{"id":4241,"date":"2021-02-12T09:00:23","date_gmt":"2021-02-11T22:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/?p=4241"},"modified":"2021-02-11T17:06:50","modified_gmt":"2021-02-11T06:36:50","slug":"poetry-spotlight-geoff-goodfellow-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/2021\/02\/poetry-spotlight-geoff-goodfellow-2\/","title":{"rendered":"POETRY SPOTLIGHT: ‘Copley Street’ by Geoff Goodfellow"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Preparing<\/a><\/h1>\n

This week’s spotlight shines on a new poetry collection by Geoff Goodfellow, Preparing for Business<\/a><\/em>.<\/h1>\n

Award-winning poet Geoff Goodfellow is back with another vivid, affecting, laconically dark-witted collection that pulls no punches as it masterfully chronicles Australian life.<\/p>\n

As always, Geoff delivers a series of brilliantly captured portraits of working-class life, from the street scenes of formerly industrial Port Adelaide and his home suburb of Semaphore, with its heightened blend of affluence and poverty, to his fearless inhabitations of teenagers beset by home lives that feature domestic violence and addiction.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Post written by Poppy Nwosu<\/pre>\n
Geoff Goodfellow’s latest poetry collection,\u00a0Preparing for Business<\/em><\/a>, is coming out very soon, so I thought it would be a good time to offer a sneak peak for this week’s spotlight!<\/p>\n
Here is some early praise:<\/p>\n
\n
‘Geoff Goodfellow’s poems force you to confront the most basic questions about writing. What stories are worth telling? Which ones are truly meaningful? Where are the real foundations of our culture? Geoff will take you to where life itself is crucial. In the stuff that invisible people do, who battle to survive and who laugh and cry while they get on with it.’
\n\u2013 Mark Seymour, Hunters and Collectors<\/strong><\/h1>\n<\/blockquote>\n
It is always interesting for me to read Geoff’s poems, as he lives in the same Adelaide neighbourhoods as I do, places that have always struck me as being such a strange mishmash of mansions and factories, empty warehouses and glittering seaside cafes, all nestled together around the beach and river.<\/p>\n
In truth, that strange mishmash is something I really love about my home, and I think Geoff certainly captures it very well. True to form, he never shies away from the grit that nestles in beside all the shiny buildings and happy families that populate Semaphore and Port Adelaide, offering an authentic look at the world via his poetry.<\/p>\n
\"Preparing<\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
Geoff is coming off the success of his most recent release, and also his first prose book, Out of Copley Street<\/a><\/em>, and the poem I’ve picked to highlight this week really ties into that boyhood memoir. In his new collection, Geoff talks about growing up in Adelaide, and his memories of the world as it was.<\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
‘Copley Street’
\n<\/strong><\/h1>\n
 <\/p>\n
It was summer of 1960 & i was<\/p>\n
twelve years of age<\/p>\n
World War 2 had finished<\/p>\n
fifteen years earlier<\/p>\n
yet there was still fighting<\/p>\n
going on in my street<\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
i\u2019d just been through a winter<\/p>\n
cutting firewood armed with<\/p>\n
a crosscut saw<\/p>\n
& i\u2019d learnt how to swing<\/p>\n
an axe<\/p>\n
& my biceps & shoulders<\/p>\n
proved it<\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
one afternoon a boy who lived<\/p>\n
nine houses away<\/p>\n
wrapped a whip he\u2019d made<\/p>\n
from five strand electrical cord<\/p>\n
around my arm<\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
after i unwound it i ran home<\/p>\n
& went through the backdoor crying<\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
my old man was half drunk & didn\u2019t<\/p>\n
want to hear how this boy was<\/p>\n
older and taller<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 get out there & give him a hiding-<\/em><\/p>\n
you don\u2019t run away<\/em><\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 you don\u2019t squib it<\/em><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n
two nights later i found the boy in<\/p>\n
the street<\/p>\n
i belted him to the ground<\/p>\n
& punched him senseless<\/p>\n
only letting go when someone<\/p>\n
else\u2019s father stepped in & dragged<\/p>\n
me off<\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
leave me alone & mind y\u2019r own<\/em><\/p>\n
business\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>i screamed<\/p>\n
& he slunk off down his<\/p>\n
driveway\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 hands on hips \u2013<\/p>\n
telling me i was a little hooligan<\/em><\/p>\n
while Michael ran for home<\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
the following Sunday morning<\/p>\n
i was walking home from the deli<\/p>\n
smoking a Viscount Red<\/p>\n
when Michael\u2019s father spotted me<\/p>\n
& drew his car to a halt<\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
it was a brand new 1960 Holden Special<\/p>\n
white with a tan flash<\/p>\n
& it was gleaming<\/p>\n
he jumped out & pointed his index<\/p>\n
finger at me like it was a gun & started<\/p>\n
ranting about how i\u2019d belted his son<\/p>\n
& how it better not happen again<\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
i stubbed my cigarette out into the<\/p>\n
unmade road & moved in on him<\/p>\n
\u2018til we were eyeball to eyeball<\/p>\n
i told him to get back into his car<\/p>\n
or i\u2019d give him what i\u2019d given his son<\/p>\n
surprisingly<\/p>\n
he did as he was told<\/p>\n
then drove away slowly . . .<\/p>\n
yelling out all sorts of things<\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
is it ever too late\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 to apologise.<\/p>\n
 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Filtered through Geoff Goodfellow’s uniquely powerful perspective, Preparing for Business<\/a><\/em> captures growing up with a charismatic but damaged father, the aftermath of broken marriages – and parenting amidst the rubble, the working life of a poet (including prank calls from entitled students), and dealing with cancer\u00a0\u2013 again.<\/p>\n
And as a treat, there’s ‘Don’t Look So Glum’, a female-voiced version of his iconic masculine poem ‘Don’t Call me Lad’.<\/p>\n
Support Wakefield Press by buying our beautiful books!\u00a0<\/strong>
\nVisit our\u00a0website<\/a>\u00a0or contact us on 08 8352 4455 for more information,
\nor to purchase a book (or three!).\u00a0<\/strong><\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This week’s spotlight shines on a new poetry collection by Geoff Goodfellow, Preparing for Business. Award-winning poet Geoff Goodfellow is back with another vivid, affecting, laconically dark-witted collection that pulls no punches as it masterfully chronicles Australian life. As always, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[792,80,315,855,8],"tags":[864,391,856,46,862,858],"class_list":["post-4241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-australian","category-for-fun","category-poetry-2","category-poetry-spotlight","category-we-love-books","tag-australian-poetry","tag-geoff-goodfellow","tag-poems","tag-poetry","tag-poetry-spotlight","tag-poets"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4v1Of-16p","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4241"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4252,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4241\/revisions\/4252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}