt to explore their own memories, thoughts, labels, and identities in their latest individual releases.' (Introduction)
-
Re-making Memories : The Poetry of Identity
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: TEXT : The Journal of the Australian Association of Writing Programs , October vol. 23 no. 2 2019;
— Review of The Lost Arabs 2019 selected work poetry ; Palace of Memory 2019 selected work poetry'How are our identities, our sense of self, constructed? Is it the projection of others that paints who we are, or is it a construction of our own? Is it the labels we assign ourselves, or impose on others? Does it all boil down to memories? Poets Omar Sakr and Paul Hetherington attempt to explore their own memories, thoughts, labels, and identities in their latest individual releases.' (Introduction)
-
'Tell All the Truth but Tell It Slant' : Poetic Truth and Indirectness
2020
single work
essay
— Appears in: Axon : Creative Explorations , May vol. 10 no. 1 2020;'In poetry, there is probably no such thing as simple or unslanted truth. This is because, as John Gibson remarks, ‘[p]oetry does not earn its claim to truth by mirroring an external world or by stating discrete, correct, “facts” about it’ (2015: 14). Yet, notwithstanding poetry’s aversion to discrete ‘facts’, poets fairly often mention truth in their work and a well-known example is Emily Dickinson’s teasing and ambiguous statement, ‘Tell all the truth but tell it slant —’ (1998: 1089).' (Introduction)
-
An Intertextual Poiesis : The Luminous Image and a ‘Round Loaf of Indian and Rye’
2020
single work
criticism
— Appears in: New Writing , vol. 17 no. 3 2020; (p. 259-271)'Making poetry and the act of reading are intimately connected. Such reading, along with poetry research and scholarship, has the capacity to open new avenues for creative thought and fresh pathways to creative work, particularly through intertextual strategies. In this way, literary scholarship may provide a lens for seeing more deeply into one’s own creative writing practice; and reading and writing may be viewed as having intimate linking tendrils. The nineteenth-century American poet Emily Dickinson produced a large body of work characterised by numerous intertextual strategies and references, much of which speaks to the present day. Further, her poetic preoccupations focus on issues connected to the self and personal identity – and an associated critique of conventional mores – providing an exemplar for contemporary poets with related interests and preoccupations. For instance, Cassandra Atherton’s book, Exhumed, uses the metaphor of interring and disinterring to discuss a range of intertexts buried or unearthed in her prose poetry, and these works humorously interpret and self-reflexively explore the experience of women writing; and Paul Hetherington’s prose poetry sequence, Palace of Memory, makes use of significant intertexts – including from Dickinson – to assist him in ‘reading’ his own experience and making new work.' (Publication abstract)