Poetry from Down Under

Chris Wallace-Crabbe At Mather House

Underwear, Aboriginals, Hamlet and an airline passenger named Death seem unlikely subjects for a poetry reading. But Australian poet Chris Wallace-Crabbe combined these and other topics in a reading last Thursday that ranged from the absurd to the beautiful to the profound.

Wallace-Crabbe, Harvard's visiting professor of Australian Studies from 1987-1988, returned to Mather House on October 1 at the tail end of a world-wide poetry reading tour.

Selecting readings from his two books, The Amorous Cannibal and I'm Deadly Serious, as well as from yet-unpublished manuscripts, Wallace-Crabbe showed his audience the world as he sees it: a place of endless wonder, beauty, humor and sorrow.

The landscape of Australia is a predominant theme in Wallace-Crabbe's poetry, both as an object of beauty in itself and as a mirror of human emotion and thought. As Wallace-Crabbe explained, his poetry attempts to "render the nature of consciousness in tangible images." In his poem "Mind," for example, the inner conflict of the mind is reflected in the speaker's surrounding in the Australian bush.

Wallace-Crabbe also uses color as a motif to vividly paint a picture of the Australian vista. He noted that even when he is not describing nature, Australia's rich colors--red, gold, ochre, fawn--make their way into his poetry.

Far from being one-dimensional, Wallace-Crabbe also uses his poetry to make a political statement about the plight of Australia's indigenous population. "I am particularly concerned with the culture and existence of Aboriginal peoples and minority groups," he said. Two of the poems he recited focused on Aboriginals. One was a fantasy about past, better times; the other a harsher picture of the reality Aboriginals face today.

Not all of Wallace-Crabbe's poetry is so serious, though nearly all is thought-provoking. His reading included humorous pieces through which, Wallace said, he attempts to "give dignity to commonplace things." Among those "commonplace things." Among those "commonplace things" were artichokes, bananas, galvanized corrugated iron, can openers and men's underwear--the last item earned chuckles from the audience and a wry smile from Wallace-Crabbe's wife Marianne.

Throughout all of his poetry, Wallace-Crabbe maintains what he called "the nincompoop's eye view," the childlike perspective that acknowledges the potential for interest and value in everything. Wallace-Crabbe is able to convey this potential with his writing and share his vision with others--the mark of the true poet and seer.