Totem (poetry collection)

2004 poetry collection by Luke Davies

Totem : Totem Poem Plus 40 Love Poems Author| Luke Davies

|

Language| English
Genre| Poetry collection
Publisher| Allen and Unwin

Publication date

| 2004
Publication place| Australia
Media type| Print
Pages| 85 pp.
Awards| 2004 The Age Book of the Year Award — Book of the Year
ISBN| 1741143489

Totem : Totem Poem Plus 40 Love Poems is a collection of poems by Australian writer Luke Davies, published by Allen and Unwin in 2004.[1]

The collection contains 41 poems which were published in a variety of original publications, with some being published here for the first time.[2]

## Contents

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* "Totem Poem"
* "(Naked)"
* "(Bells)"
* "(Transparent)"
* "(Mortal)"
* "(Sweep)"
* "(Suck)"
* "(Shudder)"
* "(Supple)"
* "(Horizon)"
* "(Hunger)"
* "(Blade)"
* "(Clasp)"
* "(Roar)"
* "(Creek)"
* "(Slide)"
* "(Breathe)"
* "(Beyond)"
* "(Bloom)"
* "(Brim)"
* "(Blink)"
* "(Bed)"
* "(Glow)"
* "(Flourescent)"
* "(Arc)"
* "(Nine Hours)"
* "(Bearing)"
* "(Borne)"
* "(Sketch)"
* "(Home)"
* "(Cut)"
* "(Hell)"
* "(Arrow)"
* "(Adam)"
* "(Loop)"
* "(Girl)"
* "(Lion)"
* "(Warren)"
* "(Teeter)"
* "(Plateau)"
* "(Theology)"

## Critical reception

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Writing in The Age reviewer Cameron Woodhead noted: "As well as being a novelist of distinction, Luke Davies is one of the handful of Australian versifiers whose poetic sensibility is keen and grand enough to command the attention, if not of the gods, then of men and booksellers alike. The publication of his fourth book of poems, Totem, confirms his place as one of our finest contemporary poets...The centrepiece of Davies's new collection, "Totem Poem", is an extraordinary achievement. It is one of the rarest things in our fallen world - a 40-page love poem that matches, for strength of vision, verbal mastery and emotive force, the love poetry of previous centuries, without succumbing to anachronism or embarrassing cliche...Davies is unquestionably our greatest love poet ever; anyone who cares about verse cannot afford to ignore him."[3]

## Awards

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* 2004 The Age Book of the Year Award[4]
* 2004 Grace Leven Prize for Poetry[5]
* 2006 Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature[6]

## See also

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* 2004 in Australian literature

## References

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1. ^ "Totem : Totem Poem Plus 40 Love Poems by Luke Davies". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 18 October 2024.
2. ^ "Austlit — Totem : Totem Poem Plus 40 Love Poems by Luke Davies". Austlit. Retrieved 18 October 2024.
3. ^ ""The images of a great love poet"". The Age, 22 May 2004. ProQuest 363717935. Retrieved 18 October 2024.
4. ^ "Totem wins The Age Book of the Year". The Age. 21 August 2004. Archived from the original on 25 June 2022. Retrieved 18 October 2024.
5. ^ "Austlit — Grace Leven Poetry Prize 2002-2004". Austlit. Retrieved 18 October 2024.
6. ^ "Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature – Past Literary Award Winners". State Library of South Australia. Retrieved 18 October 2024.

* v
* t
* e

Grace Leven Prize for Poetry

1947–1949|

* Pacific Sea by Nan McDonald (1947)
* A Drum for Ben Boyd by Francis Webb (1948)
* Woman to Man by Judith Wright (1949)

1950–1959|

* No award (1950)
* The Great South Land : An Epic Poem by Rex Ingamells (1951)
* Between Two Tides by R. D. Fitzgerald (1952)
* Tumult of the Swans by Roland Robinson (1953)
* Thirty Poems by John Thompson (1954)
* The Wandering Islands by A. D. Hope (1955)
* A Vision of Ceremony by James McAuley (1956)
* Elegiac and Other Poems by Leonard Mann (1957)
* Antipodes in Shoes by Geoffrey Dutton (1958)
* The Wind at Your Door by R. D. Fitzgerald (1959)

1960–1969|

* Man in a Landscape by Colin Thiele (1960)
* Time on Fire by Thomas Shapcott (1961)
* Southmost Twelve by R. D. Fitzgerald (1962)
* The North-Bound Rider by Ian Mudie (1963)
* All the Room by David Rowbotham (1964)
* The Ilex Tree by Les Murray and Geoffrey Lehmann (1965)
* The Talking Clothes: Poems by William Hart-Smith (1966)
* Collected Poems 1936–1967 by Douglas Stewart (1967)
* Selected Poems 1942-1968 by David Campbell (1968)
* A Counterfeit Silence: Selected Poems by Randolph Stow (1969)

1970–1979|

* Letters to Live Poets by Bruce Beaver (1970)
* Judith Wright: Collected Poems, 1942-1970 by Judith Wright (1971)
* Collected Poems 1936-1970 by James McAuley (1971)
* Head-Waters by Peter Skrzynecki (1972)
* A Soapbox Omnibus by Rodney Hall (1973)
* Neighbours in a Thicket: Poems by David Malouf (1974)
* Selected Poems (1975) by Gwen Harwood (1975)
* Selected Poems 1939–1975 by John Blight (1976)
* Selected Poems by Robert Adamson (1977)
* Sometimes Gladness : Collected Poems 1954-1978 by Bruce Dawe (1978)
* The Man in the Honeysuckle by David Campbell (1979)

1980–1989|

* The Boys Who Stole the Funeral by Les Murray (1980)
* Nero's Poems: Translations of the Public and Private Poems of the Emperor Nero by Geoffrey Lehmann (1981)
* Tide Country by Vivian Smith (1982)
* Collected Poems by Peter Porter (1983)
* The Three Fates & Other Poems by Rosemary Dobson (1984)
* Selected Poems 1963-1983 by Robert Gray (1985)
* The Amorous Cannibal by Chris Wallace-Crabbe (1985)
* Washing the Money : Poems with Photographs by Rhyll McMaster (1986)
* Occasions of Birds and Other Poems by Elizabeth Riddell (1987)
* Under Berlin by John Tranter (1988)
* A Tremendous World in Her Head by Dorothy Hewett (1989)

1990–1999|

* No award (1990)
* Dog Fox Field by Les Murray (1991)
* Empire of Grass by Gary Catalano (1992)
* Peniel by Kevin Hart (1992)
* The End of the Season by Philip Hodgins (1993)
* No award (1994)
* New and Selected Poems by Kevin Hart (1995)
* Flying the Coop : New and Selected Poems 1972-1994 by Rhyll McMaster (1995)
* Path of Ghosts: poems 1986-93 by Jemal Sharah (1995)
* No award (1996)
* The Undertow: New and Selected Poems by John Kinsella (1997)
* No award (1998)
* No award (1999)

2000–2009|

* No award (2000)
* Darker and Lighter by Geoff Page (2001)
* Versary by Kate Lilley (2002)
* Lost in the Foreground by Stephen Edgar (2003)
* Totem by Luke Davies (2004)
* Next to Nothing by Noel Rowe (2005)
* The Past Completes Me: Selected Poems 1973-2003 by Alan Gould (2006)
* The Goldfinches of Baghdad by Robert Adamson (2007)
* The Australian Popular Songbook by Alan Wearne (2008)
* No award (2009)

2010–present|

* Phantom Limb by David Musgrave (2010)
* No award (2011)
* Another Fine Morning in Paradise by Michael Sharkey (2012)

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