Soft Riots

Soft Riots was a title in the Paperback Poets series published by University of Queensland Press. The book collects poems written between 1969 and 1972, including the title poem ‘Soft Riots / TV News’ which has recently been included in the Penguin Anthology of Australian Poetry edited by John Kinsella (Penguin, 2009)
Sample poem:

Winter

two oclock — me drunk on vodka
you sick & sober, both parties a drag
on our way home, up in the hills, saw
the giddy rain but
no sound – coming down slow in all
directions / stopped the car &
my first time!
SNOW

i danced, blowing out smoke air
stupidhappy
…

Notes towards Employment

This book collects early poems, written between 1966 and 1969, which should have been included as the first section of Soft Riots.

Sample poem:

Fragments

Autmn is ten cents doubtful
when the gulls are gone
and leaves wait for rain

Angular women come and go –
their restlessness.

He sat for an hour in the park
watching the street unwind.

Trouser bagginess –
reflections in a dusty window.

Domestic Hardcore