If Canberra had a poet laureate, it would surely be Geoff Page.
But receiving the Medal of the Order of Australia this Australia Day is the next best thing for the award-winning poet, critic and writer.
A frequent contributor to The Canberra Times, and champion of the local and national poetry scene, Page has published or contributed to at least 50 volumes, the most recent published in 2021.
"I've been writing poetry since I was about 25 - I was a bit of a late starter but I've been busy since," he said.
As head of the English department at Narrabundah College from 1974 to 2001, he has also ensured that a certain cohort of Canberrans, spanning an entire generation - maybe even two - left school with a solid grounding in poetry.
Whether they went on to use this knowledge, they have Page to thank for those obscure tidbits about Chaucer, Emily Dickinson, Shakespeare and Banjo Patterson.
These days, he's a vital link between Canberra's older generation of poets, emerging voices, and the surprisingly vibrant community that makes up the difference.
And while poetry is often relegated to the sidelines when it comes to literature, his advocacy - for want of a better word - has never felt like an uphill battle.
"There are always controversies around the sort of public profile of poetry - it goes up and down at different times in history and different cultures and so on," he said.
"And it could be higher than it is in Australia, but it's not too bad. I think over the last 40-50 years there's usually been, I would say, something like about 200 to 300 people writing perfectly fine poetry in Australia. Some people would put it in the 1000s, but I wouldn't go that far.
"But there are 1000s of people trying and some of them get pretty good after a while.
He says poetry should be seen as no different to other forms of literature, and he's more than a little chuffed for his life's work to be recognised on Australia Day.
"I think as humankind has a thirst for story, and it also has a thirst for pattern language," he said.
"It emerges in every culture. The importance of pattern language varies a bit, but there's never an absence of it. It's always there, so although translation can be difficult, it is important that you read as much poetry in translation as you can find the time for.
"I just think it's no more important than any other art, but in terms of literature it's fundamental in the sense that it's by far the longest living of the literary genres. Novels have been around since the 18th century, and poetry has been around since 3500 BC. And it's been in Aboriginal song cycles for over 60,000 years."
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