DRAWINGS • POETRY • GROUP TERMS
a book of animals in alphabet
Edited and drawn by Raffaella Torresan
Published by Hybrid Publishers
Melbourne Victoria Australia
© Raffaella Torresan and the poets anthologised
This publication is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be
reproduced by any process without prior written permission from the publisher. Requests and inquiries concerning
reproduction should be addressed to the Publisher, Hybrid Publishers,
PO Box 52, Ormond 3204.
First published 2009
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Torresan, Raffaella.
Literary Creatures / Raffaella Torresan.
ISBN 9781876462741 (hbk.).
Includes index.
Australian poetry – 20th century – Collections.
A821.408
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Ivan G. Sparke’s Dictionary of Collective Nouns and Group Terms.
With thanks to those who invented group terms
where not available in the above dictionary.
The Kew Library staff
Michael Russo
David Davies
Kris Hemensley
Rodney Manning
iii
PREFACE
This is the second book of poems that Raffaella Torresan has had published. The
first brought the poets and their faces together. This interest in dyads continues
here in this her second book of poems. But now the relationship is between poets
and assemblages, particularly assemblages of animals: a game of bees; a mob of
cattle; and so forth.
Raffaella has drawn skillfully and painted in pastel and other media delicately,
groupings of animals. The poems to which they are related are on the opposite side.
When l first saw this grouping, l was reminded of the Latin tag of the Roman poet
Horace, (65 BC–8 BC) Ut Pictura Poesis, out of painting, poetry. Now surely after
two thousand years we have the latest presentation of Ut Pictura Poesis. But can we
take Horace seriously? Did painting actually come before poetry?
One of the most exciting moments of my life came when the two boys who
discovered the Lascaux in Southern France after their dog fell down a hole made by
a fallen pine tree, showed me and my wife, Kate, around the Lascaux caves in 1950.
Here was painted assemblages of animals: bulls; horses; and so forth. Clearly, too,
they were painted by assemblages of painters. But were there poems created that
related to them? We do not know, nor shall we ever know. If this is so, then perhaps
Horace’s dictum is an historical fact.
But l still do not know which comes first, poetry or painting. In this book, a
screech of gulls, an ostentation of peacocks, and so forth, did the editor suggest the
appropriate assemblage word and ask her friends among the poets to write a poem
around the concept before she painted her beautiful pictures? So we are still left
here after two thousand years with the enigma of painting then poetry or poetry
then painting.
What is significant, however, is that it is all animals and the relationship between
human beings and animals. Here, l think, Raffaella has chosen a sign of signs rather
than the mysteries of theology, of natural selection rather than a male god. l shall
not speak here about the aesthetic quality of the individual poems because l’m not a
critic of poetry. What, however, is apparent in so many of them is the deep feeling
of empathy. The poets do their very best to think, if that is the word, or feel or sense
or smell in the way that animals do.
Bernard Smith (2007)
v
CONTENTS
A
A SWARM OF ANTS
The most placid bullants
Grant Caldwell
2/3
A GAME OF BEES A PARTY OF BIRDS
A KALEIDOSCOPE OF BUTTERFLIES A RAINBOW OF BUTTERFLIES
Like Bees in the Lamplight
[milkcloud-sky canvas]
Butterfly
Blue Beginning 2
Lorin Ford
Kris Hemensley
Marietta Elliot-Kleerkoper
Tom Joyce
4/5
6/7
8/9
10/11
C
A CLUTTER OF CATS
A GLARING OF CATS
A DREAMING OF CATNAPS
A MOB OF CATTLE
A BASK OF CROCODILES
A MURDER OF CROWS
A CONGREGATION OF COCKATOOS
A SOLITUDE OF CUTTLEFISH Mr. Wittgenstein’s Lion
Creaturing
Lets go lets go
cattle at night-fall
Croc
My Early Bird
Why Was It
Cuttlefish – travelling solo
Kevin Brophy
Bruce Dawe
Merv Lilley
Bruce Dawe
Ian McBryde
Kris Hemensley
Geoff Page
Robyn Rowland
12/13
14/15
16/17
18/19
20/21
22/23
24/25
26/27
D
A PACK OF DOGS
A KENNEL OF DOGS
A BENCH OF DOGS
A BRACE OF WORKING DOGS
A GANG OF DOGS
A FLOCK OF DOLPHINS
A FLIGHT OF DRAGONS
The Life of a Pet Dog
Eloi, Eloi…
[My love has gone to New York]
Two Dogs
Dog with a Frisbee
O Wow, O Wow, O Wow!
dragon to snake
Grant Caldwell
Bruce Dawe
Patrick McCauley
Les Murray
John West
Grant Caldwell
Lyn Boughton
28/29
30/31
32/33
34/35
36/37
38/39
40/41
E
A BED OF EELS
A MEMORY OF ELEPHANTS
A MOB OF EMUS
Showering Together
The Octave of Elephants
emus out of genoa
Jennifer Harrison
Les Murray
Eric Beach
42/43
44/45
46/47
F
A RUN OF FISH
[we begin with water as all things do] Jordie Albiston
48/49
G
A PARTY OF GALAHS
A FLOCK OF GEESE
A TOWER OF GIRAFFES
A GOGGLE OF GOLDFISH
A SCREECH OF GULLS
Robbing the Galah’s Nest
Domestic Geese
The Giraffe’s
Driven
Flight
John West
Aileen Kelly
Nick Powell
Aileen Kelly
Peter Tiernan
50/51
52/53
54/55
56/57
58/59
Lone Hen
Meat Chickens
My Little Enemy
Plymouth Rock
Appassionato
The Uneasy Peace
Totem Horse
The Ballad of Saint Phar Lap
Jennifer Compton
Jordie Albiston
Nick Powell
Kerry Scuffins
Bernard Smith
60/61
62/63
64/65
66/67
68/69
B
H A BROOD OF HENS
A HARAS OF HORSES
A MOB OF HORSES
A HERD OF HORSES
A STRING OF HORSES
I
A HORDE OF INSECTS
Insect Haiku
Myron Lysenko
70/71
J
A SMACK OF JELLYFISH
[globe globe globe globe]
Les Murray
72/73
To the Aborigines
[Newsreel kookaburra; a round]
Patrick McCauley
Phil Motherwell
74/75
76/77
To a Lamb
Leopard
Western Granite Worm Lizard
Barry Dickins
Ian McBryde
John Kinsella
78/79
80/81
82/83
K
A TROUP OF KANGAROOS
A CACKLE OF KOOKABURRAS
L
A FALL OF LAMBS
A LEAP OF LEOPARDS
A CAN-O'-WORM LIZARDS
vii
M
A TITTERING OF MAGPIES
A TIDINGS OF MAGPIES
A FLOTE OF MANTARAY
A HARVEST OF MICE A FLURRY OF MYNAHS
Port Elliot Magpie
Magpie
A Lifeline
Taking the Mickey
A Malevolence of Mynahs
K.F. Pearson
John West
Lorin Ford
Komninos
Lynn R. Hard
84/85
86/87
88/89
90/91
92/93
N
A NOTNUMB OF NUMBATS
Numbats
Aileen Kelly
94/95
O
A PARLIAMENT OF OWLS
Owl
Lauren Williams
96/97
P
A PANDEMONIUM OF PARROTS
AN OSTENTATION OF PEACOCKS
A NEST OF TROTTERS
A SOUNDER OF PIGS
A FLIGHT OF PIGEONS
A PLENITUDE OF PLATYPI
A PASSEL OF POSSUMS Fifteen Degrees Cooler Today
The Hanging Gardens
To a Pig
flying pig verse
Creatures
The Platypus Grin
Tanka
Home and Away
Jennifer Compton
Les Murray
Barry Dickins
Merv Lilley
Alex Skovron
Patrick McAuley
98/99
100/101
102/103
104/105
106/107
108/109
Geoff Page
110/111
Q
A QUORUM OF QUOLLS
Quolls
Anna Gruenz
112/113
R
A COLONY OF RABBITS
A CRASH OF RHINOCEROSES
Rabbits
On Becoming a Rhinoceros
Ania Walwicz
Kevin Brophy
114/115
116/117
S
AN ANCHORAGE OF SEA HORSES
A SHIVER OF SHARKS
A DRIFT OF SHEEP
A QUARREL OF SPARROWS
A CLUSTER OF SPIDERS A CLUTTER OF SPIDERS
Evolution
The Shark
A Run of Sheep
The Sparrows at Brunetti’s
To a Spider
A Clutter of Spiders
Robyn Rowland
Jennifer Harrison
Komninos
Geoff Page
Barry Dickins
Lynn R. Hard
118/119
120/121
122/123
124/125
126/127
128/129
T
A CASCADE OF TASMANIAN TIGERS Not Dis* But Dat
A KNOT OF TOADS
Toad Ode
Geoffrey Eggleston
Kevin Brophy
130/131
132/133
U
A BLESSING OF UNICORNS
Mythical Things
Kerry Scuffins
134/135
V
A NEST OF VIPERS
A CAST OF VULTURES
A Nest of Vipers
Blue Beginning 1
Jen Jewel Brown
Tom Joyce
136/137
138/139
W
A WATTABEWDY OF WATTLEBIRDS
A POD OF WHALES
A GAM OF WHALES
A DESTRUCTION OF WILD CATS
A RUMBLE OF WOMBATS
A WARREN OF WOMBATS
A HERD OF WRENS
A Bird
Whale Song
Spermaceti
Forests Have Nothing To Do With It
Wombats Wooing
Ode to a Wombat
Ornithologist
Peter Tiernan
Jordie Albiston
Les Murray
Hugh Tolhurst
Eric Beach
Becca Kellaway
Merve Lilley
140/141
142/143
144/145
146/147
148/149
150/151
152/153
X
A SCHOOL OF GULLS (XEMA)
A COLONY OF XIPHOSURA
24 Questions For Seagulls
Xiphosura – Horseshoe Crab
John West
Robyn Rowland
154/155
156/157
Y
A YABBIDGE OF YABBIES
A Yabby Song
Merv Lilley
158/159
Z
A ZEAL OF ZEBRAS
A Zeal of Zebras
Jen Jewel Brown
160/161
BIOGRAPHIES
viii
163
A
2
Swarm OF ANTS
The most placid bullants
At Jamieson River
in the bush
the most placid bullants
big and slow
nesting under the concrete slab fireplace
the only insects I can think of
watch you
as you move near them.
Sometimes
they stand
sentinel or trance-like
for ages
not even their feelers moving
(maybe they’re meditating or something).
Just before the rainstorm hit
they started dragging
reluctant and smaller
different bullants
into their nest
and I only got bitten once in eight days
finding one in my shirt sleeve
as I was having a crap
I pulled it out and flicked it away
but not before it gave me its sting
and then
it came at me again
as I strained over the log –
a giant
like me
attacking some monster
as big as a skyscraper!
After the storm
they calmly brought stones and dirt
out of the nest
A
Grant Caldwell
and I remembered
when I was little
when my mother said
she would see me
sitting on the ground
in the back yard
staring down
for hours
until she finally
had to come out
and see what I was looking at.
Ants, she said.
I was watching a line of ants
carrying things back and forth
and I would be dropping things for them
– a dead fly
– a piece of bread
– drops of water.
And now
with these bullants
Lyn said:
They’re very intelligent,
aren’t they.
And we looked at each other
and smiled
thinking the same thing, I’m sure–
something to do with the fact
we hadn’t seen
another human being
for over a week.
from You Know What I Mean (Hale & Iremonger, 1996)
3