Geoffrey Lehmann – May 19 2019

Geoffrey is an editor, author, literary reviewer and award-winning poet, the first Australian poet to be published by the London publishing house Faber and Faber with his first volume of poetry, published jointly with Les Murray, The Ilex Tree. Formerly a taxation lawyer, Geoffrey co-authored five editions of a major taxation text and was chairman of the Australian Tax Research Foundation. He holds Arts and Law degrees from The University of Sydney, becoming involved, during his time there, with the bohemian group known as the Sydney Push. First published at the age of 17, Geoffrey has subsequently published many poetry volumes including Conversation with a Rider, Baking at Night and other poems, A Voyage of Lions and other poems, Nero’s Poems: Translations of the Public and Private Poems of the Emperor Nero, Children’s Games, Selected Poems and Collected Poems. In addition to his own poetry, Geoffrey has edited several anthologies, alone and in collaboration with the poet Robert Gray. He has written a novel, A Spring Day in Autumn, two picture books, The Balloon Farmer (illustrated by Betty Greenhatch) and Sky Boy (illustrated by Caroline Magerl), and most recently, he has completed his memoir, Leeward.

Spring Forest
Angus & Robertson, 1992; ISBN 9780207177095
Based on the life and stories of Geoffrey’s former father-in-law, Ross McInerney, a farmer on the western slopes of New South Wales, this single, sustained meditation is a combination of 95 short pieces, some of which were first published in Ross’ Poems which itself comprised 74 poems. Nine of these have been dropped, many have been substantially revised, and 30 new poems have been added to make up this volume. Spoken through the voice of Ross, the themes of war, death and the loss of the spring forest recur throughout.
“I am grateful to my wife, Gail Pearson, for her support and her suggestions …. Christopher Koch and Robert Gray … [who] gave invaluable help in revising or removing weaknesses …. The poem ‘Gilbert and Hall’ is based on material from Edgar F Penzig’s The Sandy Creek bushranger: a definitive history of Ben Hall, his gang and associates.” – Geoffrey Lehmann

Poems 1957-2013
UWA Publishing, 2014; ISBN 9781742585604
In this substantial second volume of collected poems, Geoffrey Lehmann has taken the prerogative of the mature artist looking back to revise poems, sometimes substantially, and to restore lines and passages he had removed from earlier versions. Displaying the breadth and depth of his poetry, Lehmann explores human nature in settings as diverse as ancient Rome and rural New South Wales, from searing satire to the domestic life of a family. The collection is divided into five sections: Simple Sonnets (1958–2011); Earlier Poems; Nero’s Poems (1970–2002); Spring Forest (1970–2010); and Later Poems (1976–2013).