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Adam writes from the heart, from the street, about the place that moves him most – Peter Garrett, MP
The perfect present for: lovers of Australian poetry and Bondi devotees.
‘The Bard of Bondi’ – Mike Carlton , broadcaster
‘Adam writes from the heart, from the street, about the place that moves him most. Ripper real words that are well worth checking out.’ – Peter Garrett, MP
Adam Gibson’s third book of poetry captures the essence of the iconic Australian beachside suburb in a wonderfully incisive and affecting manner.
Bondi born and bred, Adam writes with a strong sense of place, his turn of phrase being distinctly Australian and his imagery pure-honed and resolutely local. These are poems of vigour and perception, at times melancholy, at others intensely personal, wry, and optimistic.
Raw stories of lives lived on Bondi’s streets, of the passing of the seasons, the charting of the juggernaut of change and, at the end of everything, the beach that always remains in place.
Growing up in Bondi
On grass-clipping streets and median strips
and cracked concrete that baked in heat and
bitumen on roads that bubbled under feet
you hurled water bombs at the kids
from around the street and
went to the beach ‘cos that’s just what you did.
And there you sat in groups beside
North Bondi Surf Club
or near the barbeques
or down south on The Hill or in The Corner
or at First or Second or Third ramps
and the milkbars were still standing
and at Valis’s and Raffle’s and Bill’s
you drank thickshakes and played the pinnies
and you ventured to Homestead Chicken
for special hot chips.
And school came and thankfully went
and the endless six weeks of Chrissie holidays
fanned out endlessly in front of you
and it was fish and chips in the sunset park
after a day in the water and into the 9pm dark
and into sandy feet station wagons and off home
to sleep behind salt-coated windows
and open fly-screen doors.
And the whole neighbourhood
wearing worn rubber thongs
and the cicadas noisy all the way into sleep.
December 2005
Paperback: PB
68 pages
