Seasons in Rotation

Abstract

Seasons in Rotation Chris Wallace-Crabbe (bio) While hungry spring is doing all thisburgeoning and shooting outside,ardent as emerald green, I can wonderabout the procreation of our seasonsby overactive classical gods,or the climate. Of course we have togrow up with and amidst it, learningall about this plant life—or weather,and even about illustrious botanists likeMendel and our own Thistle Harris. Real botany knows no bounds, much likethe feckless backyard out here, I'm afraid.Spring does its own thing there, asour footy season furls and finals towardthe clean white onset of cricket. Yet the birds are off their small heads,barracking out there for something or otherwe can hardly understand: perhapsfor their very own onset of new eggs:I daresay too small to be scrambledand yet of the utmost importancefor precious them. If only we knew, and thenperhaps could have a good talk with them,in some new, inscrutable language. [End Page 39] Chris Wallace-Crabbe Chris Wallace-Crabbe has published more than two dozen collections of poetry, including Rondo (Carcanet, 2018) and Afternoon in the Central Nervous System (Braziller, 2015). The son of a pianist and journalist, he was raised "to be interested in everything." He is Professor Emeritus at Melbourne University and has held posts at Harvard University and Ca' Foscari, Venice. Among his many prizes, he was awarded the Dublin Prize for Arts and Sciences in 1987, the Philip Hodgins Medal for Literature in 2002, and the Melbourne Prize for Literature in 2015. In 2011, he received the Order of Australia. Copyright © 2021 Wayne State University Press