The Street Poet by Jaidyn Luke Attard
Take a ride through Melbourne’s underbelly with Johnny Lock – narrator of “The Street Poet” (2023) and fictional alter-ego of emerging Melbourne writer Jaidyn Luke Attard.
Johnny is a somewhat purposeless and self-described ‘paranoid’ narrator, until he meets Jay Khan, a British wanderer who pastes letters to strangers on street walls and laneways in Melbourne during the Covid pandemic. Jay teaches Johnny to observe the city and its stories, and the “rules” of street poetry: 1. Write something, and 2. Watch something.
As Attard notes in the preface: “Jay and I roamed the streets in search of hidden stories in the mundane and monotonous, lost in the hustle and bustle of capitalism and stranger danger, meeting those who had fallen through the cracks of society, and then we wrote about the things we saw. Somehow this meditative practice taught me to worry less about possible scenarios, to concentrate on the present, and to appreciate the things that I once ignored.”
So begins Johnny’s transformation into a street poet, and the 18 months (and 340 pages) that follow explore his life and artistic journey.
The book is an archive of this time, comprising typewritten diary entries, street-inspired poems, collages, illustrations and street photography of Johnny’s wanderings, observations and encounters. It brings to mind gritty YA novels of the 1990s and 2000s, further emphasised by the opening collage that states: “Keep Out! Private diaries not for reading.”
There are plenty of literary and artistic predecessors for Johnny Lock – including outsider artists, punk, graffiti and the figure of the flaneur – but the Beat poets are the clear influence. Channelling their counter-cultural attitude, Johnny’s raw, free verse breaks with literary conventions, exploring trauma, a paranoid psyche and social commentary.
Melbourne is the real star of this urban noir, and Johnny alternates between romanticising and being disillusioned by the city.
“city of funk, city of fashion,
i fall in love with every person
who smiles at me because i’m so alone and because the world is so beautiful – ”~ City of Literature
Here, Attard also takes a stab at the Melbourne literary scene:
“city of literature, city of writers,
the movement is already here and you didn’t know it”
Anti-institutional, anti-establishment, with a DIY ethos, Attard does fit the brief: in 2021 he co-wrote There’s a Tale to This City, dropping out of a Master’s degree in publishing to found the underground collaborative writer’s collective, the Degraves Circle, as well as his own independent publishing press, Back Shed Press.
To Attard/Johnny, street poetry offers authenticity: focused on exposing “truth” and showing the real people, real problems, that lie under the surface which society ignores. As he says in the preface:
“The lessons of the streets exposed me to hidden truths about this city, this country, and humanity as a whole – truths I couldn’t learn in school. Only by observing, listening, wandering, was I able to discern them.”
He focuses on the marginalised, the homeless, the street dwellers. While they’re often referred to by somewhat mythical names and characteristics – The Mute, the Money Monk, the Cardboard Man – Johnny usually has an eye for empathy, aiming to see them as part of our whole messy humanity.
Interestingly, the book is also a journal that chronicles the beginning of the pandemic, when our movements and freedoms in public and private space were drastically curtailed, as Melbourne became the most locked-down city in the world.
“Over the endless Melbourne lockdowns
the only souls inhabiting the ghost town of Melbourne are the homeless on their milk crates
roaming wild and free
huddling in the cold
freezing in the lockdown loneliness -& the anti-vax protestors rioting and swinging nooses, proud defiance on the streets, Neo-Nazis in the mix, alt-right on the rise nudging us
into a catastrophic crescendo -& the riot police in all their gear and their horses and their handcuffs and their megaphones decrying the riots
following the doctor’s orders -no wonder these are the only people
i can seem to write about these days -”
For those without privilege, access and opportunity, the street offers a free space for art and creativity.
So, ultimately, what does it take to be a street poet?
“You’ve gotta be good with words / or be a good runner to get away / but don’t forget the adrenaline.”
Emily Riches is a writer and editor from Mullumbimby, currently living on Cammeraygal land (Sydney). She founded Aniko Press to bring passionate writers and curious readers together, discover new voices and create a space for creative community. You can get in touch at emily@anikopress.com.