Les Murray at Best

One of the most fascinating part of the festival was poet and poetry session. I was amazed and privileged to meet some of the most well-known contemporary Australian poet the like of GREAT! Les Murray and Jan Owen. I heard a lot about both of them but had not the opportunity to hear from them live and in action. It will not be naive to say that I had a different Les Murray in my mind because in the year 2013 I wrote one of my assessments about one of his poem the ‘Comete’. I well remember that rightly or unknowingly I called his poem as Moment’s Monument. But since a lot has changed in terms of how I see the same poem and author particularly some other Les’s poem. He like any other great Australian writers and poets have tightened his grip on his poems and expended enormously his style of poetry writing in the Australian contemporary world.

The following is a snapshot of what I remember when I wrote about his poem. This is a great moment for Murray when he looks “Uphill in Melbourne on a beautiful day” where “a woman is walking ahead of her hair” He continues to describe her beauty as “Like teak oiled soft to fracture and sway”.  As I mentioned before, about Moment’s Monument, it is this moment that he experiences the moment at that particular time. 

Throughout the festival he was talking that for poets there is a moment in a time to write about something that every writer should find that hook and get an image from it to write a poem about anything they wants.

Let’s say what I asked him when I chatted with him at the Philip Hodgins Memorial Medal Dinner at Mildura Tennis Club. “How you feel when you are writing poems and do you feel you write what you want”. Well, as a great poet he also mentioned that you are 'still young' but if you do one thing over and over again you will not only be “familiar with it but you will also be very good at it” which I certainly think he is good at now. I found great depth and meaning in his answer because his poems are part of everyday conversation in the society.

I think there are a lot to learn from his answers. First, he is so good when he writes poems that it is part of his daily life, without considering what others think about his poems. Therefore, he knows his game in and out and he is expert how to play with it. Second, it is also an advice for young amateur writers to work hard and reap the reward.

At the end of the day I was tired but it was rewarding. Once again Les Murray is the Best!