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- Contents Category: Journals
- Custom Article Title: Tim Howard reviews 'Going Down Swinging, no. 28' edited by Lisa Greenaway and Klare Lanson
- Review Article: Yes
- Article Title: Tim Howard reviews 'Going Down Swinging, no. 28' edited by Lisa Greenaway and Klare Lanson
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For once, it’s fine to judge a book by its cover. Stephen Ives’s busy image of Buster Keaton captures, in co-editor Lisa Greenaway’s words, ‘the essence of [Going Down Swinging] the slapstick/serious; the cultural ruckus; the unwavering stare’. Going Down Swinging is an unapologetic miscellany, distinguished by its vibrant eclecticism.
- Book 1 Title: Going Down Swinging, No. 28
- Book 1 Biblio: Going Down Swining Inc. $24.95 pb, 126 pp
Greenaway and her co-editor, Klare Lanson, share a taste for free verse; their selections include pithy and expansive poems. Jonathan Shaw’s ‘Correspondence’ is a sardonic jab at historical amnesia and bureaucratic impotence; Ali Alizadeh’s ‘The Armistice’ is a requiem in terse, non-rhyming couplets. Another highlight is Jillian Pattinson’s ‘Choose Your Own Advent (For the Children of Unknown Fathers)’, which develops the punning conceit of the title into a wry and affecting plaint. The accompanying CD maintains the high standard of the print journal. Its twenty-one tracks offer a variety of styles and production techniques, and the use of instrumental or sound-collage backing is imaginative. Notable contributions include Don Walker and StJAM’s evocative ‘Country Trains’, Rchilaux’s deconstructed groove on ‘Crooked Destiny’ and Jody O. Lloyd’s ‘Recipe for a Perfect Nap’. Melbourne poet Alicia Sometimes’ stark ‘Cold Was the Ground’ is the highlight of a varied collection.
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