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Contents
* Contents derived from the
Rose Bay,
Sydney Eastern Harbourside,
Sydney Eastern Suburbs,
Sydney,
New South Wales,:Brandl and Schlesinger
, 2001 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
- Foreword, single work criticism (p. 11-15)
- Introduction, single work criticism (p. 17-23)
- Orange Sonnet/Imitation Orange Sonneti"oranges in my experience not yet ripe", single work poetry (p. 27)
-
Trenku
Rengai"answer with no slip of the tongue",
single work
poetry
(p. 28)
Note: Author note: Written with Mark O'Connor
- Am I a Door? / Six Poems Say Yesi"A sentence against humanism", single work poetry (p. 29-31)
-
On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Schemei"On the very idea of a conceptual scheme",
single work
poetry
(p. 32)
Note: Appears without dedication
- Herei"rims", single work poetry (p. 32-36)
- The Venice Lettersi"`Stand roughly here' the silence was", single work poetry (p. 37)
- A Floating Lifei"the subtle justice of a rich man", single work poetry (p. 38-39)
- After the Bombs We Invent the Futurei"Let's paint the ideal supper on the back of", single work poetry (p. 40)
- Adi"the pleasures of bubble", single work poetry (p. 41)
-
Admonitionsi"The happiest of cannonballs",
single work
poetry
(p. 42-43)
Note:
- Author note: Written with Mark O'Connor.
- A poem in 2 numbered parts.
- Clear Plastic Sugari"In the frigidaire sense of the word", single work poetry (p. 44)
- The Classical Headi"Nature in her wisdom has formed the human head", single work poetry (p. 45)
- Four Heads and How to Do Them, John Forbes , sequence poetry (p. 45-49)
- The Romantic Headi"The Romantic head begins with the hands cupped", single work poetry (p. 46)
- The Symbolist Headi"No longer begins with even a mention of anatomy,", single work poetry (p. 47)
- The Conceptual Headi"The breeze moves", single work poetry (p. 48-49)
- T.V.i"don't bother telling me about the programs", single work poetry (p. 50)
- Ode to Tropical Skiingi"After breakfast in the Philippines", single work poetry (p. 51-52)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
What I’m Reading
2019
single work
column
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2019; -
Tricked Myth-Machines : Self-Mythologising in the Poetry of John Forbes and Ted Berrigan
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Refashioning Myth : Poetic Transformations and Metamorphoses 2011; (p. 163-181) '...Duncan Hose examines the personal mythopoeic tendencies of John Forbes and Ted Berrigan "as a synthetic poetic praxis of mythography and mythopoesis; that is, a constant rereading and re-writing of one's own myths." The everyday and the mythological are thus seen to enter into a dialectical exchange even as Berrigan's collage method works against self-mythologising. Hose claims that Forbes's poetry reminds us "that our everyday thinking, our being interpellated as subjects by our culture, our families, our literature, places us immanently within the processes and logic of myth." He identifies, in these poets' work, a tension between identity/Self as a composite product of myth and the active production of the Self through myth.' (Source: Introduction pp. 4-5)
-
Smooth and Troubled Passages Across the Pacific
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Reading Across the Pacific : Australia-United States Intellectual Histories 2010; (p. 119-148) 'How do American poets see Australia in their poems? How do Australian poets see America in their poems? These two questions are answered in part by attention to several poets on either side of the Pacific. In America: Karl Shapiro, Herbert Morris, John Ashbery, John Koethe, August Kleinzahler. And in Australia: Les Murray, John Forbes, John Tranter, Robert Adamson and Robert Gray.' (Authors's abstract) -
Instruction for an Ideal Australian : John Forbes’s Poetry of Metaphysical Etiquette
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , Special Issue 2010;'The question of value in poetry or poetry of value often resolves to a question of metaphysics: what goes in to a poem or how it carries its symbolic freight will tell of the poetics involved in the practice, more particularly how the poem might function as a specular technology. Crudely, we might say that some poems are written as paeans to the ephemera of the world by a sovereign soul that is tonally and formally certain of a metaphysical guarantee (even in the expression of uncertainty), either through theosophy, 'pious self-regard,' or just good luck. There are other poems, not pagan exactly, but which seem to have an appetite for the material-historical circumstances of the world in which they find themselves, that go for the world in its lurid contingency, where there might be a wilful and cheeky inclusion of things that are not only ephemeral but redundant to good taste, thereby threatening the traditional sacred territory of the poetic itself.
By way of luxuriating in the habitus of his work, this paper argues that the poetry of John Forbes presents a reformed metaphysic of surfaces that, far from flattening 'deeper' concerns of literature, offers a new kind of etiquette for the spirit by which our perception, symbolic inception, and response to the world is a constant kind of poesis, or creative production of our selves that is at once more lively and Ideally less delusional. It will examine Forbes's conception of poetry as the ultimate technology for regulating and playing with the processes of self-mythologising by fiercely interrogating the symbolic economies, or the textural architectonics of communities, from which selves are made and through which they are cultivated as beings of language.' (Author's abstract) -
On Looking into The Collected John Forbes
i
"I was getting",
2008
single work
poetry
— Appears in: The Age , 17 May 2008; (p. 29) The Best Australian Poetry 2009 2009; (p. 66-67)
-
Forbes Reveals His Mixed Poetic Heritage
2002
single work
review
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 16 no. 1 2002; (p. 86-87)
— Review of Collected Poems : 1970-1998 2001 collected work poetry -
[Review] Collected Poems : 1970-1998
2002
single work
review
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 1 no. 2002; (p. 106-108)
— Review of Collected Poems : 1970-1998 2001 collected work poetry -
Talented, Oblique Chronicler of our National Mores
2001
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 18 August 2001; (p. 16)
— Review of Collected Poems : 1970-1998 2001 collected work poetry -
Listen to the Maker & Breaker, Watching & Singing
2001
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 29-30 September 2001; (p. 17)
— Review of Collected Poems : 1970-1998 2001 collected work poetry -
Man at Work
2001
single work
review
— Appears in: Eureka Street , October vol. 11 no. 8 2001; (p. 40-41)
— Review of Collected Poems : 1970-1998 2001 collected work poetry -
On Looking into The Collected John Forbes
i
"I was getting",
2008
single work
poetry
— Appears in: The Age , 17 May 2008; (p. 29) The Best Australian Poetry 2009 2009; (p. 66-67) -
Instruction for an Ideal Australian : John Forbes’s Poetry of Metaphysical Etiquette
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , Special Issue 2010;'The question of value in poetry or poetry of value often resolves to a question of metaphysics: what goes in to a poem or how it carries its symbolic freight will tell of the poetics involved in the practice, more particularly how the poem might function as a specular technology. Crudely, we might say that some poems are written as paeans to the ephemera of the world by a sovereign soul that is tonally and formally certain of a metaphysical guarantee (even in the expression of uncertainty), either through theosophy, 'pious self-regard,' or just good luck. There are other poems, not pagan exactly, but which seem to have an appetite for the material-historical circumstances of the world in which they find themselves, that go for the world in its lurid contingency, where there might be a wilful and cheeky inclusion of things that are not only ephemeral but redundant to good taste, thereby threatening the traditional sacred territory of the poetic itself.
By way of luxuriating in the habitus of his work, this paper argues that the poetry of John Forbes presents a reformed metaphysic of surfaces that, far from flattening 'deeper' concerns of literature, offers a new kind of etiquette for the spirit by which our perception, symbolic inception, and response to the world is a constant kind of poesis, or creative production of our selves that is at once more lively and Ideally less delusional. It will examine Forbes's conception of poetry as the ultimate technology for regulating and playing with the processes of self-mythologising by fiercely interrogating the symbolic economies, or the textural architectonics of communities, from which selves are made and through which they are cultivated as beings of language.' (Author's abstract) -
Smooth and Troubled Passages Across the Pacific
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Reading Across the Pacific : Australia-United States Intellectual Histories 2010; (p. 119-148) 'How do American poets see Australia in their poems? How do Australian poets see America in their poems? These two questions are answered in part by attention to several poets on either side of the Pacific. In America: Karl Shapiro, Herbert Morris, John Ashbery, John Koethe, August Kleinzahler. And in Australia: Les Murray, John Forbes, John Tranter, Robert Adamson and Robert Gray.' (Authors's abstract) -
Tricked Myth-Machines : Self-Mythologising in the Poetry of John Forbes and Ted Berrigan
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Refashioning Myth : Poetic Transformations and Metamorphoses 2011; (p. 163-181) '...Duncan Hose examines the personal mythopoeic tendencies of John Forbes and Ted Berrigan "as a synthetic poetic praxis of mythography and mythopoesis; that is, a constant rereading and re-writing of one's own myths." The everyday and the mythological are thus seen to enter into a dialectical exchange even as Berrigan's collage method works against self-mythologising. Hose claims that Forbes's poetry reminds us "that our everyday thinking, our being interpellated as subjects by our culture, our families, our literature, places us immanently within the processes and logic of myth." He identifies, in these poets' work, a tension between identity/Self as a composite product of myth and the active production of the Self through myth.' (Source: Introduction pp. 4-5)
-
Foreword
2001
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Collected Poems : 1970-1998 2001; (p. 11-15)
Last amended 14 May 2019 09:52:56
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