i.m.  Martin Harrison

Anne Elvey

slightly cheaply           suddenly simply seriously

occasionally                             distantly

slowly              nearly recently                                     finally

usually mostly perfectly

occasionally consciously

nearly daily

only only                     entirely entirely

apparently frantically              really quietly

differently       simply listlessly           carelessly

newly              already loosely            mostly early

sincerely                                   only                            only

suddenly suddenly      invisibly           suddenly

differently                                                       definitely

probably          nearly likely     nervously         only usually

already practically                                                       only

momentarily                                                    blindly

mostly suddenly                                              absently

clearly              scarcely secretly

invisibly invisibly

hardly              already already            fleetingly         only

exquisitely eternally

* The words in the title and the last line come from Martin Harrison, “A Word”, published in The Best Australian Poems 2009 (Black Inc), the rest in order from his collection Summer (Paper Bark Press, 2001).

Anne Elvey is author of Kin (Five Islands 2014) and This Flesh That You Know (Leaf Press 2015). She is managing editor of Plumwood Mountain, and counted Martin as a mentor in that role. Anne met Martin only a few times at conferences, over meals and through editorial email conversations, and had looked forward to many more such meetings.