How proud we are of our contributor and dear friend Ali Cobby Eckermann, winner of two major 2013 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards.  We just had to feature her again with this take on Families.   The Weekly Wrap is found below her poem.

Kumana

There is no life
but family

When I am young
I live with my family

When I grow up
I leave my family

When I am lonely
I miss my family

When I am drunk
I reverse charge my family

When I pass away
I unite family

There is no life
but Family

Our week focused on Nuclear Families citing Kurt Vonnegut “A husband, a wife and some kids is not a family.  It’s a terribly vulnerable survival unit.” (From “A Man Without a Country” Kurt Vonnegut 2005).  We finished with our illustrious illustrator Sir Bertram Postule’s take on extended families.

Ira Maine recounts a talk by Major Tom Sebring in which it is suggested that “Industrialisation destroyed the extended family.  Postule’s image of a Major can be seen below.   See our other posts on Nuclear Families through these links – here, here, and here!

This week’s Musical Dispatch from the Front took as its theme “Saraswathi, the goddess of wisdom, has forsaken Yuendumu.”  Great music, bizarre happenings – in our name!

Ira Maine brought us with his superb poem Stormy Weather on Poetry Sunday

This week’s theme is Mothers.  The omnipresent Ira Maine surprised us by suggesting Mothers were essential.  Glorious piece.

Sir Bertram Postule’s image of a Major

Postule’s image of a Major