For the past twelve days I’ve been in Australia for work. This means I missed the epic snowstorm, affectionately called Snowzilla, that buried DC. We all know that a good snowstorm is a built-in opportunity to curl up with a few good books and I missed it! Of course I also missed shoveling out of the snow and other such activities so I really can’t complain. And I managed to read eleven books while I was gone – those are long flights and I’m a fast reader so I took advantage of it!

While in Canberra I wandered into the National Library of Australia and eventually found myself in the poetry section of the bookstore.

Poetry section in the bookstore inside the National Library of Australia

I curled up and quickly read NY by Mandy Ord, an illustrated poem.

NY by Mandy Ord

I ended up buying The Petrov Poems by Lesley Lebkowicz. This book of poetry chronicles the real life story of Russian spies who seek, and are granted, asylum in Australia. I had brought Flying Out With the Wounded by Anne Caston with me as well and I soon added Disturbance by Ivy Alvarez to the list of poetry I found and read while down under.

Poetry books I read while in Australia

I had the fortune of meeting Anne Caston a few years ago and taking a workshop with her. She is amazing. If you haven’t read her work pick it up, her poems will haunt you – the first section of the book are poems based on her time as a nurse and they are brutal, gory, and so vivid you’ll dream about them. Alvarez’s work is also haunting but in a different way.  Her book chronicles a wife leaving her abusive husband and then him killing her, their son, and them himself. Yeah, I don’t pick light, easy reads.

But it wasn’t all work meetings and time spent reading. I also explored the cities I was in and best of all I got to hold a koala and hand-feed kangaroos! These things have nothing to do with poetry other than SQUEEEEAAAALLLL – KOALAS AND KANGAROOS!!! (Still, nothing to do with poetry but they’re fun marsupials to see/touch/play with.)

Hand-feeding a kangaroo

Holding a koala