Welcome to the sixth issue of Divan. Inside you will find 62 poems by 49 of Australia’s finest new, emerging and established poets.

As with previous issues, the range of content and form is wide. There are love poems, nature poems, domestic poems. There are poems of the creative process and the exploration of language, poems of political, social and historical comment, and poems investigating the relationships between people and within the self. There are poems that treat serious subjects with humour and poems that are written for the humour. There are poems tapping into contemporary/popular culture and poems still mining ancient cultures. And, for the first time, there are poems in another language, along with English translations.

As for form, the majority of work, in keeping with the trend since the early 20^th century, is free verse, though there are some pieces exploring traditional metres, including that recent Australian adaptation of the haiku, the Roo-ku. What this issue shows is that poetry is a diverse practice and Australian poets are continuing to interrogate their worlds, their visions, their art forms, and expand the awareness of these things as they do so.

A journal of this calibre cannot be produced without the hard work of a number of dedicated people. Firstly, I would like to thank Box Hill Institute for its provision of IT and staffing resources. Specific people within the institute deserving recognition include Dominic Pentony and Antonina Petrolito of Online Services and Norm Waters, Manager of the Centre for Vocational Access and Education.

Secondly, there is my Assistant Editor, Joe Ennis. Student volunteers who work on editing and production for the journal do so as part of a subject called Practical Placement in the Diploma of Arts course Professional Writing & Editing, but Joe, as with students in previous issues, has stayed with the project far longer than his study commitments required, and this work ethic, as well as his creative contributions, I wish to acknowledge.

Thirdly, there are the poets themselves. Over 100 of them submitted nearly 400 poems, and their enthusiasm for poetry and the breadth of subjects they wrote about clearly demonstrate that poetry still has the power to help people make sense of their lives and the world around them; as Philip Larkin once said, The most positive act in the world is writing a poem. Their efforts, whether or not their pieces were selected for this issue, are to be applauded. Finally, there are our readers, who deserve much appreciation for their patience and perseverance while this issue was being created. As with all small literary undertakings, there are many hurdles to overcome in order to bring out regular issues: technical and production difficulties, changes of personnel, and the demands on personnel of their private and professional lives. Though we at Divan have had to endure a series of such challenges for the last four years, it is the encouragement and support of our readers that has enabled us to overcome these challenges and to renew our determination to continue producing the best journal of Australian poetry we can well into the future.

Thank you again, and happy reading!

Earl Livings
Editor