A former Footscray mayor has realised a lifelong ambition by publishing his first book of poetry.
Ted Logan, 83, has penned “a variety of verse” loosely based on suburban observations, cricketing history, his early years as a school teacher in Gippsland in the 1950s and his more recent experiences conducting more than 5000 weddings as a civil celebrant.
The councillor of 15 years and three-time mayor of former Footscray council said the narrative poems in Poetry Potpourri have all been written over the past four years.
“I thought I’m getting on in years, so it was time to do this. These were all the things I thought were important enough to write about. I have tended to pick out something unusual.”
Poems range from the burning down of the state saw mill and the Queens’ pronunciation of Yallourn to observations of old men shopping in supermarkets and trips on the Footscray-Moonee Ponds tram.
“I’ve tried to get a few local things in. I try to keep the poems light with a bit of humour. As a teacher my contention is poetry is meant to be listened to, it’s meant to be spoken and listened to rather than read.”
Mr Logan said the book is therefore written in rhyming verse, reflecting the poets he adored in his childhood such as Byron, Wordsworth and Yeats.
“I have tried to use different rhyming plans. They sometimes come to me with the rhythm of walking, sometimes a couple of lines come to me and it sticks and I write around them from there.”
Copies of Poetry Potpourri can be purchased from Yarraville’s Sun Bookshop for $15 or via tedlogan@hotkey.net.au for $10.
