Broken Teeth

by Tony Birch

Poetry. Literary Nonfiction. Native Australian Studies. "Don't think you'll get away with lightly reading these Tony Birch poems. They are not just words whistling on the wind. They come laden with other gifts. With a whole place: Melbourne. Objects proliferate in The Anatomy Contraption sequence, where, in a singular assemblage of technology, modern science and early-twentieth-century eugenicism it is easy to coolly dissect 'three infant hearts' for a cabinet of curiosities, which 'congeals together / like a song.' It makes you wonder what elements must thus congeal to sustain the songs, the poems, across all these pages without once faltering, without missing a beat." Stephen Muecke"

Genres: Poetry

71 pages, Paperback

Published March 1, 2016

About the author

Tony Birch is the author of Ghost River, which won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Indigenous Writing and Blood, which was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. He is also the author of Shadowboxing and three short story collections, Father’s Day, The Promise and Common People. In 2017 he was awarded the Patrick White Literary Award. Tony is a frequent contributor to ABC local and national radio and a regular guest at writers’ festivals. He lives in Melbourne and is a Senior Research Fellow at Victoria University.

Reviews

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

"from fence to rusting fence" (4)
"rusting umbilical wire and weeds" (5)
"listing with rust red girders" (6)
"we hung as sleeping bats from the rusting beams we left above to fall through summer heat" (10)
"I feel myself lost along a boundary" (12)
"Half the world is a bombsite – the spoils of liberation" (28)
"the artificial and unnatural / create natural man" (53)

[Productive Procrastinator]

Starts off with great promise, but I found that the style Birch chose to employ here (a sparse one that evokes the dry or etiolated surrounds and environments the poems explore) eventually works against the collection's favour. Yes, it is certainly evocative, but the near complete absence of punctuation sees many of the poems become unnecessarily difficult to interpret (and also for a lot of imagery to be lost as we are unsure, via the other issue of opaque phrasing or enjambment of whether successive lines refer back to an antecedent/prior subject or are merely new). I also think that the enjambment becomes a little too loose in the second half (where certain lines feature inadvertently stilted rhythms/prosodies that are at odds with the tone of the words or where the enjambment can unnecessarily complicate the meaning by overemphasising irrelevant details). There was a gorgeous poem I remember hearing Birch read at a Writer's Festival (all of his poems were gorgeous, and I have to wonder whether it's because his authoritative voice ordered and smoothed out any ambiguities that might be present for a reader who must solely rely on the text).

"Chrome" is a truly excellent pome though ("Waiting for my Father" too) and there's some very interesting passages/poems to be found here (the first half is undeniably the strongest section though, with everything from the Anatomy Contraption chapter being weaker).

6/10.

[Heather Taylor-Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book I pick up over and over. I've used the poem 'Broken' twice for writing workshops - it's a stunning portrait of beauty in the ramshackle, beauty in desperation, and the innocence of youth obliterating the words 'beauty', 'ramshackle' and 'desperation'. Also of note is the 10-part poem 'Footnote to a History of War (archive box no. 2)'. Archival poetics is certainly hot right now, particularly with Aboriginal poets - and Birch is one - and I'm glad for this. A stronger truth, perhaps? A greater respect? I mention only these two poems, but this book is full of history and contemplation. A short extract from 'All for Australia' to give you an idea of the depth of language and protest found in this book:

come and anchor
vessels of hope
at the line of wire

but do not speak
keep voices frozen
breath closed and fall

from southern skies
sun blessed but bloodied
and burnt
into the arms of nation

[grackky · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Anatomy Contraption is my favorite installment in this book, and possibly even Tony Birch's best poem. this poem alone is worth reading Broken Teeth.

[Tina · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing Australian poet who touched me with his personal and ancestral stories.

His words are heartbreaking and a juxtaposition of emotions flows through his work.