n - Eureka Street

as any poet's in contemporary Australia.Me, I'd rather read Adamson, Lehmann,Pi 0, Beaver and a battalion of etceteras ...and yet, when he cultivates that most delicatebloom, a fine poem ('Burning Want' ora number of 'The Sand Coast Sonnets) I amwilling to forgive him his 'controversial'verse-almost.For his much discussed 'The Beneficiaries','A Stage of Gentrification', and 'ForHelen Darville' are, like Murray's responsesto the AIDS epidemic of a decade back,mean little squibs, devoid of charity, possessedof a kind of perverse hubris thatdem ands God's total backing. They challengeas John Manifold at his most Stalinistchallenged (though Manifold had more art)proclaiming: 'I am right: God/history/ nameyour poison is with me the bard''With their pompous, !-told-you-so fingerwagging they out-do any school-ma'amfemocra t.Those poems and the man's endlesspronouncements on anything that is goinghad an intriguing effect on my reading: Itrod very carefully. When progressingthrough the poem s I enjoyed (e.g. 'WaterGardening in an Old Farm Dam' and 'BelowBronte House') I kept fearing- 'The man'snot going to spoil this one with an injectionof slop-ideology, is he?' And, guess what?Often he didn't. An interesting experience,almost as interesting as the poems. Oh, h e'sa small dose poet, though. Bailed-up withtoo much, I felt like someone caught in thecompany of a babbling, paranoid yet smug,village crank. The babbling I can understand(it's a common enough verse fault ofmine) and the paranoia I must accept andforgive. But the smugness? It perfumes toomuch of Subhuman Redneck Poems fromthe title and dedication through to the blurb.Still, the Murray kind of erraticism is adecided adventure. He often reminds me ofthat fine American Poet James Schuyler.A creator of large scale extravagantcelebrations of life and living in the arty/gaycommunities of '60s through to '80s NewYork City, Schuyler also concocted hideouslytwee, lovey-dovey pieces, little betterthan greeting-card kitsch. How could he?Because he did, because like Kipling, likeMurray, the bad and the good propped eachother. They had to: it was the full package.Lee Fuhler is probably the first Romani­Australian poet and although this might bea substantial 'hook' for his career he hasenough passion and potential to transcend'hooks'. Sure, Fuhler could do with someediting, an amount of workshopping and asubstantial reading list, but here at bedrockis how a passionate man can write verse:few gimmicks, no preaching, above alldevoid of the smug. The background tomuch of the poetry is simple, though notsimplistic: a young man of a non-Anglo­Celtic working class background comes outof outer suburbia (Doveton, Dogstown, aBattlerville that even the most wellmeaning coalition MP could only imagine).Heading towards the bigger smoke he getsa rough time and gives a rough time (mostoften to himself). Yet he is capable ofBooKs: 5TIM THW AJTEScelebrating the natural world and the humanworld, love, family, and all those crutchesto get you through life. Which is what poetshave done since the beginning.Fuhler's pieces are lean, plainspeaking,and at times risk being wooden, but theyare devoid of cliche and, best of all, theydon't con.At the centre of the volume, is a suite ofpoems in Romani, with accompanyingtranslations; h ere the book truly com esinto its own, for we are in the realm of thatmost 'ethnic' of 'ethnics', the stateless,almost invisible 'ethnic', and we are lookingat these wonderful feeling/soundingwords: bango and mandi, wavva and lavs.Now that is an adventure. Would it bepossible, I wonder, for Fuhler and perhapsanother poet, to be commissioned, one day,to compile an anthology of Gypsy verselOf course behind such feel-goodery liessomething much darker: creeping up on thereader are Fuhler's m editations on the halfa million dead in the Romani holocaust. Itmight help in her education for a copy of'Dogs town' to be sent Helen Darvill e's way.On second thoughts, no. Some of the poemsmight start appearing under her name. •Alan Wearne is a poet and author of theverse novel The Night Markets.Pealz scienceThese and other booksare avai I able fromThe JesuitBookshop,PO Box 553,Richmond 3121ph (03) 942 7 7311,fax (03) 9428 4450Climbing Mount Improbable, Richard Dawkins, Viking (P~:nguinSCH~nc~:L 19% ISIIN 0 14 02.6.i02 0 RRI' $ 19.9SIN ".CONDA" ;cHom, when I hm c•mcwho h•ve "'d p