Ploy

The poets of Canberra (and its region) differ widely in techniques and preoccupations. There has never been and 'Canberra School' as such, though Les Murray once bestowed on the poets of this city and region that unhelpful appellation. There has been no pressure on the poets here to represent Canberra's cityscape - ot its surrounding landscapes. Most of the poets sampled write in their own versions of free verse (including a kind of loose iambic). Others consider that the traditional recources of strict metre and formal rhyme are far from exhausted. A few are involved with English version of Japanese forms, such as tanka and haiku. Partly through monthly readings at The Gods Cafe (and its predecessors over many years), most Canberra poets are more than aware of their contemporaries around the country and submit their poems widely to national newspapers, journals and e-zines. The anthology begins with a single indicative poem from each of the now-deceased poets who established Canberra's poetic tradition. The differing space allowed to living poets reflects, to a considerable degree, the numbers of collections they have published. It's also based on our assessment of what was submitted to us as their best work. In most cases there are enough poems for the reader to form a preliminary sense of the poet's preoccupations and technical range