[New-Poetry] WorldPo: Oz, Robert Gray

[jforjames at aol.com]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/books/poet-palely-loitering/2008/09/05/1220121498998.html

September 6, 2008


ROBERT GRAY was six when he had what he calls "a baptism in reality". The family dog, much admired for his glossy, black coat and sharp mind, was hit by a truck. The kelpie's innards were smeared on the road. Or, using Gray's mother's expression, the dog was "unpacked". Its name was Lucky.


As the dog's remains were shovelled away, the boy realised Lucky's "extraordinary smartness had been made nothing, in an instant … this was just the empty way of things … I felt myself swimming with the horror of it, and yet I was standing upright and steady - like a top spinning so rapidly, it seems almost unmoved on its stem. I knew I must never hint to my mother about such feelings."


Gray's path was set, both in his character - detached, observant - and as a writer, renowned for the imagery of his poetry.


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