Punching on: Geoff Goodfellow shows the scars of a battle with life and cancer.
JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
IF JIMMY Barnes never performed Working Class Man, then Geoff Goodfellow would have.
The working class theme repeats throughout the Independent’s conversation with the man described as Australia’s toughest poet.
Poetry and toughness are not quite comfortable bedfellows – and working class people and snobbish poetry even less so.
But Geoff has a ready answer.
“I’m from working-class stock and my poetry is working class.”
The blue collar wordsmith will bring his unique voice to Geelong’s Courthouse on Sunday.
Goodfellow expected a sympathetic audience in Geelong.
“Geelong’s a working-class town. I think I’ve got something to say that will resonate with the people of Geelong.
“Besides, I’ve got half a dozen cousins there and I don’t mind showing off in front of them.”
Goodfellow admitted he entered the world of poetry with “a great deal of trepidation initially.
“It seems an absolute contradiction to be writing poetry about working-class people but I’m trying to write poetry that communicates with everyday people.”
If that was his aim, Goodfellow has well and truly hit the mark. His latest book, Waltzing with Jack Dancer, is his ninth published volume of poetry, many of which have gone through reprints.
But Goodfellow doesn’t just write poetry. He performs it, sometimes in the most unlikely of places such as jails and construction sites.
He was the writer in residence for the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union in 1990 and travelled the rails as ‘Poet on the Trains’ on The Ghan, Indian Pacific and Melbourne Express.
He has toured schools, performed at writers’ festivals around the world and had his portrait painted for the Archibald prize.
Despite all that, Goodfellow said his working-class roots still drove his work.
His fight with cancer motivated his latest book, drawing on his family’s boxing heritage.
“I’m a walk-up fighter brought up in a family of fighters and boxers, so when I was told I had up to five years to live I told the doctor he was wrong.”
Diagnosed with cancer of the throat, Goodfellow is now three and half years into a healthy living regimen – keeping his body in good shape, exercising and eating well.
He confessed to infusing his performances with black humour.
“It’s a good sign that we live in a healthy society when people can still laugh and cry with me as we go through the cancer journey.”
An Afternoon with Geoff Goodfellow will begin 3.20pm at Courthouse ARTS as part of Melbourne Writers Festival.
Tickets cost $10 or $5 for members at courthouse.org.au or by phoning 5272 4689.
