Born in 1949, Geoff Goodfellow lived with his parents, John and Lois, and his three siblings, Annette, Mark and Brian, in a small house within the inner northern suburbs of Adelaide.
At 15 years old, Geoff left school and tried his hand at numerous different trades before settling in the building industry. In 1983, on February 1st, Geoff suffered a severe back injury and was forced to retire from early from his job. It was within this retirement that Geoff took up poetry. As he crawled around the floor at home Geoff took comfort in a book of poetry – “The collective works of Banjo Patterson”. After some time in bed he finally became well enough to venture to the local library and borrow a wider range of poetry collections. Eventually Geoff attempted his own work. Starting off as boring rhythmic poetry, Geoff’s work eventually took its own route and he developed a signature style of writing.
Geoff finally had his first collection published in 1986 under the name of ‘No Collars No Cuffs’ (it is now in its 9th printing).
Geoff now works full time touring different Universities, Schools, and Youth academies around the world “performing” his collections. He is also a regular speaker at numerous police academies teaching correct etiquette for use on the field. So far he has toured Cuba, The USA, Canada, The UK, Europe and China, sharing his many poems.
The most recent collection released to date is ‘Punch On Punch Off’, launched in his hometown of Adelaide on September 30th, 2004.
Early last year (2008), Geoff was diagnosed with cancer. A 250g tuma sat in the left side of his throat and was removed on the 10th of March that year along with the left side of his voice box, just prior to discovering it was a secondary tuma and the primary was yet to be found. It was within his recovery time that he started to brainstorm the ideas of his latest collection which is yet to be released. It includes a poem read on ABC radio “A number of doctors” (later renamed “The seventh doctor) which is ongoing for 12 minutes.
Goodfellow’s writing technique is raw and his poems ooze informality; this is where I believe his poems become so popular as they relate to their reader. It is this informal phrasing that puts the unique spin on his writing. He writes as if part of a conversation and there is no second party. He continuously rants using first person slang and unusual speech. Each of his poems seems to relate to another and in my opinion this is most effective when used in his collections. His recent work has become argumentative and he strives to write simple yet not simplistic.
Don’t Call Me Lad
(From “Bow Tie & Tails”)
Don’t call me lad
dad
just don’t call me lad
got more hair on my balls dad
than y’v got
or had
i’m eighteen years old man
& i’ll sink or i’ll swim
just don’t call me lad
dad
my name is James
or just Jim
& now that i vote dad
my party is green
get away with those flags dad
red & blue are both mean
y’ can roll up y’r sleeves dad
& slip on y’r tie
y’ can rant & lay guilt trips
but i’ll spit in y’r eye
yeah i grow some plants dad
but i’m keeping it cool
f
our’s not a plantation
i’m not such a fool
i just can’t find a job dad
year twelve was a waste
two friends have just died dad
too much of a taste
yeah i get the dole dad
though it don’t do much good
but don’t call me lad
dad
i’d work if i could
now i’m mellowing out man
this home-grown is just wild
so don’t call me lad
dad
i’m no longer a child
so don’t call me lad
dad
i’m no longer a child.
Here Geoff shows a rhythmic side to his poetry, he uses his signature first person attack and single party conversation. As you can see there are no responses but a lot of ranting with the slang I mentioned previously. I won’t lie and say I read a ot of poetry but I find Goodfellow’s writing to be incredibly unique not to mention intriguing. He takes into consideration the possible readers rather than the obvious ones – as shown in this poem where he speaks in the body of an 18 year old. He succeeds in this by giving variety in his writing and not sticking to one specific genre of poetry.
As Geoff Goodfellow still suffers from cancer it is unknown how long he will continue writing and performing his poems – most likely to the day he physically cannot.
