Luke Whitington loves words. He is a poet. A poet’s task is to observe society and the human condition; a look at life from a couch on the footpath.

Luke has been a local resident for almost two decades and is widely recognised both here and overseas. He is the Potts Point Poet Laureate.

His ouvre has been published by the Irish Centre for poetry, The Sigh Press, Florence, in the Anthology of Canberra Poets, the Australian Anthology of Love Poetry and Poets’ Corner, New York. He is regular contributor to Quadrant, formerly edited by the late, great Les Murray AO.

His current book, “Only Fig and Proscuitto”, silhouettes his time in Italy, through its sensuous food and culture.

He is now working on a book about café society in Potts Point to be published early next year.

“Dust in the air.

The leaves lay, remembered

About her feet, life teetered on the edge

Then – and the pause never ended

Became a frozen smile, an etched emotion

Somewhere in the present

Or in memory again, a perception

Fell, like a loose piece of a temple

The roar of a relic –but stars stopped pulsing

And dust remained still in the air.

In my thoughts she still

Lives a life of everyday

Moments, a litter of simple ways

In a life piles up but she doesn’t move

She senses I am remembering

Senses I am reaching

With one hand, to touch her face

From far away, through

Forgetting and remembering

Through the haze of years —

Beyond what could not be said

Beyond what could not be helped

Luke Whitington.”

He is also a heritage conservator.

His spent six years restoring Portlick Castle, built in 1192 by order of King John. Portlick Castle is a late mediaeval tower house castle near the village of Glasson, County Westmeath, Ireland, about six miles from Athlone on the shores of Lough Ree It comprises a square late mediaeval four-storey stone tower with an attached two-storey Georgian wing and Victorian tower along with 30 hectares of walled gardens.

His conservation of a 12^th century Italian Monastery into a boutique hotel in Umbria was also a success.

Needless to say, he is a keen supporter of the arts having also established his own art gallery  by repurposing a former army sock factory in Dublin.

“Any community needs community galleries for emerging artists,” he says. “Art adds to our sense of well-being and takes us out of our quadrangular existence.”

He suggests the Metro Theatre complex at 28 Orwell Street, Potts Point, would make an ideal venue.

He believes good urban spaces are not plain or banal. So he enjoys the 2011 postcode area because it has a “hint of hassle” about it which vivifies the area.

To purchase “Only Fig and Proscuitto”

Publisher: Ginninderra press

PO Box 3461 Port Adelaide 5015
stephen@ginninderrapress.com.au
www.ginninderrapress.com.au

By Andrew Woodhouse