Last
Thursday's posting, an account of Max Richards’ (1937-2016) and John Barnes’
visit to the poet Dimitris Tsaloumas, has a footnote. In a separate file this
morning I found ‘Two Seniors’, a poem about this period of visits. It makes
sense of the line in Max’s anecdotes in ‘share 1’ about ‘Two Seniors’. "Tercet-constructing Max" is how poet friend Bill Wootton describes him in 'Maxless', a eulogy posted on the 4th of October on Facebook. Here are the tercets at work, also what Bill calls his "measured lopes / of goodwill or gentle enquiry".
Two
Seniors
(Judith Rodriguez, b.1936,
Dimitris Tsaloumas,
b.1921)
Vigorous poems she wrote –
ditto her body language.
She roused her students –
all can be creative!
New then to her country,
I felt she stood for Australia….
When our summer December
party lagged without
a bottle-opener
she bit off the crown caps
passing round the beer
that might inspire us further.
*
At her house when I met
Australia’s great Greek poet,
Dimitris Tsaloumas,
of Leros and Elwood Vic,
though I towered over him,
his eyes burned into me
as if asking was I serious enough?
I hadn’t been but might
His voice was intense, but kind.
*
Hospitalised once
for something dire,
when visited by me
her bed was empty –
she’d absconded
with her drip-feed bottle
to judge some urgent
poetry competition
for the promising young.
*
Celebrating his eightieth
at a large gathering
he’d excused himself from,
she hobbled forward
on her stick to the lectern,
praised him with force
and large gestures –
strode back to her seat
without her stick.
*
Now he’s ninety
I’m about to make my visit
of homage to his Elwood
address, its Greek-
picture-haunted rooms,
I’ll ask: Dimitris,
are you still not only
writing your worlds but
touring Leros on your Vespa?
January
2012
Max
Richards, b.1937
Doncaster
Vic
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