The poetry that appeared in Meanjin in 2017 included poems by newcomers to our pages—Shastra Deo, Jodie Hollander, and Ross Gillett—alongside poems by veterans such as Anthony Lawrence, Andrew Sant, and John Kinsella. Judith Beveridge, who first appeared in Meanjin in 1981 with her poem ‘Hannibal on the Alps’, returned with ‘Quasimodo’s Lament’—an ode to that ‘ludicrous rope-lugger’ whose heart will ‘forever be at peals.’ Poets, we know, are auditory creatures and the poems gathered here invite you to turn your ear not only to the peal of bells, but also to the pair of grey shrike-thrushes singing outside their range (Kinsella), the wild cry of horse breaking through layers of mud and ice (Hollander), the rhythm of a train under the stars (Sant), the rustle of departing feet (Dunk), cockroaches scuttling under the fridge (Deo), the ring of a telephone from a mother who never calls (Sakr), and ‘the sound of young men / galloping terribly against each other’s bodies’ (Lawrence).
