Hot off the press from the University of Western Australia Publishing comes this wonderful book, THE SHORT STORY OF YOU AND I, the latest by Richard James Allen .
Allen is an Australian born poet whose writing has appeared widely in journals, anthologies, and online over many years. Former Artistic Director of the Poets Union, Inc., he has written ten books of poetry and edited a national anthology of writing for performance. Richard is also well known for his multi-award-winning career as a filmmaker and choreographer with The Physical TV Company and as a performer in a range of media and contexts.
His latest book opens feverishly, grabs you and compels you to keep reading. It is a collection of fifty seven poems in a rather small, light paperback but the poems dazzle and delight. Some are haunting and delicate, others explosively powerful. There is an intimate feel as if they are all addressed to the reader directly. Poems range in size from a single sentence to several pages. Visually, presentation on the page is also important ( eg particularly for Quantum Esplanade with its v-shape and * Perspicacious and Precarious * with the sudden switch in format) .
It is mostly a philosophical meditation on the meaning of life, faith, love and the vagaries of time. There are joyous bubbling love poems and poems on the breakup of relationships and death and loss. There are obvious Sydney references ( eg the mortuary platform at Central Station and the poem about changing trains at Lidcome – Sprint Track Poem).
Allen’s dance background is hinted at in the way he sometimes mentions choreography and/or music, ( eg ‘the Society for the Advancement of the Arabesque’) and there are painterly references as well. There are nods to Ibsen, Slessor , Dante ,Yeats and Proust .Some poems are ‘stream of consciousness’ meditations .
The opening half of A Party in Small Moments celebrates the quiet everyday rituals of breakfast. The Captain of the Men of Death muses on sickness, loss and death . This is contrasted with shy yet exultant love poems ( eg In the 24 Hour Glow , Force Majeure, This is not a love poem ). Other poems ask why are we here, and what is the purpose of life.
THE SHORT STORY OF YOU AND I is also a reflection on life as art – does life ever work out how we planned it ?
The book ends on a melancholy note with Code Cal for Angels where ‘ you called off the search to be happy ‘ yet also asserts that ‘ love is the purpose of time’ .
https://uwap.uwa.edu.au/products/the-short-story-of-you-and-i
PUBLICATION DATE: 1 February 2019
FORMAT: Paperback
EXTENT: 112 pages
SIZE: 210 x 140 mm
ISBN: 9781760800215
Featured image- Richard James Allen. Pic by Kyle Powderly