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Nebuchadnezzar by Shelton Lea & Poetileptic by Mal McKimmie

by
October 2006, no. 285

Nebuchadnezzar by Shelton Lea

Black Pepper, $23.95 pb, 123 pp, 1876044519

Book 2 Cover Small (400 x 600)

Poetileptic by Mal McKimmie

Five Islands Press, $18.95 pb, 80 pp, 1741280923

Nebuchadnezzar by Shelton Lea & Poetileptic by Mal McKimmie

by
October 2006, no. 285

Nebuchadnezzar is Shelton Lea’s ninth and last book. Sadly, this colourful poet, a well-loved stalwart on the Melbourne reading circuit, died of cancer in May 2006, shortly after its publication.

The book begins by surveying a ‘land of fences and diatribes’ (‘1988’). It describes the inhabitants of Koori streets: ‘old men with no tomorrows / who rock on broken chairs / and stare at a bitumen sea’ (‘fitzroy’). Lea was an advocate for Aboriginal causes, and his poems often celebrate marginalised people who must summon the desire to survive. This burden of grit grounds life in harsh experience, before a remarkable lift-off.

John Jenkins reviews 'Nebuchadnezzar' by Shelton Lea and 'Poetileptic' by Mal McKimmie

Nebuchadnezzar

by Shelton Lea

Black Pepper, $23.95 pb, 123 pp, 1876044519

Book 2 Cover Small (400 x 600)

Poetileptic

by Mal McKimmie

Five Islands Press, $18.95 pb, 80 pp, 1741280923

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