Poetry...Wednesday: David Musgrave

David Musgrave is a poet, novelist, critic, academic, publisher, and key literary light, supporting and promoting Australian poetry through his work as board member of Australian poetry Limited, through his teaching activities, and in many other ways, not least of which is his own poetry.  In addition to an award winning novel Glissando, David has published five books of poetry, including To Thalia (2004), On Reflection (2005), Watermark (2006), Phantom Limb (2010) and mot recently, Concrete Tuesday (2011).  He has also won many many awards, including this year's highly respected Newcastle Poetry Prize for his poem "Coastline", a tender,  moving piece that takes the reader on the most familiar kind of journey - a simple walk, yet one which is elevated to the mythological:

And so I kept on walking, finding in a word the future and the past in ever-repeating series bearing a kind of fruit

Into the present.  And as I walked, I came to resemble Achilles racing the tortoise, never
overcoming, in the end, a calculus of ever decreasing lengths.

If you want more of this poem, and I know you do, you can find it, along with the other shortlisted and commended entries in the book also titled "Coastlines" which is available from the Hunter Writers Centre.  This playful, linguistic richness can also be seen in his poem "A Glass of Water" which can be read and listened to here:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/features/audioitem/3194

The protean transformation of the couple is handled in a way that is both subtly humorous and moving as we slide between inside and outside, darkness and light, right-side up and upside-down.