Timoshenko Aslanides' web site

Published poetry

Occasions for Words, Wakefield Press, 2006.

In these superbly crafted poems, Timoshenko Aslanides has written responses to birth and death, love and friend- ship, marriage and divorce. Here you will find words to help you celebrate, or mourn, almost everything of consequence in the daily life of Australia and Australians. Whether the occasion is formal or informal and public or private, from the naming of children to the acquiring of citizenship or the sending of flowers, it's all here - including poems about the enjoyment of sharing with friends the conviviality of the season.

A calendar of flowers, Five Islands Press, 2001.

A calendar of flowers is a selection by me of the best of my poetry written in the 25 years up to 2000. The early poems include both serious and tongue- in-cheek versions of Greek mythology and ballads and meditations on Australian history and mythology. Later poems revive the old English literary riddle, as well as French and Japanese literary forms, all applied to the one end: a cele- bration of the natural and built environ- ments of Australia, and the history and imaginative genius of its people. Published 2001 and still in print. Avail- able in bookshops and through me. Back cover comment by Judith Wright. 114pp.

AnniVersaries, Brandl & Schlesinger, 1998.

AnniVersaries: 366 linked poems, one for every day of the Australian year. These poems define Australian mytho- logies. They also celebrate the achieve- ment of great Australians and connect these and other people with large and significant issues. They assert the significance of love, work and family in the pursuit of happiness; demonstrate the imaginative genius of the people and vindicate Canberra as national capital and connect it with a wider commun- ity in which are described some of the enormous diversity of the flora, fauna and natural and built environments of Ausralia. Published 1998 and now out of print. Available through me. Back cover comment by Judith Wright, Phillip Adams and Les Murray. 454pp.

Australian alphabet, Butterfly Books, 1992.

Australian alphabet. This book contains 26 poems, one for each letter of the English alphabet. Peter Scul- thorpe aptly summarises the book in this extract from his Foreword: "These artist- ically complex but disarmingly simple and accessible poems deserve the wide read- ership they will obtain, especially among those Australians who, sensing the irrelevance of European modes of thought in contemporary Australia, want to listen to the resonance of a lyric poetry which celebrates what was made, and continues to make us, what we are." Published in 1992 and now out of print. Available through me. 78pp.

Australian things, Penguin Books, 1990.

Australian things. Here I took inspiration from Sei Shonagon, a 10th century Japanese poet, fond of making lists, such as in her famous Pillow- book. I used it as an artisitic method of organising my own "lists" of observations and impressions made whilst travelling in Australia from 1983-1986. These resulting poems, set out in constrasting pairs, are "recursive" in structure, with the sense of the poem being derived from the constant interaction, in syntax and meaning, between the title and the linked images and thoughts which form the body of the poem. Published in 1990 and now out of print. Available through me. 79pp.

One hundred riddles, Angus & Robertson, 1984.

One hundred riddles. The medieval English collection of literary riddles known as the Exeter book of riddles was my inspiration for the form; Australia and the Australian landscape (especially the outback) for the content. Published in 1984 and now out of print. Available through me. 72pp.

Passacaglia and fugue, published by the author, 1980.

Passacaglia and fugue. Whether inspired by Japanese haiku or by classical poets such as Horace and the rhythms of their verse, the subject matter is emphatically Australia and Australians. The first edition (1979) sold out. Copies of the second edition (1980) which, additionally, contains a foreword by ex-Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, are available. 50pp. Privately published in 1980 in an edition of 350 copies and now out of print. Avail- able through me. Back cover comment by Manning Clark and Judith Wright. 50pp.

The Greek connection, published by the author, 1977.

The Greek connection. My first book of poems. Explores Greek mythology using Australian material and classical Greek verse forms. Also, contains many love poems and poems in French and Spanish verse forms. Privately published in 1977 in an edition of 500 copies and now out of print. Some 50 copies still avalable through me. Classed and priced as a rare book, not least because it won the British Commonwealth Poetry Prize for 1978 for the best first book of poetry, in English, published in any country in the British Commonwealth of nations other than England. Out of print but available through me. 52pp.

Two examples of my poetry

Endymion I'm quite a handsome fellow, actually, Even if I do say so myself, but you know Camping out one night, On the mountain grass, Lying on my back Stoned under the stars, I could have sworn That the moon made a pass at me - yes! But whilst I know that women love to worship My magnificent body, There was just no way I was going to make it with that rotund lunatic. God! What with all that Astronautical debris Scattered around the Mountain of Venus, I could do myself a permanent injury. Copyright C Timoshenko Aslanides 1978.

Eternity (In marriage) Whether or not a priest or celebrant's involved, the couple that truly weds still marries itself; everyone else is there for fashion, the forms-of-words, consumption of cake and far too much champagne. So when he and she were married in The Pilbara, they sat themselves in the best they had near water. She threw a stone. "Until it floats, I'm true to you." He showed her the wedding ring he'd made himself. "I'll love you till Port Hedland tides no longer race across the harbour flats to stranded ships; till Mulga, Paper-Bark and River Red Gum lose their Pallid Cuckoos, Doves and Diamond Finches; until those winds that daily roar across The Bight cease their search for windmills in Esperance." "Those things described", she said, "conceivably could happen." He looked her in the eye and touched her cheek. "I'll love you till it rains in Marble Bar", he said. She smiled and kissed him, this time as his wife. Copyright C Timoshenko Aslanides 1998.