Davey Dreamnation

I am an enigma to myself.
B. O’D.

noble wings I grow
when I take meh self out
of meh self
but I find that too hot to handle

for too long

so I take meh self into
meh self again [...]

re: the australeum (a secret society cf. ww leaves of grass

a love supreme in the court of love a library
book of love a doodle bug a statute of love

like some secret (liberation love democracy
man love & all aboard! the love ship demos

under the sign of libra it weighs at anchor
nestled in the leaves writing eva [...]

the sun that he does well to shine & shines well …

the moon that she illuminates the lover’s skin

the stars that they remind us of all things past

the sky that it does well to rain on our heads

the planets that they give birth to angry gods

the earth that it spins on its axis [...]

… a cabinet was specially made. O’Dowd’s wife Evangeline
had an uncle, Jethro Fryer, a carpenter who took on this task.
SANDRA BURT

i hammer nails & saw wood (to make his
house of whitman his shadow cabinet

not a coffin so much as a grave of words
a grove within which they sit together

eva (my niece with her [...]

I believe Fame once intended to give birth to a child.
Some accident happened and I was the abortion.
B. O’D.

I look at what i wrote
& feel shame
rising like the flood

my knees are weak &
the lamp light’s glow
flatters my corny poetics

they’re simplistic
& i hate myself no that’s
going too far with

my hand between
my legs to keep [...]

… the cute and loving appreciation of my book and meh
by them in Australia has gone right to my heart.
W.W.

the cute and loving appreciation of my book and meh by
them in Australia has gone right to my heart bernard o

i wish to specifically send remembrances & love to you
& how is your mother bernard is [...]

I am not going to praise your poetry to you
B. O’D.

BUT! you make the leaves & the grasses
speak for themselves! great scald of demos
i am yours! master bending down to meh!
like a tree of man your mighty river flows
through days your poems like a dripping
tap & i a drum that tap must fill! restless
spirits stranded [...]

will only say that your your hint re sunbaths
has saved meh many a day’s illness
B. O’D.

i shall take sunbaths & eat stone fruit from the goulburn valley

reading your lines again my beloved my only one my sun for you

i shall compose letters lines verses song cycles people will eat

oranges & know that you [...]

Master?

Revered master

Dear Walt, my beloved master, my friend,
my bard my prophet and apostle –

Dear Bernard

My dear master!

Your good, long varied and loving letter
came yesterday and has been welcome and nourishing to meh.

My dear master!

I cannot reply properly,
we have been treading air since.

Dear Bernard O’Dowd (and all the friends)

My dear master!

[...]

revered master

dear walt, my beloved master, my friend,
my bard my prophet and apostle

my dear master

my dear master

my dear master

my dear master and (may I say?) comrade

my dear master

my dear master

B. O’D.

I am 24, red hair, plain features,
and a little too backward for my own good.
B. O’D.

24yo dawn-red hair western districts oz poet seeks 80ish
NS/SD amerikan dusky-grey hair ex-civil war nurse poet
for inter-continental correspondences & hero worship -
must heart ozpo philo/sci-fi &/or long walks on beach
FYI both parents RC father policeman lonely child etc.
must possess GSOH [...]

Abandoned houses, Barellan Australia (2008).

Similarly, poetry (e.g. the Psalms) can be written
in such a way that it looks like a cat wrote it.
LOLCat Bible Translation Project
“O Kitteh! Meh Kitteh! Mai feeful trip iz dun, k?
Teh hoomun haz weferd evareh rack, teh googie wii want iz wawn,
Teh nom nom iz near, teh bels Iz heer, teh ppl iz exultez,
Wyl [...]

Brennan’s contemporary,

Bernard O’Dowd,

espoused the cause

of

nationalism,

and attained a far

greater
reputation
in his day;

but unlike
Brennan’s,

his work
has dated

badly.

Judith Wright,
A Book of Australian Verse (1968)

The news may well be out of the bag but in any case, I’m very excited to say that I’ve been successful in obtaining funding from Arts Victoria to develop a new collection of poems, based on correspondence between Australian poet Bernard O’Dowd and American bard Walt Whitman.
The correspondence (which has been preserved in [...]