Accessibility Tools

  • Content scaling 100%
  • Font size 100%
  • Line height 100%
  • Letter spacing 100%

Tributes to Chris Wallace-Crabbe

by
October 2014, no. 365

Travelling Without Gods: A Chris Wallace-Crabbe companion edited by Cassandra Atherton

Melbourne University Press, $39.99 pb, 236 pp

Book 2 Cover Small (400 x 600)

My Feet Are Hungry by Chris Wallace-Crabbe

Pitt Street Poetry, $25 pb, 94 pp

Tributes to Chris Wallace-Crabbe

by
October 2014, no. 365

The title of Cassandra Atherton’s anthology, Travelling Without Gods, alludes to the particular brand of agnosticism that has run through Chris Wallace-Crabbe’s work over many decades. Journeying sans deity is evidenced strongly in the poet’s latest collection, a book which, like Atherton’s, has been published to coincide with Wallace-Crabbe’s eightieth birthday.

For a non-believer, Wallace-Crabbe’s My Feet Are Hungry makes frequent reference to Christian ideology. This is in marked contrast to a number of Australian poets – Judith Beveridge, Barry Hill, Robert Gray among them – whose work in recent years testifies to the influence of Buddhism. Wallace-Crabbe’s Christian saviour is located firmly in the historical rather than the sacred. Only mildly irreverent, the poet shows respect for a figure who sides with the disadvantaged in an era of raging commercial interest and power-mad politicians: ‘Did Roman nails deserve his blood? / Even for someone who venerates money / Here is a story of absolute good’ (‘And the Cross’).

Anthony Lynch reviews 'Travelling Without Gods: A Chris Wallace-Crabbe companion' edited by Cassandra Atherton and 'My Feet Are Hungry' by Chris Wallace-Crabbe

Travelling Without Gods: A Chris Wallace-Crabbe companion

edited by Cassandra Atherton

Melbourne University Press, $39.99 pb, 236 pp

Book 2 Cover Small (400 x 600)

My Feet Are Hungry

by Chris Wallace-Crabbe

Pitt Street Poetry, $25 pb, 94 pp

You May Also Like

Leave a comment

If you are an ABR subscriber, you will need to sign in to post a comment.

If you have forgotten your sign in details, or if you receive an error message when trying to submit your comment, please email your comment (and the name of the article to which it relates) to ABR Comments. We will review your comment and, subject to approval, we will post it under your name.

Please note that all comments must be approved by ABR and comply with our Terms & Conditions.