AustLit

'Question 1: Can poetry be a roadmap? It depends. Robert Frost talks about how the road less travelled ‘has made all the difference.’ Politicians call this a dangerous detour, even a dead end, because their private attitude is ‘my way or the highway’, choices that can prove not just unpoetic, but stupid. Dante Alighieri wrote a roadmap explaining existence’s dangers and delights. Consider how poetry, all exterior sounds and figures, is regurgitation of your interior journeys. Messy, no colour-coded Googlemap. Sometimes poetry’s just a walk around the block: searching memories, a surprise flower, the guard dog that barks every time.' (Introduction)