Poetry (books)
POETRY BOOKS BY JOHN JENKINS
UPDATED March 2025
### NB, my new website address is now: johnjenkins1.com
New! Good news! 
A DOUBLE ACT, poems co-written by John Jenkins and Ken Bolton
The Selected Poems by John Jenkins and Ken Bolton, titled A Double Act and published by Puncher and Wattmann, is now available from: https://puncherandwattmann.com/product/a-double-act-the-selected-collaborative-poems/ Or order a copy from your favourite bookshop.
Over the years, Ken and I have co-written numerous poems, with many published in the following books and booklets: Airborne Dogs and Other Collaborations (Brunswick Hills, 1988); The Ferrara Poems, a verse novel (Experimental Art Foundation, 1989); The Gutman Variations (Little Esther, 1993); Gwendolyn Windswept, a verse novel (serialized Otis Rush Magazine, 1994); The Wallah Group (Little Esther, 2001); Nutters Without Fetters, (Press Press, 2002); Poems of Relative Unlikelihood (Little Esther 2005); Lucky for Some (Little Esther, 2012). And The Ferrara Poems was also made into a short film. Now, a complete Selected is available here, in A Double Act. This book was recently reviewed by Caroline Overington, Literary Editor, in Notable Books, p. 14 of the July 22-23, 2023 Weekend Australian.
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New! My 2022 poetry collection, The Sky Inside Us, published by Ginninderra contains new and previously unpublished poems – many written (almost) yesterday. That said, a sparkling sprinkle date back to the 1960s and 1970s.
See: https://www.ginninderrapress.com.au/store.php?product/page/2401/John+Jenkins+%2F+The+Sky+Inside+Us
"In his eleventh poetry collection, John Jenkins displays a boldness and creative variety, across a wide sweep of subject matter, which should hold great appeal to readers... (as he) takes us on a rich and engaging journey, into the heart of modern Australian poetry."
(This volume also contains a wining poem from my local Shire of Nillumbik 2021 'Age-on-the-Page' Poetry Challenge, 'Independence Category'. See: https://www.nillumbik.vic.gov.au/Community/Older-people/Projects/Age-on-the-Page-poetry-challenge.)
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I am one of 35 verse novelists from Australia and Aotearoa-New Zealand interviewed by Linda Weste in her comprehensive, wide-ranging and inclusive book The Verse Novel Australian & New Zealand, from Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2022.
See: https://scholarly.info/book/the-verse-novel-australia-new-zealand/
Here, Linda Weste.... "explores the uniqueness of storytelling through poetry and the genre of the verse novel".
And Weste also asks some pertinent questions about my own A Break in the Weather, pub. Modern Writing Press 2003, and its back-then ground-breaking subject matter of environmental catastrophe and climate change. (Scroll down below for more details on this earlier book of mine, plus a pdf download.)
P O E M S F A R A N D W I D E Now published!
Australian literary publisher Puncher & Wattmann has published my 2019 collection of poems, Poems Far and Wide.
See: https://puncherandwattmann.com/product/poems-far-and-wide/
Poems Far and Wide is now available through all good bookshops.
It is distributed nationally by New South Books:
https://www.newsouthbooks.com.au/books/poems-far-and-wide/
The most recent review of this collection is by Devika Brendon on Rochford Street Review: https://rochfordstreetreview.com/2020/11/24/the-idea-of-a-chosen-plenitude-poems-far-and-wide-by-john-jenkins-reviewed-by-devika-brendon/
The terrific launch speech by Alex Skovron was also on Rochford Street Review:
And there is a review by Martin Duwell on his Australian Poetry Review website: http://www.australianpoetryreview.com.au/2019/10/john-jenkins-poems-far-wide/
Plus review by Jo French on page 26 of local paper, The Warrandyte Diary: https://warrandytediary.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/FEBRUARY-2020-WEB-final.pdf
"This very lively collection contains a wide sweep of poems, many of them prize-winning, taking readers on a remarkable journey. Some look to the past, others to the future, but all are of their time: the reverberating now. The tone is contemporary and bold, while the poet’s sensibility tends to favour an eclectic inclusiveness. Uniformly, this wide-ranging and poetically engaging collection demands to be enjoyed."
I hope readers enjoy Poems Far and Wide.... just as much as I enjoyed putting it together.
** Poems Far and Wide includes two first-prize winners, of both an international literary award and leading Australian poetry competition; plus eleven poems that have placed or been highly commended, commended or shortlisted in major awards. There is a refernce to one of its prize winners here (scroll down page slightly): https://stillcraic.blogspot.com/2015/03/
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Published in 2021:
A Half-Baked Fruitcake Of Nuts and Nonsense
Silly stuff for kids of all ages
During a Covid lockdown in my corner of the world, I was amazed to discover that I could draw. I had never tried before. Never! But I just started, and kept going. That said, I did know how to write silly rhymes! So I put the two together, my nonsense rhymes and new silly scribbles, then published this little book.
Here listed are the online bookstores now selling it: https://booko.com.au/9781922465658/A-Half-Baked-Fruitcake-of-Nuts-and-Nonsense-Silly-stuff-for-kids-of-all-ages
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Previous collections:
Over the past decades I have written nine previous books of poetry, including Growing up With Mr Menzies, published in 2008 by John Leonard Press. Download sections here: https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20190305182307/https://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/jenkins-john
Also, Ethos Books, Singapore, incuded the poem I Can Read Now, from Growing up With Mr Menzies, in their 2013 anthology of poetry, Little Things see: https://www.ethosbooks.com.sg/products/little-things-an-anthology-of-poetry?_pos=1&_sid=e74ab2819&_ss=r
In December 2008, Morag Fraser, in Australian Book Review, named Growing up With Mr Menzies as one of her top three Australian books of the year.
As posted above, I am one of 35 verse novelists from Australia and Aotearoa-New Zealand interviewed by Linda Weste in her comprehensive, wide-ranging and inclusive book The Verse Novel Australian & New Zealand, from Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2022. In this study, Weste also asks some pertinent questions about my A Break in the Weather, pub. Modern Writing Press 2003, and its back-then ground-breaking subject matter of environmental catastrophe and climate change. This book was dumbly attacked by climate change denying trolls and reviewers when it first appeared. Nowadays, how things have changed!
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My 2003 collection, Dark River, published by Five Islands Press, was included on a special episode of ABC Radio National's excellent Poetica program, and you can download the audio of this complete episode here:
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/archived/poetica/john-jenkins-dark-river/3334390
Dark River is listed in the Five Islands catalogue (scroll to year 2003):
Another early book was Blind Spot (1977).
And so too was The Wild White Sea (1990).
And talking of seas, The Inland Sea was published in1984.
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