‘Landing Card’

Dear Editor,

I have written poems about asylum seekers, but my contribution to The Best Australian Poems 2014, ‘Landing Card’, was definitely not among them. I am bewildered as to how Jennifer Strauss, in her otherwise excellent review of the anthology (ABR, January–February 2015) could have thought it was.

Poems and even single words are, of course, capable of being read in various ways by various readers, and I was prepared to accept, in the review of my book The Unspeak Poems by Graeme Miles (ABR, October 2014), a reading of the word ‘mother’ as ‘father’, but in the current political climate the whole question of seeking asylum is too important to be dealt with as flippantly as Strauss’s reading of this poem would imply that I had.

Tim Thorne, Launceston, Tas.

Jennifer Strauss replies:

Tim Thorne has every right to feel bewildered and misrepresented. His gently witty defence of poetry in ‘Landing Card’ has nothing to do with asylum seekers. The only possible explanation I can think of for an extraordinary lapse on my part is that it is not only members of the current government who have become somewhat unhinged on the topic of asylum seekers and that I allowed his title to become detached from the reality of the poem and elided with my own overriding preoccupations when writing the review. I can only apologise unreservedly.

Fusillade

Dear Editor,

Thank you for publishing Clive James’s poem ‘A Silent Speech by Julia Gillard’ (ABR, January–February 2015) alongside the review of his Poetry Notebook 2006–2014 by Geordie Williamson. Williamson lauds James’s erudite criticism and intellectual insights into the role of poetry. Alas, James’s own poem is an indulgent, nasty, and smug contribution, far from what he admires in other poets. A useful reminder that good poetry critics are not necessarily good poets.

Michael Henry, Melbourne, Vic.

The lesson of Costa Rica

Dear Editor,

While I found Robert O’Neill’s review of Ian Morris’s book War! What Is It Good For? (ABR, January–February 2014) very informative, as I am sure the book is, I was surprised and disappointed that no mention was made of one of the few countries in the world without a military force and possibly the only country which does not rely on an external power for defence: Costa Rica.

Upon taking power in 1948, ironically by military coup, the incoming President José Ferrer immediately abolished all military forces, a state that still exists today, save for a national guard for cases of natural disasters. The former military budget was from then on devoted to education and culture. As a result, Costa Rica now has a thriving economy and a healthy, educated, and contented population untroubled by civil strife or even threats from neighbouring states with superior military strength.

Unfortunately, in the real world, where ‘might is right’ and military sabre-rattling is considered to be a perfectly natural and essential element, such an example set by the small central American republic is sadly not even a consideration.

Marshall D. Willan, Glendalough, WA

Robert O’Neill replies:

Marshall D. Willan makes a good point in his letter. Costa Rica offers a stimulating example of the benefits of disarmament. However, it is a small country and does not face severe external threats, so I would imagine that Ian Morris believed it did not justify the space required to examine it. Morris was concerned with the history of warfare over millennia, rather than a recent example of relative peace.

Arts highlights

Dear Editor,

I enjoyed reading these various critics’ favourites of 2014, but was surprised and disappointed that visual arts was not included in ‘Arts Highlights of the Year’. So ABR has now added theatre, dance, music, and film to its existing books of the year, leaving the visual arts very much out in the cold. Why?

Deborah Clark (online comment)

The Editor replies:

Deborah Clark is quite right: the visual arts belong in these pages. We review art monographs in most issues (as in the current one), and some exhibitions. Major shows will henceforth be included in our next ‘Arts Highlights of the Year’, which will appear in our Performing Arts issue (November).