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y separately published work icon Killing the Black Dog : Essay and Poems selected work   poetry   prose  
  • Author:agent Les Murray http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/murray-les
Issue Details: First known date: 1997... 1997 Killing the Black Dog : Essay and Poems
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Contents

* Contents derived from the Leichhardt, Glebe - Leichhardt - Balmain area, Sydney Inner West, Sydney, New South Wales,:Federation Press , 1997 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
Les Murray and the Black Dog Killing the Black Dog, Les Murray , single work prose

''On the last day of 1985, I went home to live in Bunyah, the farming valley I had left some twenty-nine years earlier. My wife and our younger children followed two days later … at last I was going home, to care for my father in his old age and to live in the place from which I'd always felt displaced. What I didn't know was that I was heading home in order to go mad.'

'Killing the Black Dog is Les Murray's frank and courageous account of his struggle with depression. Since this essay first appeared, hosts of readers have drawn insight from his account of the disease, its social effects and its origins in his family's history. Murray describes how patches of daylight now balance out those of darkness in his life.' (Publication summary)

 (p. 1-24)
A Reticencei"After a silver summer", Les Murray , single work poetry (p. 23-24)
An Absolutely Ordinary Rainbowi"The word goes round Repins, the murmur goes round Lorenzinis,", Les Murray , single work poetry (p. 27-28)
Midsummer Icei"Remember how I used", Les Murray , single work poetry (p. 29)
A Torturer's Apprenticeshipi"Those years trapped in a middling cream town", Les Murray , single work poetry (p. 30)
An Erai"The poor were fat and the rich were lean.", Les Murray , single work poetry (p. 31)
The Past Ever Presenti"Love is always an awarded thing", Les Murray , single work poetry (p. 31)
Where Humans Can't Leave and Mustn't Complaini"Where humans can't leave, and mustn't complain,", Les Murray , single work poetry (p. 32)
Rock Musici"Sex is a Nazi. The students all knew", Les Murray , single work poetry (p. 33)
Cornichei"I work all day and hardly drink at all.", Les Murray , single work poetry (p. 34-35)
On Home Beachesi"Back, in my fifties, fatter than I was then,", Les Murray , single work poetry (p. 36)
The Beneficiariesi"Higamus hogamus", Les Murray , single work poetry (p. 36)
Performancei"I starred last night, I shone:", Les Murray , single work poetry (p. 37)
Memories of the Height-to-Weight Ratioi"I was a translator in the Institute back", Les Murray , single work poetry biography (p. 38-39)
A Stage of Gentrificationi"Most culture has been an East German plastic bag, pulled over our heads, stifling and wet.", Les Murray , single work poetry (p. 40)
Burning Wanti"From just on puberty, I lived in funeral:", Les Murray , single work poetry (p. 41-42)
Demoi"No. Not from me. Never.", Les Murray , single work poetry (p. 43-44)
The Head-Spideri"Where I lived once, a roller-coaster's range", Les Murray , single work poetry (p. 45)
One Kneeling, One Looking Downi"Half-buried timbers chained corduroy", Les Murray , single work poetry (p. 46-47)
Travels with John Hunteri"We who travel between worlds", Les Murray , single work poetry biography (p. 48-51)
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