Gods and Uncles. Geoff Page. Pitt Street Poetry.
Reviewed by Michael Byrne
Geoff Page was born in 1940. He grew up on a cattle station on the Clarence River in northern New South Wales. He moved to Canberra at the beginning of 1964 and taught English and History in local schools. In 1974, he became head of the English Department at Narrabundah College. He retired from this position in 2001. He has reviewed Australian poetry widely since 1967. Page has run poetry readings in Canberra since 1994. Page has won a number of awards for his poetry. For example, take Page’s poem ‘The Deputy’. It features in Gods and Uncles and won the Dorothy Porter Poetry Prize in 2014. The poem is about his friend and fellow poet John Foulcher. Foulcher combines work with writing poetry:
He walks towards the building . . .
and sees, back home, that writing desk
patient in its shaft of light,
the blank page and a keyboard waiting,
the pressure of the poem.
The poem has a certain nobility about it. Another poem in the collection, ‘Short Essay on Walking’, is playful:
The Frenchified will promenade,
preceded by a pair of poodles.
The morning stroll you’re taking now
will be a shuffle soon enough,
accelerating to a scuttle
as orange swaps to red.
And let’s not talk about the tango.
‘Just another way of walking,’
J.L. Borges said.
The poem is clever. It also has a technical nous to it. The last line deftly rhymes with a previous line. In addition to tercets, Page also utilises stanzaic quatrains which can be funny (‘Twirps’):
Sense of humour is essential;
twirps are quick to sneer and laugh.
Since life’s a mere debating point
a silly grin’s their epitaph.
The last line of this final quatrain is hilarious. The title poem in the book, ’Gods and Uncles’, brings hope in the form of a child in its last three lines:
Her laughter, pensiveness and
unique way with vowels are now
the sweetest punishment of all.
Page’s enjambment works well in ‘Gods and Uncles’. The same poem has a number of other aspects to it which are technically accomplished. ‘Seeing People’ is also technically accomplished. An extract from it reads:
Seeing people who remind you
just a little of the dead
leaves you that much less intact.
You know by now but can’t quite see
those almost out-of-focus doubles,
one of whom will one day soon
imagine the now-vanished you
and hurry home, a tad dismayed,
to work on lines like these.
‘Seeing People’ is a poignant poem. In Gods and Uncles, Page mixes poignancy with humour. In addition, there is his attention to detail and general knowledge. Also, Page is an intelligent poet. He also writes well about relationships and sex. Page also has an interest in history and religion. These incorporate well into his poetry. Finally, Page has clarity in his poetry. His clarity and a number of other attributes (listed here in this conclusion) makes Page an enjoyable poet to read.
Michael Byrne 