I intimated in my earlier post about this local history by Winty Calder that the cover didn’t really do the text justice. So, I’ve included here a couple of the maps from the book. There’s also a lot of really interesting photos, but I must admit there’s something I find terribly attractive about these old maps: their typography, their line-engraving look, even the parcelling up of the bundles of land.
Late last year I was at a book launch of a new book of poems and was chatting to a poet I’ve known for a long time but hadn’t seen for some time. He asked me, half interested but half doubtful and incredulous too, ‘are you still writing your poetry stuff online?’ I said that I was and he was too polite to literally shake his head in bemusement or confoundment or something, but he may as well have. The unspoken was ‘why do you bother?’
It’s a conversation that came back to me this week as, being on holidays, I’ve had time to looks at some new poems and contemplate the writing year ahead. Should I bother with the blog? I’ve read in some places that blogging is dead and that the interest has moved to micro-blogging like Twitter (which I also use, for a different purpose). Would it be better to put all my scant time and attention to the poems themselves, and leave the reflecting elsewhere?
Which is what I should have told the puzzled poet I was trying to do here. Reflect on my writing. Reflect on my reading. Share some of that, and some of the good things I’ve found along the way. It’s as much for my benefit as anyone else’s; to overtly think about the writing process and progress.
All of that. So, I’m going to keep on blogging for the moment. Irregular as I am with all this, and if I see that poet again I’ll be clearer about what the purpose is for me.
Photo: Yarra Reflections by Warrick (2007)
Anyone who’s read this blog the time will know how much I enjoy and appreciate local history. And, there’s something really satisfying about a well written natural local history. I like the passion that goes into them. I like the appreciation of the local and the specific. I like that, in a time of globalisation, there’s still space for the really personal and regional.
One of my favourite books last year was local history of the Wimmera region and I must admit I thought I’d read everything about my own area, the Mornington Peninsula.
So delighted to find out about a new book I hadn’t seen before. ‘Mt Martha Lands and People’ by Winty Calder. Apart from the ghastly cover, which is probably designed for the local tourist market, it’s a beautifully detailed and comprehensive natural local history.
Sections include the natural environment, the first people, the meetings and clashes of cultures, the early results in coastal development, Federation to World War I, suburbanisation between the wars, and World War II itself and its effect on this area (many marines were stationed here for rest and recreation). Finally, it also charts the changes from role to suburban and importance of keeping some of the open spaces. I never say never for a surprise to find it in the local newsagent. It’s a labour of love, I like that too.
Funnily enough, I couldn’t find one image of the books cover on the Internet, so I scanned one in. It seems not everything, especially the local, is on the web yet.
Oh, also dictated this post aloud using Dragon Express software on my new blue microphone. I’m keen to use a lot more audio this year if I can.
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 5,100 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people.
Once again, it’s that time of the year when we weigh up with great judiciousness, the reading we’ve been doing over the year, and come up with some definitive sounding lists! So, once again, my book of the year awards!
A bit of a clue…
I was delighted to receive in the post this week my copies of Best Australian Poems 2011 (published by Black Inc) This year’s edition is edited by John Tranter and includes poems by poets like Robert Adamson, Ken Bolton, Pam Brown, Sarah Day, Bruce Dawe, Geoff Goodfellow, Jennifer Harrison, Andy Kissane, Jennifer Maiden, Les Murray and Thomas Shapcott. Pretty good company hey?
My poem, The Station of the Stairs was inspired by the wooden steps up from Bird Rock Beach to the highway. I’ll put it online sometime over the summer. The book is $24.95 and I think it’s out now.
Below: The Stairs, Photo: Warrick
 | Writing Jobs on Mt Martha Lands and Peopl… |
 | rob bayley on John Shaw Neilson |
 | daid on The Top 10 Poets |
 | warrick on The Top 10 Poets |
| daid on The Top 10 Poets |
what I’m reading … what I’m listening to…
