The View Westward
Raymond Curtis
“Raymond’s poetry is a precious evocation of what it is to have lived in a green world, to have loved it and watched it change, and to have expressed all that experience masterfully in words”
– Meredith McKinney, Introduction to The View Westward
Raymond Curtis
(1927-2018)
Raymond Curtis came from one of the earliest European families to settle on Tamborine Mountain. He pursued various occupations, including builder, farmer, laboratory technician, mailman, professional musician and park ranger. Mostly he lived on Tamborine Mountain, although he spent periods elsewhere. He founded the Tamborine Mountain Choral Society in 1953, and the Tamborine Mountain Youth Orchestra in 1974.
He wrote music, poetry and memoir. Calanthe Press helped compile Raymond’s self-published volume The View Westward: Tamborine Mountain Poems in 2017. He shared his poetry at many Calanthe events, before dying in 2018 aged 91. He is very much missed by his many friends on the Mountain.
Profits from sales of The View Westward are jointly shared by TM Landcare and the TM Orchestra, which Raymond founded.
Poetry
Double Rainbow, self-published, 1989 (out of print)
The View Westward: Tamborine Mountain Poems, self-published with the assistance of members of Calanthe Collective, 2017 (contains some poems from Double Rainbow, plus previously unpublished poems)
Memoir
Rainforest Journal, 2003
Bright Morning – Memories of Childhood in the Nineteen Thirties on Tamborine Mountain, 2014
(both memoirs are available from Under the Greenwood Tree Bookshop and Art Gallery on Tamborine Mountain, and other outlets)