“to be a poet in Australia | is the ultimate commitment”
– Michael Dransfield, ‘Like this for years’

In memory of the revolutionary #Australian #poet, Michael #Dransfield, who passed away on this day, 20 April, fifty years ago, in 1973, aged twenty-four.

He left us much, including one of the most intimate love poems in the English language: ‘Loft’ (see attachment)

For those in #Australia that write after Michael, the debt is incalculable: we are all – whether we want to be or not – his terrible children. I feel that Michael would appreciate this aspect of his legacy, for as he dryly writes in his famous poem ‘flying’:

i was flying over sydney
in a giant dog

things looked bad

Where, we might ask, is appreciation for an Australian poetics of commitment today?

The photograph of Michael at “Marchpane”, #Cobargo (attached) is from Patricia Dobrez’s Michael Dransfield’s Lives: A Sixties Biography. I count myself as being extremely fortunate to have been taught by Dobrez’s husband, Livio Dobrez (who also wrote a book on Michael - Parnassus Mad Ward: Michael Dransfield and the New Australian Poetry). Michael’s Cobargo house “Marchpane” is now known by another name, but survived the catastrophic New Year’s Eve fire.

@auslit #AusLit #PoetryCommunity #WritingCommunity