Geoff Page

Poetry Shorts

April 1996, no. 179

Browsing through some of the late 1995 offerings from small poetry presses was a case of moving between the dark and light in both themes and styles.

Decidedly on the dark side were two chapbooks from Shoestring Press in Nottingham, giving English publication to the work of two oddly matched Australian poets, Dimitris Tsaloumas and Tim Thorne.

Tsaloumas’ poetry is characterised by gravitas and a grand universality of theme and has sometimes seemed exotic or anachronistic in the less formal, more colloquial context of Australian poetry. Interesting that his English publisher felt it necessary to provide a brief Foreword to Six Improvisations on the River, offering a cautionary note:

[Tsalomas’] mode of writing may fret British readers conditioned to expect a less composed, a rawer poetry, one attempting to recreate the force of immediate experience.

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Benton’s Conviction by Geoff Page

by David Mathews •

December 1985–January 1986, no. 77

David Mathews reviews 'Benton’s Conviction' by Geoff Page

Australian involvement in World War I has in recent years attained a high profile in books, film and television. The trend has been to demythologise the legends of heroism and courage associated with war, and the theme often adopted is the rapid and brutal transformation from naivety to understanding of how baseless the myth was. Although this might be considered well covered ground, Geoff Page in his first novel, Benton’s Conviction, has returned to the war setting. However, because he concentrates on an aspect which hitherto has not been fully explored, and sustains the work with deft prose, Page has succeeded in producing a novel of originality and consistent interest.

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