Eureka Street

Author: Philip Harvey

ARTS AND CULTURE

Undeterred by Kondo, let your library overflow
- Philip Harvey
- 20 July 2023
6 Comments
It's all very well to remove excess furniture, but furniture is not books. How many chairs does one need? Chairs are not books. To reduce a library as a household expedience is to objectify the books. Their contents are emptied of value, their history relegated to out-of-date. They have no more meaning than books in an Ikea display room. (From 2019)
READ MORE
ARTS AND CULTURE

Judith Wright thinks about computers
- Philip Harvey
- 21 June 2023
1 Comment
A forgotten, faded poem by Judith Wright, found in a second-hand book, explores the tension between humanity and the rise of computers in the 1960s, artfully questioning the supposedly superior nature of these early machines, reminding us of the enduring value of human experiences and qualities.
READ MORE
ARTS AND CULTURE

An unlikely friendship: The letters of Wendy Beckett and Robert Ellsberg
- Philip Harvey
- 02 December 2022
3 Comments
Wendy Beckett and Orbis Books publisher Robert Ellsberg exchanged letters on a near daily basis during the last three years of Sister Wendy’s life. What began as a correspondence on saints evolved into a joyful and intimate exchange about the nature of love, suffering and the need for daily grace.
READ MORE
ARTS AND CULTURE

Tolstoy’s war
- Philip Harvey
- 03 March 2022
17 Comments
One of the most memorable scenes in Russian literature relates the thoughts of a man lying on the ground staring at the sky in the middle of a major European battle. Prince Andrei Bolkonsky is wounded. He is placed in a situation where, instead of running, fighting, and thinking every moment might be his last, he is suddenly met with silence, grandeur, tranquillity.
READ MORE
ARTS AND CULTURE

Thinking through language: Editing poetry in Eureka Street
- Philip Harvey
- 02 February 2022
3 Comments
I was invited to read the poetry at Eureka Street by Morag Fraser, sometime in the mists. She shouted me coffee at the Chinese place across Victoria Street from the magazine’s Richmond offices. That was nearly twenty years ago. As we crunched on fortune cookies, she popped the question. I’ve been editing poetry at Eureka Street ever since and have only chosen to let go of the job this summer.
READ MORE
ARTS AND CULTURE

Your poetry questions, answered
- Philip Harvey
- 04 November 2021
10 Comments
Although I teach poetry and do occasional workshops, the following is written in response to one such workshopper, new to writing poetry, who in lockdown would message me on social media with fairly open-ended questions about poetry. My answers are written after the wry manner of the Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska; wry, but generally helpful. They are not the launch pad for a new poetics. I have stopped for now at 12 questions, but the questions keep rolling in.
READ MORE
ARTS AND CULTURE

The days of the week
- Philip Harvey
- 20 April 2020
4 Comments
Reports of the rain are weak front, then strong. Sunshine headline news, or so it appears. I whisper the tune from a scratchy disc. Maybe Tuesday will be my good news day.
READ MORE
ARTS AND CULTURE

Clive James' poetry of memento mori
- Philip Harvey
- 29 November 2019
12 Comments
Obituarists sharpened their quills in 2014 when word had it the death of Clive James was imminent. Since then we have witnessed a late flowering of poetry, reviews and articles tinged with mortality that revealed to the last his Twainian flair for journalistic self-promotion, albeit in the internet age. Now the quills are out in earnest.
READ MORE
ARTS AND CULTURE

Pigeon English: a 'lost' Les Murray interview
- Philip Harvey
- 06 May 2019
10 Comments
'English became the best pigeon in the world, it picked up stuff from everywhere.' In this never-before-heard interview from 2013, the late great poet Les Murray reflects on his work, on language, and on what poetry actually 'does'.
READ MORE
ARTS AND CULTURE

Spirit wit: Five sonnets for Les Murray
- Philip Harvey
- 02 May 2019
4 Comments
You could contrive a meandering sonnet, broach the third level of meaning with ease — Once main lines are coursing and images breeze. You were in it, around, beyond, upon it.
READ MORE
ARTS AND CULTURE

Undeterred by Kondo, let your library overflow
- Philip Harvey
- 08 February 2019
8 Comments
It's all very well to remove excess furniture, but furniture is not books. How many chairs does one need? Chairs are not books. To reduce a library as a household expedience is to objectify the books. Their contents are emptied of value, their history relegated to out-of-date. They have no more meaning than books in an Ikea display room.
READ MORE
ARTS AND CULTURE

Remembering the many-sided Brian Doyle
- Philip Harvey
- 28 May 2018
3 Comments
The evidence, from one line onwards, was unmistakeable Doyle. Imitation was impossible, self-parody ditto. Gore Vidal loved to say that Tennessee Williams knew how to do only one thing, but he did that thing better than anyone else. Brian Doyle's poetry was a bit like that.
READ MORE

page:

1-12 out of 49 results.

Subscriber login

Author: Philip Harvey