{"id":4933,"date":"2022-07-21T16:42:19","date_gmt":"2022-07-21T06:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/?p=4933"},"modified":"2022-07-25T10:15:47","modified_gmt":"2022-07-24T23:45:47","slug":"poetry-spotlight-farewell-colleague-julian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/2022\/07\/poetry-spotlight-farewell-colleague-julian\/","title":{"rendered":"POETRY SPOTLIGHT: ‘Farewell to a Colleague’ by Julian Zytnik"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This week’s spotlight shines on an early volume in the Friendly Street<\/em>\u00a0series, Friendly Street New Poets 5<\/em><\/a>.<\/h1>\n

Working in the Wakefield bookstore, with hundreds of books laid out before me, I am often in the position to judge the books by their covers, searching for the most interesting looking ones to flick through and sometimes (often) buy. The cover image (shown above) was why I picked this particular book off the shelf, and I was surprised to find that Wakefield\u2019s own Jonny Inverarity had designed it!<\/p>\n

In this week’s poetry spotlight, I’ve chosen to feature ‘Farewell to a Colleague’ by Julian Zytnik.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Post written by Polly Grant Butler<\/pre>\n
As the fifth instalment in The Friendly Street New Poets<\/em> series \u2013 in which Wakefield has published 17 volumes \u2013 this collection is now a couple of decades old. In the poetry world though, that makes it quite contemporary.<\/h1>\n
Including work by Ioana Petrescu, Maureen Vale and Julian Zytnik, it is a good-sized volume, traversing multiple styles, places and people. The Adelaide in these poems is on the cusp of a new millennium and political moment, with the second-longest running prime minister now in office, but only just. In the creative and academic worlds, postmodernism\u2019s longstanding influence was seemingly dwindling. \u2018Post-modernism is a fatal word\u2019, Ioana Petrescu laments in her poem \u2018Definition\u2019. \u2018Just like post-mortem and post-coital \/ what it basically means \/ is that the fun is over\u2019.<\/p>\n
Yet certain features of postmodernism became staple poetic techniques, in the late 90s and still today. All three of the poets wrap their earnest sentiments up in irony, juxtaposing popular and modern culture with the human condition. The poem I have chosen to highlight teeters on the edge of sentimentality, yet manages to maintain a cool distance from its subject matter. There is a slowness in the rhythm, emphasised by the first four stanzas, which are tercets. Then the last single-line stanza hits as a surprise, ending with a sharp and final \u2018t\u2019 sound.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
Farewell to a Colleague<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
As we tie up these final matters
my pulse leaps and tingles
and ‘colleague’ blurs into compagnero<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I take today’s headlines
and try to cast new bonds between us;
sadness the love-starved terrier<\/p>\n\n\n\n
bites and nips at heel 
as you give your spiel
on bad clients and Friday nite scotch \u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n
already I can feel 
a warm malt ghost that intermingles
with gulped regrets deep in the throat 

              \u2013 then I take my coat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of my favourite things about poetry is how short a poem is. You get to feel instantly gratified, without too much work. There is plenty of gratification in this collection, and throughout all of the Friendly Street<\/em><\/a> series, which I am sure I will make my way through all of, between customers, working in the shop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Support Wakefield Press by buying our beautiful books!  Visit our website<\/a> or contact us on 08 8352 4455 for more information, or to purchase a book (or three!). We can post your purchase to your doorstep!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This week’s spotlight shines on an early volume in the Friendly Street\u00a0series, Friendly Street New Poets 5. Working in the Wakefield bookstore, with hundreds of books laid out before me, I am often in the position to judge the books … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"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":[864,948,856,46,862,858],"class_list":["post-4933","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-friendly-street","tag-poems","tag-poetry","tag-poetry-spotlight","tag-poets"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4v1Of-1hz","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4933","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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4933"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4945,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4933\/revisions\/4945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}