Despite the loud sniggering that poetry often elicits (is that an Australian thing, or do I just talk about it in the wrong company?), if I were the betting kind I would wager that most of us can recall some snippet of poetry. Whether that is reluctantly or willingly is irrelevant. We can. My theory is that poetry is left in many of us from childhood, wedged between memories of learning to ride a bike and exploring the neighbourhood. 

Apart from simply learning more about poetry in this residency, I want to unearth those rusted-over memories of poetry in the community; help myself and others reveal the funny, beautiful, heroic and absurd visions made real by poems long forgotten. Enter the weekly quizzes. 
Each week I am setting a challenge to the good folk who have the sense to visit the Bean Barn for their daily brew. To start with, the challenge is to piece together sections of poems that have been dismantled by scissors. To warm up, I have chosen the familiar; poems that I think lie close to the Australian psyche. A big call, you think - how can I know? It is a guess. If you think the reassembly challenge is easy, I dare you to try it. Do you really remember where all the words fall? Cheating is, of course, for the cheats.

This blog is where I will share the trials and victories; where I will name the victorious and the gallant, and where I will reveal who will go in the draw for a prize at the end of it all.