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Mulla Mulla Press
Media Release
A Lifetime of Poems
“Prayers waiting for God” by David Barnes, edited by Janet Jackson and published by Mulla Mulla Press will be launched at Perth Poetry Club on Saturday 25 June 2 -4 pm at The Moon Café 323 William Street Northbridge.
Spanning a lifetime, crafted with care, spoken in David’s inimitable, gentle Australian voice, these are poems of the stark spirituality of nature, the meeting of eyes, hands and souls, the joy and bewilderment of birth, the tearing grief of premature loss and the horror of abuse. This is David Barnes first and last book of poetry
David Barnes was born in 1943 in Paddington, New South Wales; he was moved to Victoria as a ward of the state.
The effect of this upbringing has been a shadow on his life however it did not dim his determination to seek love and success which he chronicles in “Prayers waiting for God.”
David’s poems have been published in many magazines and anthologies both in Australia and overseas, and he has been involved in the Perth poetry reading scene.
He has been particularly active online, working and talking with poets all over the world.
In 1997 he established the online journal ‘Numbat Poetry Downunder’, named after the animal emblem of Western Australia.
Leaving school at age 13 he worked for 11 years in the carpentry trade.
He worked in Melbourne, then at the Woomera rocket range, and finally in the Northern Territory building aboriginal housing.
At 18 he took up folk singing and fingerpicking guitar and began to write. In his twenties he travelled, working at various jobs - driller, trench digger, stockman, petrol pumper, cook and playing at folk festivals.
David met his wife, Libby, in Alice Springs. David worked as a real estate agent until 1996, when Libby passed away.
David, living on a disability pension, was left to raise their young son alone.
For much of his adult life David has lived with a debilitating spinal injury.
If only I had known her
Parched
was the photo that arrived
on January 4th, 1999,
corners curled, brown with age.
In the photo
a young woman held a child—smiling,
rosy cheeks, blonde hair,
brown eyes gazing,
two hands
holding teddy—in her arms.
She had a gentle face,
rich auburn hair
curling around her neck,
a dress of deep blue velvet.
On her wrist
time stood still... captured.
Leather band, gold watch
on white skin.
She smiles, radiant, at me.
On the back:
Mum, July 1944,
David, thirteen months old,
Betty Reid...
11/11/1923 to 15/6/1994
David Edward Barnes.
It was me, a child.
It was my mother, a woman I never knew.
She was beautiful.
If only I had known her,
held her in my arms, wept upon her shoulder—a man—
and said, ‘I love you, mum.’
It's too late.
The photo came too late.
Contact
Coral Carter
XL
pale city lights behind him,
pink lipstick on that cloud.
tall & thin those canvas shoes
make no sound,
he stands still before my headlights
& stares back into me.
i could drive over him
(would it be murder?)
our street rolls out behind him,
a long tongue of forever.
He hasn’t shaved for a week:
what questions does he ask?
the whites of his eyes,
no moon, the darkness.
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