POETRY SPOTLIGHT: ‘Back Again’ by Mike Ladd

This week’s poetry spotlight shines on Mike Ladd’s poem ‘Back Again’, from his multi-genre collection Invisible Mending

Post written by Polly Grant Butler

Mike Ladd produces writing that resists easy categorisation. Like his earlier work, Karrawirra Parri: Walking the Torrens from source to seaInvisible Mending blends poetry, prose, essay and memoir, while also incorporating photographs by Mike’s life and art partner, Cathy Brooks. The juxtaposition of Mike’s writing with Cathy’s imagery is like a collage of interpretations and symbolism; their two different approaches to an idea evoking an almost dream-like state. 

Sclerophyll, Adelaide, 2016. Cathy Brooks

The natural landscape is something Mike returns to often in his work, his poems frequently featuring animals, plants and rivers. In ‘Back Again’, there is a sense of intimacy between the speaker and the Australian bush, running parallel to the intimacy of a domestic relationship. Yet unlike these connections, which seemingly inspire safety and comfort, Australia itself is depicted as stifling and bureaucratic.

There is a looseness to the rhythm in this poem, a semi-casual, conversational tone. But it is also brimming with sharp, insightful imagery. A half-rhyme between ‘there’ and ‘door’ in the final line gestures toward something greater than the present: a future full of ‘summer shining’.

Mike Ladd and Cathy Brooks’ latest collaboration Dream Tetras, a book of images and essays, is due out from Wakefield Press in December.

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