Poems of the grander vision

Kissing Angels on the Eve of Revolution
By Robin Davidson
Boris Books, PO Box 1388, Woden ACT 2606
$9.95
Reviewed by Craig Cormick Robin Davidson wears many masks. He has been a performer, writer, clown, activist and poet. The poems collected in this anthology, demonstrate all of these facets of his life. Poetry is notoriously difficult to get published, and political poetry more so. Yet Canberra-based Boris Books has taken the plunge and published this collection of Davidson's work. Much of his poetry, like much of the poetry currently being created in Australia, is performance poetry, written to be read to an audience — not confined to the page. But this does not always detract from the poems — it enhances them to know that they exist on another level, beyond the book. Political performance poetry dares to be challenging and provoking in a way that traditional poetry can not be. As Davidson says in one of his poems, "In libraries, poetry is told to be quiet, and is later ordered to leave. Poetry slaps the faces of academics, screaming 'Reality! Reality!'. In lecture theatres, poetry scribbles obscenities on the blackboard, then runs off giggling." Davidson's poems cover homelessness, the Gulf War, oppression in the Philippines and love — the topic to which all poets sooner or later return. In his final rap poem, "Poetry, Love and Revolution", he sums up his approach to poetry: "there's pain when we turn on the tv news pain in our brains that drips down to our shoes i bin lookin a long time for a solution what i found is poetry, love and revolution poetry love poetry love sing it scream it SHOUT it to the skies above poetry love and (!) revolution" Bryn Griffiths, the principal of Perth-based Platypus Press, recently lamented at the "modish, boring and fashionable verse of today" and called for "some power, pace and punch and the grander vision!". I think he would be pleased to read Robin Davidson.