Beyond Retrieve: A Volume of Poetry

Beyond retrieve is a volume of poetry in four sections, each introduced by a tone or theme setting song lyric. The broad theme is one of a journey of retrieving creativity and writing as the centre of my life, and moving forward or beyond tentativeness around, for example, identity and intimacy, to both confidence and calm as part of the reassertion of creative focus. This structure also frames that of this exegesis and its theoretical foci. The pieces in the first section have, in the main, emerged as palimpsests, and this forms my thematic and theoretical consideration. The second movement has involved the formation of an alter ego, and notions of camp and my performance history are a focus. The poems and song lyrics of the third section are , in essence, eulogies, and I discuss the place of personal subject matter. This includes reflection on the personal in poetics from the earlier twentieth century developments on, and the lasting impact of academic study is part of this discussion. My use of an abiding innovation of the modern genre, the open form, is my focus for the final section. The influence of music on my practice is part of the consideration here, and I conclude the exegesis by considering a performance I organised and presented