About Peter Elliott

Return to Home Page

There is Peter Elliott and Peter Elliott the Mad.

Peter Elliott the Mad is mad.
Or was.

Or is sometimes
And sometimes is not -
Most times, he thinks.

On occasions he and others disagree
About how mad he is.
In 1985 he spent three months
In Melbourne's Royal Park Psychiatric Hospital.
In 1986 he spent another
Ten days.
The first admission (at least) was involuntary.

Peter Elliott
Began writing poetry at school
Had some published in the school's magazine.
At University
He wrote poetry alone,
In a vacuum,
By himself.
Then he learned TM
And all his stress got released
Through meditation
And for a long time
He wrote nothing.

Peter Elliott the Mad
Sometime in the mid eighties
Formed the theory
That writing under
inspiration
Can be a form of personal growth
In that it can discharge
Residual impressions
Arising from interrupted past feelings.

In the mid eighties
He began to explore
Melbourne's performing poetry scene
In the form of the Jamin Cafe.

A lull followed -
A few years of life
Weighed down by what
He took to be medication.

Until the 1988 Olympics
When he heard on the radio
Duncan Armstrong win a gold swimming medal
For Australia
And something of his depression
Lifted.

Soon he was going
To the little group
Of performance poetry venues.

He remembers
the Lizard Lounge
the Rochester Castle
the Highbridge Hotel
Carton Contact.

As time progressed
And venues came and went
The Rochester Castle
Shifted over to the Perseverance Hotel
Then moved to the Dan O'Connell
Which split into the Evelyn.

As this is being written
Venues come and go in Melbourne
With breathtaking rapidity.

Should there be written
A history of performance poetry
In Melbourne
In the nineteen nineties
Peter Elliott might get a mention
As the convener of the Friday night
Coreys Cafe poetry readings
And as the publisher
Of the magazine "Salvaged from Coreys".

Peter Elliott
Has never featured
At any venue;
The same can be said
For Peter Elliott the Mad.
The two of them together
Have lost approximately
Fifteen hundred dollars
Trying to promote their poetry magazine
And Peter Elliott's chapbook "Be Meditated".

Peter Elliott
I hope you'll be pleased to hear
Has recently joined the Australian Computer Society
And works
In the Victorian Department of Justice
Helping compile court-related statistics.

Peter Elliott
Is a Christian
Of the Anglican persuasion
Who attends church regularly.
So too Peter Elliott the Mad.

Peter Elliott 
Is both a unionist
And a shareholder
Perhaps it would be better
To say
A shareholder
And a unionist.

Peter Elliott's shareholdings
Although small now
He would like to increase.

Peter Elliott used to think he was a socialist
Because he cared
About the masses
Just a bit more
Than usual.
He has recently found out
To be a socialist
He should also want to abolish
The private profit system.

Peter Elliott 
Is musical
Can read music - at least melody lines -
Can play guitar
And sing.

Peter Elliott is unmarried
He would like to be
But she would need to bring
A certain financial consideration
To the match
Or convince Peter Elliott
To share her poverty
She would also have to deal
With Peter Elliott the Mad.

Adjusted as he is to his modest life-style
Peter Elliott is wary
About seeing it become
Even more modest.

Peter Elliott 
Finds these days he is too scared
To be interested
In politics

So too
Is Peter Elliott
The Mad.

  ---(Peter Elliott)--

Return to Home Page