The University of Texas at Austin

Law in Popular Culture collection

INTELLIGIBLE HUES: LAWYERS & POETRY

SUSAN CURRIE
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What is a Poem?
 

A poem is athletic
an Adam
an apple
an arrow
arched

A poem is brief 
a buzz
a beckon 
a brilliance
buoyant

A poem is crafted
a changeling
a charisma
a caterpillar
coming out

A poem is daring
a dance
a drug
a dying
delirious

A poem is elegant
an edifice
an exorcism
an epiphany
erotic

A poem is feisty 
a feather
a fancy
a faith
formidable

A poem is gaunt
a gasp
a glimpse
a glimmer
grave

A poem is harmonious
a hallelujah
a harp
a hybrid
haunting

A poem is ingenious
an improvisation
an inspiration
an illumination
intuitive

A poem is joyous
a jewel
a juxtaposition
a jolt
jumping

A poem is karma
a kiss
a kite
a kipper
kicking

A poem is lithe
a lure
a lyre
a lare 
liberating

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A poem is mystical
a maharajah
a mosaic
a memory
mercurial

A poem is naive
a navel
a nymph
a gnome
naked

A poem is organic
an opening
an odyssey
an opera
original

A poem is pared
a possibility
a pithiness
a pinch of
perfection

A poem is quintessential
a quickening
a quest
equivalence
quality

A poem is raw
a risk
a rage
a roar
reverberating

A poem is sensuous
a shimmy
a shiver
a symphony
silken

A poem is tantalizing
a tarantella
a tarantula
a tea ceremony
tasting

A poem is unique
an undulation
an undercurrent
an underdog
ubiquitous

A poem is visionary
a violet
a viola
a vulva
violent

A poem is whimsical
a will'o'the'wisp
a wave
a watershed
wisdom

A poem is existential
an excision
an X ray
an exhortation 
exhilarating

A poem is yeasty
a yearning
a yabba dabba do
a ying and 
yang 

A poem just izzzzzzz
 
 

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Susan Currie, a barrister and solicitor in Queensland, Australia, took early retirement in 2002 to pursue her writing. She is presently enrolled in a Masters degree program at Queensland University of Technology where she studies creative writing and is writing a biography of Dr. Janet Irwin, a women's health activist. 
Currie obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Queensland in 1967 and her Bachelor of Laws degree from Queensland in 1979. She was admitted as a barrister of the Supreme Court of Queensland in 1980 and as a solicitor of the court in 1989. In 1994 she received a Master of Laws degree from Queensland University of Technology. During the 1990s Currie was a lecturer in Justice Studies on the Faculty of Law at Queensland University of Technology.