Alex Skovron – Antique Photographs

Skovron LE P&W February 2025

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Live Encounters Poetry & Writing February 2025

Antique Photographs, poem by Alex Skovron.


Antique Photographs

Screen flickers and jumps when I release the saver,
but at last a document attains focus. An email
clicked last evening but still unread,
and along the bottom a row of coloured icons
gazing philosophic, perhaps expectant,
out into the book-laminated room. I discover myself

staring blankly back into the message, thinking
if I should read it or open the attachment,
blue there among the other symbols, reminding me
that I had almost begun the article I had almost
turned down, when the editor knocked back
maybe for an answer. No, I’ll return to Sarajevo

later, more research first, more questions
to be answered, asked, like why is the paling fence
on our north boundary sagging in the wind,
when I had it repaired just last year? And how
is it that the Titanic museum we visited
on the drive out from Cork keeps swimming

before my eyes? Maybe I should dump 1914
—who needs another plug for the centenary?—
and focus on 1912, throw in the Lusitania, who came
to grief off the same Irish coast. And why
Ireland anyway? Something I must have dreamt,
to bring back those godforsaken faces so starkly,

sadly—but then, I always was hopelessly seduced
by antique photos. Yes, I have a perfect mind
to call it a morning, revisit that other museum,
close to home, where the walls gaze out, where
every face flickers, a saved unsaved screen
in and out of focus, alternately light and dark.


© Alex Skovron

Alex Skovron was born in Poland, lived briefly in Israel, and emigrated to Australia as a boy. His family settled in Sydney, where he grew up and completed his studies. From the early 1970s he worked as an editor for book publishers in Sydney and (after 1980) Melbourne. His poetry has appeared widely in Australia and overseas, and he has received a number of major awards for his work.

His most recent collection is Letters from the Periphery (2021); his previous book, Towards the Equator: New & Selected Poems (2014), was shortlisted in the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. Skovron’s collection of short stories The Man who Took to his Bed (2017), and his novella The Poet (2005), have been published in Czech translations; The Attic, a selection of his poetry translated into French, was published in 2013, and a bilingual volume of Chinese translations, Water Music, in 2017. His work has also appeared in Dutch, Macedonian, Polish and Spanish.

The numerous public readings he has given have included appearances in China, Serbia, India, Ireland and Portugal. In 2023 Alex Skovron was honoured with the Patrick White Literary Award for his contribution to Australian literature.

https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/reviews/alex-skovron-a-sweeping-range-towards-the-equator

A review of Letters from the Periphery by Alex Skovron.

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