Smorgasbord Posts from Your Archives – #Potluck – #Poetry – trenchman #1: the trench man’s tools by Frank Prem

Welcome to the series  Posts from Your Archives, where bloggers put their trust in me. In this series, I dive into a blogger’s archives and select four posts to share here to my audience.

If you would like to know how it works here is the original post: https://smorgasbordinvitation.wordpress.com/2019/04/28/smorgasbord-posts-from-your-archives-newseries-pot-luck-and-do-you-trust-me/

Frank Prem is an Australian author with two collections of poetry that describe his childhood growing in a small town… and the second, the dreadful wildfire that rapidly engulfed communities and took many lives. Both of which I have read and can recommend. I am delighted to be allowed to sample his archives to share with you.

In June 2017, Frank posted a poem a day.. and so I have chosen the poems he posted on this day and then the subsequent poems that correspond to his posts here…

#Poetry – trenchman #1: the trench man’s tools by Frank Prem 4th June 2017.

see them at rest
they are embracing
like weary comrades

they have dug
straight
and dug deep
they are weary now

can you see
in the lost space
the shape
of an absent digger
moving clay around

one leg knee buried deep
the other bent
underneath him

first
the mattock
wielded
then trenching
with the small spade

begun in the morning
as just an idea

pushed through
to lunchtime
it is a line

deep
into evening
the trench
has been opened

trench-man
can rest
and his tools
embrace

©Frank Prem 2017

About Frank Prem

I’ve been a storytelling poet for about forty years. Longer in fact, as I remember the first poem I wrote while at secondary school was about 150 – 200 words long and was accepted in lieu of a 500 word essay. I think that may have been the start.

I love to read my work to a live audience, and have audio recorded some recent recordings and popped them on my author page. I have also done some studio- recorded work under the direction and accompaniment of my wife Leanne Murphy that can be listened to there. These poems are on mythological themes and the accompaniment by Leanne makes them a little bit extraordinary.

By profession, I am a psychiatric nurse and have worked across most facets of public psychiatry and the mental health/mental illness spectrum. My experiences and reflections on what I have seen and done are the subject of a forthcoming memoir – scheduled for late 2019, or perhaps more likely, 2020.

I’ve been published in magazines, zines and anthologies, in Australia and in a number of other countries, but for a long time I haven’t sought much publication. The whims of editors are a little too capricious and unknowable, so I have preferred to hone my craft and self-publish on my poetry blogs

Leanne and I reside in the beautiful township of Beechworth in the North-East of Victoria (Australia).

Books by Frank Prem

One of the recent reviews for Small Town Kid

Brenda Telford 5.0 out of 5 stars Magic! May 24, 2019

Magic! Aussie author Frank Prem’s Small Town Kid is written in verse, but it’s poetry as I’ve never read before (and I’ve never been a poetry person!) It brought back memories for me – the cracker night; the bonfires all around town; blowing up the teacher’s letterbox with a penny banger. I’m sure I got up to all the mischief Frank and his friends did!

Easter and the fete, with the ducks which went too fast and avoided the pellets to win a prize; the clowns which invited the balls into their mouths, again for a prize. And fairy floss and its sugary delight. The author tells it from his young age right through to adult and fatherhood; the fun, the mischief and the tragedies.

Frank Prem writes in a fascinating and intriguing style, capturing memories with ease. Small Town Kid is one I highly recommend.

Read the reviews and buy the books: https://www.amazon.com/Frank-Prem/e/B07L61HNZ4

And Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Frank-Prem/e/B07L61HNZ4

Read more reviews for both books and follow Frank on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18679262.Frank_Prem

Connect to Frank

Website: www.frankprem.com
Website Audio: https://frankprem.com/audio-recordings-spoken-word/
Seventeen Syllable Poetry: https://seventeensyllablepoetry.wordpress.com/
Blog: https://frankprem.wordpress.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Frank.Prem.Poet.Author

My thanks to Frank for allowing me access to his archives and I suggest that you head over and enjoy for yourselves..thanks Sally.