Catchment – Poetry of Place is an online literary journal based in the West Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia. The journal has been established under the auspices of the Baw Baw Arts Alliance and is edited by Rodney Williams with the assistance of Jennifer Fell and others.

The first edition of the journal was released on 21 December 2023. The intention going forward is to publish two editions per year that align with the summer and winter solstices.

Catchment invites poets resident in Australia to submit tanka and/or longer forms of poetry that reflect our understanding of place. The poems themselves can be set in Australia or in other locations. The journal is off to a great start with Edition 1 already having attracted writers from across the country.

Tanka is a traditional Japanese form of poetry that is popular around the world. While English-language haiku are written in three lines, English-language tanka comprise five lines. Here is a tanka by Kent Robinson that appears in Catchment Edition 1:

the hours of shadow
herald their arrival
through moonglow
leather of wing, they swoop
to prance among the quandongs

Australians will recognise this as a poem about fruit bats (also known as flying foxes). The bats hang upside down in trees until dusk when they head out in large numbers to feed on the nectar and fruit of plants such as the quandong, a native Australian tree. However, even without this background knowledge, the strong images in this poem evoke a myriad of feelings ranging from ominous to playful.

The tanka in Catchment complement the longer, more western styles of poetry. Together, the poems shed light on the north, south, east and west of this country, city and rural life, fire and flood, past and present, the desert and the sea. By writing about the plants, animals and human activity in these places, the poems in Catchment bring to the surface both our practical experience of a place, and our emotional response to that place.

Here is a poem by Jane Downing that’s set in the Sunshine Coast hinterland:

On the Cooran to Gympie Road

I do not remember
growing up in a tent on the
creek bank
being tied to the clothes pole
until I was conditioned
by the length of rope
unable to move beyond its radius
even when the other end was flung
on top of a weedy tussock

I do not remember
the first roof over my head
the scars on the backs
of my legs because
the bread saw was nearest
when mum let rip
missing dinner three nights
running because the cow
had strayed
found by a neighbour twenty-five
miles away
my first pair of shoes at fifteen

I do remember
my father telling these stories
feeling them in my blood
the stones burning the soles
of the feet
the gums ghosting the nights
He spoke without anger
it was what it was
nothing can change it now

Jane’s poem takes us back to a time and place when circumstances were difficult. When life treated people harshly. A time when adults and children all felt the pain of their travails. Her poem shows us what a struggle life was for a poor, rural family living on the Cooran to Gympie road.

You can read Edition 1 of Catchment – Poetry of Place here. The submission period for Edition 2 will run from 21 March to 21 May with online publication due to occur on 21 June 2024. I’m sure the Catchment team is seeking a strong collection of poems for Edition 2, so start getting your tanka and other poems ready if you would like to submit.