David Gilbey
David Gilbey is Senior Lecturer in Literature (Australian, Children’s, 19th Century) and Creative Writing at Charles Sturt University and the founding President of Wagga Wagga Writers' Writers Inc, as well as a poet. Born in London, he migrated to Australia as a boy with his family where he later graduated from the University of Sydney. Involved with a variety of arts groups in the community, he has been known to tread the boards and impersonate well-known public figures. His first part collection of poetry was Under the Rainbow (fourW press, 1996). The manuscript of Death and the Motorway was completed after he travelled to US, UK, France, Japan and China on Study Leave 2006.
Def Leppard in Japan
Loud—
I’ve never heard them before
consciously
but someone is screaming words
through my mouth
as the world is purple, it’s red
strobed and arced by gauds.
The drummer feathers his nest of sound
courted by the furious guitarist
prancing around in shorts, t-shirt and joggers
a randy gazelle.
New twists to old songs:
Elvis Presley’s Return to Sendai
a living lesson in language
everything’s karaoke tonight
bodies respond where culture prohibits.
My body too, embarrassing my children
is drawn by a language beyond language
the rhythm of the night
when love and hate collide.
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Death and the Motorway
$12.00 (GST-inc)A long-awaited collection from the much-admired editor of the fourW anthologies, Death and the Motorway traverses intimate and intellectual ground here and abroad with surety and insight.
Several poems deal with David’s experiences of life in Japan and the tensions between a busy academic life and the urge to create poetry.
