The Cruellest Month

Poem: Opening the Gates

2012-01-25T11:33:00.001+11:00

Opening the gates on a sodden world
is like opening the gates on a world changed,
its skin scooped open by a watery hand
and its constituent earth unearthed.

I have watched roads being covered over
by a grave of water that would claim all cars,
and I have watched yards slowly puddling
till even the tallest grasses are cowed by their weight.

And, while I do not wonder why the birds of the morning
are not defying the rain with their early dawn calls,
I wonder why the sussurus of the water
reminds of waves of cricket-song on a damp night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light
in this world of grey cloudcover, O birds,
and I will rage with you as you turn the watery grave
to a river of lifegivingness, and an inspiration for poetry.

In case you did not know, this is a poem written in the immediate context of a heavy, steady rainfall, with roads closed and the risk of flooding. Like a lot of my poems, while inspired by my immediate world, it is not about it; hence the obviousness of the literary allusion.

Your Feedback Is Appreciated

2012-01-24T15:15:00.001+11:00

I have been thinking, today, about NaPoWriMo, coming up in April. Specifically, since I plan on taking part again, I was wondering whether I should use the poems I have been writing every day, for 2012, or (as a greater challenge) writing a separate poem per day over April.

What do you think?

My First (Prose) E-Book

2012-01-24T14:50:00.002+11:00

I've started work on what will be the first of a series of e-books about writing poetry. I have yet to work out the title (that can come later) but the idea is to list many of the varieties of sonnets that I write and know about, and give the basic rules, examples, and hints on how to write them.

Not only will I be talking about the "classical" rhyming sonnets, but I shall be talking about the varieties of non-rhyming sonnets as well. So that includes, for example, free verse sonnets, blank verse sonnets, and Sapphic sonnets, among others.

In reality, with a bit of creative forethought, there is such a wide variety of possible sonnet types that we can work with and experiment with, and most of these revolve around expanding the range of metrical types.

I want to briefly mention, before I go, one of these forms, the alliterative sonnet. Each line is a line of alliterative meter: four stressed syllables, two or three of which must alliterate with each other (with the third the one that must always alliterate) and an undefined number of unstressed syllables (and syllables with secondary stress). Each line ends with a rhyming word, and so the last stressed syllable comes towards the end of the line, and the rhyme scheme is that of any other sonnet variation.

The end result is a sonnet whose lines can vary considerably, and are not always ten syllables in length. And it's a challenging and enjoyable form to write, as I have often found.

So why not try variations of the basic forms? They're there to learn, twist and play with, not to slavishly follow, and the process of playing around with poetic forms can help with making your poetry better, since we are always learning what is possible with our poems.

Sonnet for a Friend

2012-01-16T13:31:00.001+11:00

The sun's a light I love, lovely to know
when it shines high, at noon. I know it's near
to cliche, like the moon, in poems. Its glow,
its setting, all that guff. But still it's clear:
the sun is something special. When I go
to write about the sun, I feel it here
within me, such the love I hold. And so,
the sun's a light I love, and my love grows.

You are a lesser sun: you light my day
and guide my dreams at night; you turn my eyes
towards the heights; you give me every reason
to live a loyal life. What can I say?
I know: I've had enough of living lies--
let metaphors exist for us a season.

Today's Appearances

2012-01-15T18:46:00.002+11:00

It's been a good day for me, acceptance-wise. I have had three poems appear online, from three separate markets:

Tho Tan Hinh Thuc have accepted "Heroes (for Clare)"
Liath Fail has accepted "The Last Sibyl"
Bluepepper has accepted "15th of January, 2012".

I can't say that I can complain about a remarkable day.

Latest Appearance: "Heroes (for Clare)"

2012-01-15T11:34:00.002+11:00

My latest poem to appear online is "Heroes (for Clare)", a free verse sonnet dedicated to my partner. It appears with a translation into Vietnamese, as well.

The Craft of Poetry: Meter and Rhythm

2012-01-13T09:55:00.000+11:00

As you will have noticed earlier, I like to write poetry that is formal, yet unrhymed. I also like writing rhymed formal poetry as well as other types of poetry. But today, I wanted to talk about one of the benefits of having an underlying meter to one's poem.

This benefit is that that rhythm and meter are not synonymous. I like to say that meter is the theory, but rhythm is the practice. I can also say that meter is the tune, and rhythm is the set of variations on that tune.

Let me explain.

The meter sets up a regular pattern of stresses that can be predicted, but not predictable in the pejorative sense. It can be as simple as iambic pentameter (U/|U/|U/|U/|U/) or as complex as you desire. A recent poem of mine, for example, has lines of the following meter: U/U|U/|U/U|U/.

Rhythm can introduce variations on this via a number of basic steps. You could, if we look at iambs, substitute a foot or feet for others (eg. UU//|U/|U/|U/ or UU/|U/|U/|U/|U/), invert the foot (so that it is /U instead of U/) or add or subtract unstressed syllables (eg. U/|U/|U/|U/|U/U or /|U/|U/|U/|U/) and so on.

And some meters are more amenable to this than are others.

So we can also think of the distinction in this way: meter is the melody, rhythm the counterpoint.

Of course, what matters is that the meter does not act as a straightjacket for the poem, so that the poem's language is not disjointed or bent into artificial and painful positions. The poem, yes, may be artificial, just as language is, but it has a relationship with speech, so that, while the speech may, in varying degrees, be elevated or otherwise, it should still have a relationship with the speech of its contemporaries.

Recent Purchases: 1001 Ways to Market your Books

2012-01-12T11:18:00.000+11:00

I've just received, this very morning, my copy of the sixth edition of John Kremer's 1001 Ways to Market your Books. I've yet to do more than graze here and there, but I was so excited I wanted to let you know, and have the Amazon link to buy your own copy.

Review: Knuckled / Fiona Wright

2012-01-11T12:16:00.000+11:00

In the reviews that I have seen and read of Fiona Wright's Knuckled, the words bony and assertive are not uncommon. It is easy to see how that is, on reading this book. The poems are frequented by concrete, and specific nouns and images, and the rhythms and the syntax is sinewy, muscularAnd though not all poetry is supposed to be this way, these qualities are in concord with the poems' rhetoric and arguments, as well as their settings. Everything works, in other words, and everything is in concord.

It has been argued that poetry does not seek to record perfection as much as our want of it, and our progress towards it. The poems, in Knuckled come close to that ideal. But they are not the stereotypical beauty of an English countryside, limpid and green, but the beauty of a suburban landscape in Western Sydney, and in the wider Asian settings of many of the other poems.

And it is a pity that I cannot reproduce the effect of the poem on the page here, in this blog. The use of blank space on the page, while not innovative when looking at the history of poetry, is effective and underscores and highlights the relationships of the lines to the poems as a whole. Just as traditional indentation is a way of typographically emphasising the rhyme scheme, so that the structure of the poem becomes more apparent, here the use of wider indentations emphasises the rhetorical constructions of the poems.

And the result is a body of poetry that works quite well in creating a world beside the external one familiar to us. It is unlike other poets' worlds, in that it is -- not so much lapidary -- rather, knuckled; the title becomes lucid as a result, even as it opens up to other meanings equally important.

But I will leave with a simple quotation from a later piece from Knuckled, “Earth”, which begins in this fashion:

Motorcycles slow to match my tread
there are no footpaths and my feet
grow dessicant

It should not come as a suprise to see the excellent use of the half-slant rhyme, so to speak, of “feet” and “dessicant” in lines two and three. This sort of technical skill is evident in the other poems, and I would love to have the opportunity to talk at length about Ms Wright's use of poetic technique. This is poetry that is lucidly complex, where the complexity underscores the clarity of the language, and ties it into the sinewy nature of its being. And this -- I predict -- will form a significant part of the more detailed criticism that Knuckled and Ms Wright's poetry should elucidate.

Call for Papers: Five Brisbane Poets

2012-01-10T21:10:00.002+11:00

Wind and Wave Press is looking for two male, and three female poets for Five Brisbane Poets, to be published in print and ebook editions. Interested poets are invited to submit, in a single RTF or Doc attachement, 20 to 40 pages of poetry to Phillip A. Ellis -- phillip.a.ellis @ gmail.com

Submit with a full cover letter, and include all details of prior publication. You do not need to have had a prior book or chapbook to submit. Deadline: June 30, 2012.

A False Choice

2012-01-02T10:00:00.001+11:00

I have had people, when we are talking about poetry, present a choice between rhyming verse and free verse, as if there are only the two choices. Really, the choices are many, and fall between those with an underlying meter or meters, and those without.

The reality is always more complicated than most assume. Take the following piece, written this morning:

"Lines for my Children's Education"
With winter a dream, and the summer dream,
the world a reality, dream as well,
we dreamers aren't culpable, nor is God:
the world is the world that we make within.
Some fashion a sonnet, some fashion swords,
some fashion a sport, as the others make
their multiples; pause here, for people make
and shape most the objects within the world.
Do animals live or they die? We claim
the power of life or of death. We seem
the power, yet powerless, scythe and saint,
the maker yet made, and as mortal, made.
We fashion our misery, fashion joys,
we fashion our beauty, and fashion days
of terror or peacefulness, making us
the students of fate and the toys of time.
With winter a dream, and the summer dream,
the world a reality, dream as well,
we dreamers aren't culpable, nor is God:
the world is the world that we make within.

You will notice that it has an underlying meter (U/UU/UU/U/) which is quite rigid, and that it does not rhyme. But it is a species of formal verse, not free verse, and since it is formal verse it demonstrates that there is room for a structured verse without the use of rhyme. We should remember that most of classical Greek verse did not rely on rhyme, even as it had a vast array of meters, for example, and that, while much of native Latin poetry relied on rhyme, its imitations of form from the Greek usually did not.

Really, it doesn't matter whether you write rhyming verse, unrhymed verse, formal verse, free verse, syllabic verse, syllabic-accentual verse, accentual verse, or verse of whatsoever leaning, as long as you learn the craft, write the best that you can, and revise until the work is as polished as it can be for the poem in question. As long as you choose standards that are professional, rather than amateur.

Latest Appearance: Bluepepper

2011-12-29T16:29:00.000+11:00

Justin at Bluepepper has recently accepted and posted three of my poems, here. There are three poems up, "Not a Sonnet about Frank O'Hara's Reginald Grundies", "gordian Knots", and "Name me, I Die". Here are some notes about the first:"Not a Sonnet about Frank O'Hara's Reginald Grundies"Australia, along with the UK, uses a form of slang called rhyming slang. One term is someone's Reg Grundies, their undies or underwear. Reg Grundy was an Australian television producer responsible for many of Australia's favourite dramas in the 1970s and 1980s.And the "Not a Sonnet" part? Although, like sonnets, quatorzains have 14 lines they lack the rhyme scheme and other features of a sonnet. In this case the poem has two groups of seven lines.

Further Apologies

2011-12-29T16:21:00.001+11:00

I have to apologise even further: over Christmas I contracted a case of shingles on my torso, and, until today, it's generally been too painful for me to sit and blog. As a result, I doubt that I will find the time to finish off the Christmas poems, because I don't feel comfortable trying to push myself to compose, revise, transcribe and post.I do, however, have one piece of good news, and will mention it in the post above this one.Thank you for your time, your patience, and your support, and I hope that 2012 turns out to be a healthier and happier year for you and yours.Phillip

Christmas Poem: Christmas Meditation, 2011

2011-12-25T21:37:00.002+11:00

Christmas Meditation, 2011

I will not live within the past, and count
the Christmases of childhood days the best
of my life. Let me make a simple point
about the best, about the worst, the rest:

each year's the same yet different, and so
from a Christmas lost and gone, to ones we know,
and on to this today, to futures still
to come, we tread upon the yearly wheel.

Christmas Eve Poem: Christmas Eve, 2011

2011-12-24T11:45:00.000+11:00

Christmas Eve, 2011

The day is not yet over,
yet a sense of something hovers,
like the sun when it is midday,
firmly rooted in the sky
and higher than poem's reach.

The year is nearly over,
and a noisy mynah quips
in the tree outside my window
with a voice as unlike Christmas Eve
as you can imagine in summer.

Many years ago, I would listen
as the sparrows scrabbled overhead,
as the heat gathered up its skirts
and sat on the escarpment,
cooling its feet in the Tasman Sea.

But I have survived, thriving,
dealing out poetry lately,
making for myself a world in the world
where the heat of Christmas Eve
engenders something like reflection.

Friday's Christmas Poem: The Villanelle of a White Christmas

2011-12-24T11:33:00.000+11:00

The Villanelle of a White Christmas

We may well dream of Christmas, white and snowy
with showy bits of holly, mistletoe,
but snow is wet and icky. Let's desist

and look instead down under, at the heatwaves
and pails of prawn and lobsters, since they say
we may well dream of Christmas, white and snowy

when it's quite cold. But look, instead, to beer
on ice. It's nice and cold just like the snow,
but snow is wet and icky. Let's desist

from that comparison; let's simply say
we may well dream of Christmas, simply that:
we may well dream of Christmas, white and snowy

with holly, eggnog, all the trimmings. Maybe

with reindeer, snowmen, Santa, maybe Scrooge;but snow is wet and icky. Let's desist

and turn instead to thinking this: the day
is just another day, soon over, so
we may well dream of Christmas, white and snowy
but snow is wet and icky. Let's desist.

Thursday's Christmas Poem: A Pantoum on Christmas

2011-12-24T11:11:00.000+11:00

A Pantoum on Christmas

Farewell, you Christmas days of childhood,
with your hours of play and peevish boredom--
let another year claim you, to slip to the distance:
you will fade away for forever in a brief moment.

With your hours of play and peevish boredom,
with your family gatherings where one-upmanship echoed,
you will fade away for forever in a brief moment
and you will have the good grace to be forgotten promptly.

With your family gatherings where one-upmanship echoed,
what can I say of the matter, excepting, that is, only this?;
and you will have the good grace to be forgotten promptly
except for this relict that is a verbal memory, nothing greater.

What can I say of the matter, excepting, that is, only this?
Let another year claim you, to slip to the distance
except for this relict that is a verbal memory, nothing greater.
Farewell, you Christmas days of childhood!

Yesterday's Christmas Poem: a Christmas Sestet

2011-12-22T07:40:00.001+11:00

A Christmas Sestet

I have not known the flows of snow this day,
but, if I may, I hope that something filters
from dreams of white and wonderlands, that lie
alike a trope of younger days, when childhood
was lived, and hearts had hope, and when I'd see
that sweeter blue above escarpments, cyan.

Apologies

2011-12-21T19:18:00.000+11:00

I must apologise for the break in poetry, as I'd picked up a gastric bug that has resulted, until today, in me being unable to sit and work without either pain or interruptions. I have largely recovered, however, and hope to post another Christmas poem tonight, and I am looking into making up for the unwanted break with extra poems beyond Christmas day.. I owe you about three poems.Thank you for putting up with me.

Christmas Poems: A Coastal Christmas Image

2011-12-17T11:14:00.000+11:00

A Coastal Christmas Image

trees' decorations
swaying, dandled by breezes
sidling from oceans

Compeition: the FreeXpresSion 2012 Literary Competition

2011-12-16T16:25:00.001+11:00

Deadline: Tuesday the 28th of February, 2012Entry fee: $5.00 AU per entryEmail: cynthia.rowe @ ozemail.com.auHaiku entrants please note that 4 haiku represent one entry. First Prize Haiku is AUD $100. Cheques and money orders should be made payable to FreeXpresSion. Overseas entrants can use PayPal to lodge the entry fee using the email address Entries should be sent to:FreeXpresSionPO Box 4West Hoxton, NSW 2171AustraliaIf you have any queries, and to obtain the entry form, please email.

Friday's Poem: Holding Hands

2011-12-16T15:59:00.002+11:00

”Holding Hands”

When I was a child, and the TV black and white,
I did not mind that I would have to guess, at best,
the saturation of the colours on cartoons
each and every holiday. That way, it seemed best
(as my elders said) to flex imagination,
see off the bullies of boredom, and win the girl,
and, well, when I tell it now I feel, well, content,
that that was the world for me then, that it shapes me.

At certain times, at certain seasons, I wonder
what that young boy would have made of the world's changes,
of the life that I lead now, of the man I am,
who is holding his hand every Christmas that comes
echoing down the calendars of this old world,
reminding him there is more than there is here, here.

Yesterday's Poem: The Value of Nostalgia

2011-12-16T15:56:00.002+11:00

The Value of Nostalgia"

When I look back to a Christmas of childhood,
looking back over more than thirty years,
it is not with regret nor nostalgia,
but more of a wistful puzzlement.

There is so much that has gone,
and like my life gone under
the erasing waves of forgetfulness,
and I do not consider this a sign that is all bad.

At least, I suppose, that the flows
of the days, and the bitterness attendant,
are gone forever from my sight, that my life
is a vaster sea of forgetting.

And I do not understand the value of nostalgia:
the past may not have been rosy,
and its value may lie in its absence,
in the blank pages of an oft-erased book.

Christmas Poems: Gift-Giving

2011-12-14T16:40:00.000+11:00

Gift-Giving

When I was a child
at Christmas time,
and I'd be wild
with yearning, find,

at Christmas time,
an excited boy,
with yearning find
each gift of a toy,

an excited boy,
I'd be almost ill,
each gift of a toy
a pleasure, but still

I'd be almost ill,
and I'd be wild,
a pleasure, but still
when I was a child.

New Market: Post-Weekend Poetry

2011-12-14T16:26:00.001+11:00

UK-based writer / blogger Morgen Bailey has a new weekly slot on her Writing Blog entitled 'Post-weekend Poetry'. She posts twice a day; interviews with authors, editors, agents and publishers each morning and author spotlights, guest blogs, or flash fiction six evenings a week. Now, filling the remaining evening, poets have the opportunity to share one of their poems, and poet Phillip Ellis was the first to do so with his poem 'Dactylic Pentameter'. For more details see http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/post-weekend-poetry with email submissions to Morgen at morgen @ morgenbailey.com

-- thank you, Morgen, for the information, acceptance and paragraph

2011-12-13T12:00:00.000+11:00

"Snow-White Boomers"

Six white boomers, snow-white boomers,
these paragons of parochialism oftenseldom fly,
save as the certain decoration of acertain shopping station
in the depths of Coolangatta; yes, theyoften seldom fly.

Six white boomers, snow-white boomers,
dreaming of a Christmas that's as whiteas all of them,
and I somehow have a notion that thepeoples on the ocean
aren't as welcome (Hell, high water) asthe whites who come from home.

But, to change the pace a bit, there'sa tiny little bit
of an English country garden in thehearts of each of us,
and if there isn't, what a pity! Theydon't belong in this grouse country!
Queen and country, white Australia,that's the nation, that is us!

Six white boomers, snow-white boomers,

these paragons of parochialism oftenseldom fly,
save when Qantas squashes unions, andunited, not divided,
we will conquer for the ocker, for theocker is top notch!

A Fortnight of Christmas Poems: One: Opening the Presents on a Hot Summer's Day

2011-12-12T14:56:00.001+11:00

"Opening the Presents on a Hot Summer's Day"

Because there's nothing like the sense of skin
that's soaked and soaking paper as that peels
away in tatters, welcome Christmas Gippsland
style, when the weight of sky is heavy, sullen
enough to drag the summer songs (cicadas)
to pierce the heads and hang like swords of drilling
noise. In the evening, satiated, bloated,
the neighbours' turn to bicker's relished, taken.

But first, the business end: the stockings, presents,
the breakfast soon forgotten in the rush
to lunch. The paper vies with the dream of snow
on shows that gather dust each season, flowing
beneath the fringes of the sofa, waiting
for the first fight, the first voice upraised, affronted.

A New Guest Post

2011-12-11T19:47:00.001+11:00

I have a new guest blog post about poetry online. It is titled "Writing Your Life: Some Thoughts on Confessionalism in Poetry and Prose" and located at About Freelance Writing. The URL is: http://www.aboutfreelancewriting.com/2011/12/writing-your-life-some-thoughts-on-confessionalism-in-poetry-and-prose/It was a pleasure and a joy to write, and it arose out of a body of work that I had been writing for NaNoWriMo 2011, simply, 600 sonnets (most of them free verse sonnets).Anyway, please feel free to drop by and have a read, and please feel free to explore among the other posts on About Freelance Writing.

Developing your Own Forms

2011-12-02T15:00:00.000+11:00

I find it satisfying to develop my own forms and types of poems, as part of my poetic practice. There is one I particularly like, that I'd love to describe to you, to show some of the possibilities that the rules you choose can take.1) LengthSimply, the form I use has three lines, like the usual haiku.2) SyllabicsLike the standard definition of a haiku, this form has five syllables in the first and third line, and seven in the second.3) Meter and/or rhythmHere's where things get complicated: each line follows one of a number of set meters, which must be adhered to and not deviated from. The first and third lines have two choices of meter; the second has for. If we use 'U' for an unstressed syllable, and '/' for a stressed syllable, the choices are:i) First and third lines: U/UU/ or /UU/Uii) Second line: /U/UU/U or /UU/U/U or U/UU/U/ or U/U/UU/4) ImagesUnlike a haiku there can only be one, major image that dominates the poem. It does not have to come from the natural world. Further, it can, unlike the haiku, involve metaphors and other rhetorical figures.5) PunctuationUnlike a haiku, standard punctuation is a necessity.6) GenreThere are no limits on the type of genre, but most should ideally be lyrical verse, focussing upon emotion.Those are the basic rules for that form, one that does not have a name or a title. I use it quite regularly, and find it a welcome form for focussing my attention on the processes of writing, not as a five-finger exercise but as a creative way to achieve focus, and to concentrate upon the essentials of what a poem, and poetic form, entails.What are some of the poetic forms, and their rules, that you've developed?

Guest post: ‘Technique Is Part of a Poet’s Voice’

2011-12-02T12:00:00.000+11:00

I have recently had a guest blog on Morgen Bailey's Writing Blog, about the use of technique in poetry. You can read the post here.It was a pleasure to write, and serves to introduce my interest in technique as part of a poet's arsenal. And it feels good to see it online.

Latest appearance: Cordite 36: Electronica

2011-12-01T16:38:00.001+11:00

I have a poem, "The Phenomenon of Luminosity" in the latest issue of Cordite. By all means, drop by and have a look, not only at my poem but also the rest of the issue: there's some interesting material up there.

Book Launch: Young Poets: An Australian Anthology

2011-12-01T16:31:00.001+11:00

When: Tuesday the 13th of December, 2011; 6:00 for a 6:30 startWhere: Bella Union Bar, Trades Hall, 2 Lygon Street, Carlton, Victoria, AustraliaJohn Leonard Press warmly invites you to the launch of Young Poets: An Australian Anthology. The anthology features Elizabeth Campbell, Bonny Cassidy, Sarah Holland-Batt, L K Holt, Graeme Miles, Simon West, and Petra White. Young Poets is to be launched by Associate Professor Paul Magee.

Recent appearances

2011-12-01T11:49:00.001+11:00

I've had a few recent appearances in print publications, and I wanted to share the details with you, should you like to order copies.The first appearances are of three poems in The Weird Fiction Review 2 (Fall 2011) from Centipede Press; the poems are "A Legacy of Wildwoods", "On Stars and Darkness", and "Entropy". I recommend that you pick up a copy while you can as it has a good selection of weird fiction and weird verse, including a really lovely piece by Charles Lovecraft, and it also has nonfiction, especially a great little piece on the shorter fiction of William Hope Hodgson.The second piece is another poem, "Wine of Miletus", in The Attitude of Cups: an Anthology of Australian Poetry about Tea, Wine and Coffee edited by Sue Stanford. The anthology is published by the Melbourne Poets Union. It has a great selection of poetry, and it is a pleasure to have been selected to appear in it, even if my work is one of the slighter pieces chosen.

Now that NaNo is Over

2011-12-01T11:38:00.001+11:00

I have finished NaNoWriMo for 2011 on a high note. Not only did I manage to write 600 sonnets (most in free verse) over just under 30 days, but I also managed over 100 000 words of poetry, a massive effort! Of course, the real work has yet to start: revision, but I have plans to utulise the sonnets, and see them published among my other works.As a result of other needs (i.e. for funds) I'm starting to write verse novels. I've started plotting the first one, its planned length for the first draft being 10 000 lines, approximately 75 00 words, in several cantos. I am also planning a long section of notes as well, both footnotes a la Jack Vance and end notes that list and reference all of the allusions, quotations, and so forth. I'm not going to have introductory text, though.

Readings: Four Men in a Boat

2011-11-20T16:57:00.002+11:00

When: Friday the 25th of November, 2011; 7:00 pm
Where: The Brew, cnr Pollen St & Richmond St, Thames, New Zealand

Thames Poets Circle presents 4 Men in a Boat, four local poets reading their poetry in a combined performance. The poets are: John Irvine, Greg Brimblecombe, Mike Daly and David Legge. The musical interludes will be by Peter Plumb & Cyndi Cross.

Everyone is welcome; entry is by koha.

Apologies

2011-11-20T11:28:00.001+11:00

I've been doing NaNoWriMo this year, writing, not a sonnet a day instead of a novel, but at least 50 000 words worth of sonnets. I actually decided on a round number, 600 sonnets, being an average of 20 sonnets a day, and have been managing an average of thirty sonnets over just over 3 hours (not including rests), which gives me an average of 6-8 minutes per sonnet. And I have been succeeding!

I've written, as of last night, 390 sonnets over 18 days, with around 4-5 days with no writing, which is, simply, impressing even myself. And I must say that I have been learning to relax even more, to trust the influence of my subconcious mind even more, and to allow myself to free associate more, all steps towards loosening the concious, technical control that has been dominating my poetic output this last 115 or so years.

And, in addition, given the amount of autobiographical material coming out, it's been challenging to my learned resistance to confessionalism as a poetic strategy: I have less resistance to the use of an autobiographicality in my work, but I am, more and more, inclined to argue that confessional poetry must be able to read as poetry without an understanding of that biography. As I had mentioned to Tracy Ryan in her poem about the bowerbird, where the crucial details had been elided over, it may be difficult to supply the necessary context, but it is important to try.

I suppose, then, that what I need is a close reader of poetry to consider what confessional poetry I do write, or end up writing, but one who lacks the biographical knowledge, so that I get a skilled response that does not rely on privileged knowledge.

An Acceptance: An Alliterative Sonnet for Clare

2011-11-05T16:32:00.000+11:00

"An Alliterative Sonnet for Clare" has been published online by Tho Tan Hinh Thuc. The website not only publishes poetry, it does so with translations, from Vietnamese into English, and from English into Vietnamese.

As always, I am pleased to have the poem accepted by them, and I am pleased to see the poem appear online.

Events: The 8th Annual Brevitas Festival of the Short Poem

2011-11-04T17:26:00.002+11:00

When: Sunday the 6th of November, 2011; 2:00-5:00 p.m.
Where: The Bowery Poetry Club, 302 Bowery (between Houston and Bleecker Streets), NYC
Directions: D and F to Broadway-Lafayette Station ; 6 to Bleecker Street Station; R to Prince Street Station
Phone: (212) 614-0505
Website: www.bowery poetry club.com
Admission: $7

Short poem enthusiasts get ready! City Lore, an organization devoted to urban folk culture, and the Bowery Poetry Club will present the 8th Annual Brevitas Festival of The Short Poem on Sunday, hosted by Bob Holman with flourishes by Flash Rosenberg.

Brevitas is an internet community of invited poets who e-mail one to two original poems (14 lines max) to the group on the 1st and the 15th of each month. This reading and book release party is the annual occasion for Brevitas poets to actually meet in person. The program features each poet's top hits for 2011.

Brevitas’ founders are poets Jim Pignetti and Steve Zeitlin, founder and executive director of City Lore.

Admission includes a free copy of the anthology; guest poets will be invited to sign up for the short poem open mic (14 lines max).

The following Brevitas poets will be reading:

Alicia Vasquez
Andrew Kaufman
Angelo Verga
Bob Heman
Bob Holman
Carolyn Wells
Christian Garaud
Cindy Hochman
Claudia Carlson
D.F. August
Dorothea Hutton Scher
Ed Smith
Eileen Hennessy
Esther Cohen
Esther Smith
Evie Ivy
Flash Rosenberg
Georgia Faust
Hal Sirowitz
Holly Anderson
James McMenamin
Jan Castro
Jeff Wright
Jim Pignetti
John J. Trause
Juanita Torrence Thompson
Karen Neuberg
Katrinka Moore
Leigh Harrison
Leslie Prosterman
Nathan A. Versace
Patricia Carragon
Richard Storm
Sanford Fraser
Sparrow
Steve Zeitlin
Sue Machlin
Susan Gerardi
Tsaurah Litsky
Zev Shanken

and maybe more . . .

New Issues: First Literary Review-East

2011-11-04T17:17:00.002+11:00

Website: http://www.rulrul.4mg.com/

Cindy Hochman and Karen Neuberg have put together another great issue of First Literary Review-East.

Please check out these poets in the November issue:

Tom Oleszczuk, Fred Yannantuono, Patricia Carragon, Charles Bane, Jr., Charlie Guzman, Daniel Brown, Scott Rummler, Carl Kavadlo, Cifford Satriano, Tammy Houtz, Anne Loecher, John J. Trause, Leslie Prosterman, Stewart Florsheim, Kit Kennedy, Dorothea Hutton Scher, and Ryan Buynak.

Readings: Poetry Grows in Brooklyn Heights

2011-11-04T16:55:00.000+11:00

When: Saturday the 5th of November, 2011; 2:30 p.m.
Where: Park Plaza Restaurant, 220 Cadman Plaza West near Clark St.and Pineapple Walk, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Directions: take the A or C to High Street, 2 or 3 to Clark Street, 4, 5 or R to Court Street, Borough Hall. For more directions: http://www.hopstop.com/
Phone: (718) 596–5900
Email: pcarragon @ gmail.com
Website: http://brownstonepoets.blogspot.com/
$3 Donation – plus Food/Drink

The Brownstone Poets presents Deborah Hauser, Vicki Iorio, and Brant Lyon. There is an open mic, and the reading is curated by Patricia Carragon.

BIOS

Deborah Hauser is the author of Ennui: From the Diagnostic and Statistical Field Guide of Feminine Disorders (Finishing Line Press, 2011). She received an MA in English Literature from Stony Brook University. She has taught composition and literature at Stony Brook University and Suffolk County Community College. Her poetry has been published in The Wallace Stevens Journal, The Pedestal Magazine, and -gape-seed- (Uphook Press). She recently won honorable mention in the 2011 Great Neck Plaza Poetry Contest and third prize in the Farmingdale Poetry Contest. She has presented her academic work at national conferences including the Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference.

Vicki Iorio is an award-winning poet whose poetry can be read online and in print publications. She’s hoping to finish her first book of poetry early next year. She especially likes to perform her poetry in tattoo parlors and tearooms.

Brant Lyon writes poetry, short fiction, and music. He is senior editor for Uphook Press (uphookpress.com) and producer/host for Hydrogen Jukebox (hydrogenjukebox.net), a reading series in NYC that pairs poets with an improvisational band. Brant’s own music has been performed at Carnegie Hall, Bowery Poetry Club, Nuyorican Poets Café, Galapagos Art Space, and festivals in Virginia, New Mexico, and New York City. His poetry and short stories have been published in Rattle, Lullwater Review, Ganymede, etc., and in numerous anthologies. Besides his newly released collection of poetry, You Are White Inside (Three Rooms Press 2011), his other publications include a chapbook, Your Infidel Eyes (Poets Wear Prada 2008), the spoken word/music CDs Beauty Keeps Laying Its Sharp Knife Against Me (Logochrysalis 2008) and Brain Ampin (Logochrysalis 2011).

Calling all Poets: ARTillery 2011 Melbourne Poetry Slam

2011-10-25T19:50:00.001+11:00

Deadline: Monday the 7th of November 2011
Website: http://artilleryfestival.com/melbourneevents.html

ARTillery 2011 is calling for Melbourne Poetry Slam competitors! Debate, weave and wax lyrical about the theme ‘freedom of expression’ with local poets who’ll battle it out in a war of words. The slam will feature prominent Melbourne poets and will be judged by a keynote poet. All welcome - poetic novices and veterans alike.

Symptoms Positive and Negative is out

2011-10-17T19:59:00.002+11:00

My chapbook of poetry, Symptoms Positive and Negative, has just been published and is available from the publisher, Picaro Press, and myself, for $5 AU (in Australia) or $7 AU (elsewhere). If you order directly from me, I can easily sign your copy.

The price includes postage and handling.

Ern Malley Bibliography

2011-10-11T15:35:00.000+11:00

For some time, now, I have been toying with the idea of compiling a bibliography about and of Ern Malley. This idea has had a recent spur, David Brooks' The Sons of Clovis, since David is a dear friend and a major influence on my desire to write about Australian poetry.

So, what do you think? How worthwhile, how interesting would an Ern Malley bibliography be?

Review: Southerly 71:1 Modern Mobilities

2011-10-11T09:24:00.000+11:00

Southerly 71:1 Modern Mobilities: Australian-Transnational Writing (2011) ISBN 978-1-921556-27-2 ISSN 0038-3732

Nationalism has long been a contentious notion in Australian poetry, if only because it has been usually limited to a dun naturalism, set in the outback and taking rural tropes and themes for its subject. The reality is always more complex; what of transnational writing, writing across territorial borders?

This issue of Southerly explores such transnational writing, predominantly through criticism and poetry. The former particularly addresses some issues in poetry: Bill Ashcroft's “Australian Transnation” give a strong, theoretical approach to the issues involves, while poetry is specifically addressed in Kit Kelen's “A Transnational Approach for Poets”. Meg Tasker's “'When London Calls' and Fleet Street Beckons” deals with more than poetry, but it does take, as its starting point, Victor Daley's famous piece as the launching point of its analysis.

The poetry varies, also, from Uouyang Yu's translation of Shu Cai's “Absurdity”, to Geoff Page's “The Projectionist”, and others. While “When London Calls” is reprinted, it has been done so in the context of Meg Tasker's essay, since, while it has been reprinted often enough, it still may not be familiar to some readers of this issue, and the juxtaposition is a strong reminder of the poem's canonical nature.

The fiction and the reviews round out this piece, and the poetry reviews are particularly strong in this issue, but the dominance of the poetry, and the critical writings about transnationalism, boosted as they are by the fiction, makes this a strongly-themed issue of much interest.

2011 Nobel Prize for Literature Announcement in English -- w00t!

2011-10-08T17:53:00.002+11:00

News: A Gong for John Terpstra

2011-10-08T16:32:00.002+11:00

TheSpec.com have run this story about John Terpstra, a poet whose work I have blogged about. John's had a poem, "Giants" installed as a bookmark in Sam Lawrence Park, in Hamilton, as part of the Project Bookmark series of literary plaques.

Congratulation, John, on the honour, and congratulation on seeing your wonderful poem out there and part of the city that you love.

You can visit John Terpstra's homepage at http://johnterpstra.com/index.html

Update on Symptoms Positive and Negative

2011-10-06T13:40:00.002+11:00

I have, today, finished proofing my forthcoming chapbook, Symptoms Positive and Negative, from Picaro Press. I am also pleased to announce that I am taking pre-orders, and that each pre-order will receive a free, unique sonnet along with the chapbook.

Magdalena Ball Reviews Into the Yell / Sarah James

2011-10-04T19:15:00.000+11:00

Into the Yell
By Sarah James
Circaidy Gregory Press
Paperback, ISBN 978-1-906451-24-0, 2010

From the first poem in Sarah James’ new collection Into the Yell, the balance between playful and powerful is apparent. Moving the reader into the zoo of her mind with “Welcome to the Zoo”, James take us through a mental menagerie, morphing human pain and the creative urge into various zoo creatures from the zebra to the orangutan. It’s a superb example of the continual line James walks between whimsy and intensity. “Daffodil Trail” takes a pastoral theme and turns it gritty, as stolen garden flowers unearth a childhood lost. The sardonic mingles with sweetness everywhere, in the broad spectrum that these poems traverse. James’ settings range from working holidays in France to student mishaps and illusions, disasters in Dominica, Grenada and new Orleans, parental joy and pain, or the wonderful utilitarian power of a high-heeled Inuit in “The Inuit Who Couldn’t give Up Heels”:

While she waited – pale flamingo, midpirouette
– for a flash of life under the ice,

the red of her heels speared more fish
than two of them could eat.

The poems enlarge the tiniest of moments, such as the loss of a four year old’s birthday balloon, where a mother’s love and sense of guilt mingle so strongly that the reader can feel it:

Thank you, I say; hear
even my words float away from him
as I wind his birthday ribbon so tight
that untied blue bruises my hand.

Throughout the book, the imagery is always powerful – drawing from myth, fairy tales, a painter’s palette, Blake, medical terminology, the beautician’s rooms, the seaside, and above all, the natural world. There is a definite domesticity in these poems at the speaker attends appointments, cares for children, takes snapshots, struggles with artistic expression and tends the garden, but co-mingling with the everyday is the extraordinary, the sinister, the anxiety underlying the joy:

That week a tree surgeon warned
the roots threatened our foundations;
it needed felling immediately.
My sky was about to fall. (“The Tree Surgeon Warned”)

Some of the most intense poems in the book tackle the co-mingling of love and loss, as in “Slivers”, which charts a man’s visit to his unconscious partner - the moment of memory poignant as you feel both the woman's absence, and the memory of pleasure once shared:

Slivers of time melt on his tongue,
taste buds unearth memories
buried like fossils between thin strata.

Other poems are humorous in a way that is rarely found in poetry, such “Missing Mantra” which pokes fun at social networking, even as it retains a beautiful, poetic sensibility:

while my husband sits up in the dark
polishing his grit of wisdom
in the hope he'll create a pearl.

Sarah James’ first collection is wonderfully mature and ambitious, charting a line across the moments in our shared lives that characterise and change us. No words are wasted as she brings us something as familiar as a dandelion and uses it to remind us of our own ephemerality and the joy and pain that will surely accompany the next image. The lightness and pleasure of Into the Yell with its evocative and funny illustrations of Russian dolls, belies the wisdom and depths of its words.

*****

This review previously appeared in: Blogcritics (21 June 2011), Then on Compulsive Reader (22 June 2011), and Goodreads.

Magdalena Ball Reviews Designs on the Body / Lyn Reeves

2011-10-04T19:06:00.002+11:00

Designs on the Body
By Lyn Reeves
Interactive Press
ISBN 9781921479717, Sept 2010, Paperback, 84 pgs

Reading Lyn Reeves’ Designs on the Body immediately brings to mind the condition of Synesthesia. There’s a cognative power here as we move between the senses, mingling touch with sound, sight, scent into an instant hit that puts the reader directly into the scene. The poems are all, in one way or another, grounded in the physical world of immediate sensation, at the same time they are infused with affect. a number of the poems deal with motherhood in one form or another: that painful, instinctual drive to care:

If smell is primal sense
I want his memories to be
milk and honey and spice.
I want to rub away the cold
odour of a glass crib, the bland
steel instruments, the meaty
pungency of blood. (“Primal Sense”)

Few parts of the body are left undiscovered in these poems: from the breasts and youthful vertebrae that open the book to hazy aging full body image that closes it. There are tanned shoulders and white gloved arms, cheeks, lips, fingers and toes, skin, ribcages and the spine.

Not only is the human body mapped and traversed in these poems, but also the natural world, in some cases anthropomorphically transformed from the inanimate to the animate through rich metaphor--the sea bearing down in the birthing of a pear or jade growing and breathing in the earth:

I prefer to wander the craggy summits
with the mad poets of old, drinking wine,
listening to the sound jade makes as it grows
in the heart of the rock, breathing the mist
it releases when the sun’s rays
stroke the mountain’s flank. (“Jewel of Heaven”)

At the same time, the human is also transfigured. A man becomes a book – “He wears her words/stained on his flesh”, while a woman becomes a shark, a flower or a fish:

She glides and circles
slowly, a fat brocaded flower
shimmering in her orbit
of dark water where she swirls
with the urgent flash of dreams. (“Koi”)

There are so many evocative images, and yet the poetry never becomes heavy or overwrought even as the metaphors mingle. The senses are evoked in each poem through the use of objects like gems: jade, jet, agate, pearls, amber, garnet, coral, Lapis Lazuli - each conjuring a visual through colour and texture. There are flowers and leaves: peonies, weeping cherries, grevillea, rhododendron, Frangapani, moonflowers, hollyhocks, and wattle. There is scent: musk, eucalypt, tea tree, sandalwood and incense sticks. There is sound: “the timpani of wave swirl”, the sound of chopper blades and motors, guitar strains, bird song, wing beats and tremolos. The senses are not only invoked, but mingled in such a way that the metaphors combine and grow, illuminating each moment presented in a full body experience. By the end of this book the reader feels drained, enlivened, wiser somehow, as if a full live had been lived between its pages. This is a lovely, powerful, and understated poetry book that explores every sense of the body – taking an experiential approach to illuminating what it means to be alive, to feel joy and pain, to experience loss and to find pleasure. Designs on the Body is a book that rewards repeated reading and deep reflection.

*****

This review previously appeared in: Blogcritics (3 December 2010), Compulsive Reader (4 December 2010), and Goodreads.

Magdalena Ball Reviews Selected Poems of Dorothy Hewett / Ed. by Kate Lilley

2011-10-04T18:51:00.000+11:00

Selected Poems of Dorothy Hewett
Edited by Kate Lilley
UWA Publishing
ISBN 9781742582696, October 2010, 208pp, PB

Dorothy Hewett is a hard poet to review. She has such an iconic role in the Australian canon, and comes across as so assured and strong in her work that you almost feel duty bound to nod your head at her words. The work almost reads like an autobiography in verse, with the work chosen and edited with obvious care and reverence by Hewett’s daughter Kate Lilly. Lilly’s placement is intimate and tender, even when the work isn’t, following Hewett’s entire poetic career, moving from her first unpublished poem, through each of her major collections: Windmill Country, Rapunzel in Suburbia, Greenhouse, Alice in Wormland, Peninsula, and Halfway up the Mountain. This covers a broad period of time from the early 1960s to 2001, just prior to Hewett’s death, and the progression in the poetry, and the way it reflects Hewett’s life is almost as fascinating as the poetry itself.

Aesthetically, I found the earlier work far less compelling and original than later poems, though there are flashes of what will come in it as Hewett reflects on her life, influences, and personal history. The earlier work plays with form, reference and mirroring – picking up the rough bush stylistics of Henry Lawson, mingled with a slightly unstructured sonnet style that hints at the Romantics: Wordsworth, Tennyson, Coleridge, and even Shakespeare’s Macbeth at one point:

O when shall we two meet again
In thurnder and in lightning and in rain,
By what strange waters and by what dry docks,
By what mean streets alive with summer frocks,
And girls, and men with grease across their lips,
Who fire the broilers on what lonely ships? (17, “Go Down Red Roses”)

Throughout the work are references to Eliot, especially The Waste Land, which is both subtly referenced in the openings and images of much of the poetry and openly referenced in work like “Memoirs of a Protestant Girlhood”: “I was brought up on Tennyson and Eliot.” (51) While some of this earlier poetry loses power, I felt, in a silent reading, read aloud, the work makes for great theatrical scenes that prefigure the plays that Hewett was to write. Looking at poetry quality of work like “Legend of the Green Country” (another nod to The Waste Land) takes the reader into the ‘common’ scene of the working man and woman – the publican and till, the gambler and washing up that make up history. Even at this stage, Hewett’s imagery is striking: from the grandmother’s “bite like a sour green apple”, or eyes “remote as pennies”. The work roams without boundaries between mythology, politics – especially as it works across Hewett’s communism both as ideologue and as cynical doubter—realism and reference. Even when the imagery sits in a context that is less powerful, the work clearly opened doors to other writers, especially female ones. Nothing was off limits to Hewett : not her own life (even when libel was the result), not the government and its policies, not the daily details of the working man and woman’s life in general, and not the intimate frailties of the human body.

The work begins to move from play and imitation towards dark literary power around the Alice in Wormland period. Unlike her Wonderland counterpart, Hewett’s Alice is no sweet innocent child. Many of other critics have identified the link with the confessional poets Lowell, Plath and Sexton in these poems, and certainly there is plenty of that in this work, especially in the opening, with its sweet pastoral transitioning to the old lady “in a darned cardigan/with a carving knife mouths”. The horrible grandmother and equally horrible mother are straight out of Hitchcock, and Alice hardly better with her “flogging hammer” and changeling’s perception. By the time the work gets to “Days of Violence days of Rages”, the extended poem becomes an incantation of pain moving Alice through an entire lifetime of sex, communism, childbirth, betrayal, loneliness, illness and death. It’s both intensely powerful and at the same time, self-indulgent and bitter.

The best work is the last, taken from Halfway up the Mountain. While the writing is still dark, it moves away from bitterness and self-reflection towards something larger – a kind of synthesis. There is also tender motion here, between longing and regret which is depicted with honesty and subtlety. The sense of the body is always present as the work, charting the decline and loss that comes with age, mingling sensory power with the rich imagery of pastoral:

one ovary left to swing
like a bell
like a petal blowing
alone in the dark
the black hole
that spreads and flowers
under the flesh
in the first brush
with death. (145, “The Last Peninsula”)

Here, finally, Hewett finds deeper meaning beyond the immediate and personal, creating a human mythology, instead of mirroring it:

What is the distance
Between
bone and inifinity?
Bliss pain solitude
A breath of air (150, “The Last Peninsula”)

Just from an editorial point of view, it would be useful to have the poetry identified by its period and book. Even an index of poems and the collections to which they belonged would have been valuable, helping to position each piece in the overall context of the original books with their strong thematics and history. This may have been a deliberate attempt on the part of Lilly to focus the reader on Hewett’s work rather than on her life – moving away from the ‘confessional’ label that was to dog Hewett through her work, as if life somehow trumped art. Who could possibly, for example, read anything from Rapunzel in Suburbia without calling to mind the successful libel action of ex-husband Lloyd Davies against the book. Even without that though, this is a powerful collection that spans the poetic life of one of Australia’s most influential poets. It’s both an excellent introduction to the span and breadth of Hewett’s work and a good way of showcasing Hewett’s growth and metamorphosis both in her life and work. This is a rich, complex, and rewarding collection, especially the later poetry with all its mature insight.

*****

This review previously appeared in: Hewett first published on Blogcritics (28 May 2011) and Compulsive Reader (29 May 2011).

The dotdotdash Recursive Poetry Competition

2011-10-04T13:25:00.000+11:00

Deadline: Monday the 24th of October, 2011
Website: http://dotdotdash.org/?page_id=1255

In the spirit of their ninth issue, Recursive, dotdotdash is calling for sestinas, pantoums and villanelles for the dotdotdash Recursive Poetry Competition.

First prize is a choice of $250, OR a book package consisting of a Macquarie Dictionary, Roget’s Thesaurus and Oxford Book of Quotes.

The winner, along with four honourable mentions, will also receive publication in dotdotdash issue 9: Recursive (scheduled for release in Autumn 2012) and a free copy of the magazine.

Events: Poetry Discussion at the Wheeler Centre

2011-10-04T13:08:00.003+11:00

When: Friday the 7th of October, 2011; 7:00pm-8:00pm
Where: The Wheeler Centre, 176 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 3000
Website: http://wheelercentre.com/calendar/event/australian-poetry-beginnings/

The Wheeler Centre joins forces with Australian Poetry to celebrate the release of the latest Australian Poetry Journal with a night of readings and discussion. Join David McCooey, Maria Takolander, Justin Clemens and Mark Tredinnick. Bookings are recommended.

A Message from A Few Lines Magazine

2011-10-03T16:02:00.000+11:00

"We here at A Few Lines Magazine are looking for the most vibrant, new, and cutting edge of creativity; whether that be in prose, verse, essay, or art -- we want you. We pride ourselves on being an underground collective of individual expression, and we welcome anyone and everyone to partake in the wonderful journey we have embarked upon. So if you have something to say with your work, we have someplace for you to say it. Please visit us at www.AFewLinesMagazine.com for more information about submission, as well as to check out our previously posted issues."

Message provided courtesy of A Few Lines Magazine.

The Brownstone Poets Presents: Judy Kamilhor and Zev Shanken

2011-09-27T18:20:00.002+10:00

When: Tuesday the 18th of October, 2011; 6:45 pm for a 7:00 pm start; must be out by 9:00 pm
Where: Tillies of Brooklyn, 248 DeKalb Ave. (corner of Vanderbilt and DeKalb), Brooklyn, NY, USA
Entry: $3 Donation -- plus Food/Drink -- Limited Open Mic (one poem: 3-minute limit)
Curated by: Patricia Carragon

Other than her recent foray into Sestinas, Judy Kamilhor primarily writes micropoetry. Her influences are the Japanese haiku masters and the comedian Steven Wright. She is a member of brevitas and a frequent contributor to CLWN WR. She has been published in Simply Haiku, Haiku Harvest, Amaze: the Cinquain Journal, and other publications. One of her poems was chosen for the Haiku Showcase by the World Haiku Club. Please check out her blogs. Her micropoetry blog is http://kamihaiku.blogspot.com. Her baseball blog is http://bbgods.blogspot.com and her blog for healing from childhood rejection is http://chosenlast.blogspot.com.

Recently Zev Shanken's poems have been about aging, parents, sex and Jews. He teaches English at High School for Health Careers and Sciences in Washington Heights, and at Bronx Community College. In 1995 Blue Begonia Press published his chapbook, Al Het. He is a happy member of Brevitas, an on-line poetry workshop devoted to the short poem. He lives in Teaneck, NJ. At his reading at Tillies on October 18, Zev will present Choral Poems in which the audience will be given texts to read responsively, like at church or synagogue or chain gang.

The Brownstone Poets presents: Laura Boss and Gail Gerwin

2011-09-27T18:09:00.002+10:00

When: Saturday the 1st of October, 2011: 2:30 p.m.
Where: Park Plaza Restaurant, 220 Cadman Plaza West near Clark St.and Pineapple Walk, Brooklyn, NY, USA
For more directions: http://www.hopstop.com/
Entry: $3 Donation -- plus Food/Drink -- Open-Mic
Curated by: Patricia Carragon

Laura Boss, founder and editor of Lips, has received many awards for her own poetry including a first place in Poetry Society of America’s Gordon Barber Poetry Contest and three Poetry Fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Her six books of poetry include Reports from the Front (CCC) and Arms: New and Selected Poems (Guernica). She was the sole representative of the USA at the XXVI International Poetry Readings in Europe. More recent featured readings include The Dylan Thomas Centre in Wales and the 2010 Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival. Her poems have appeared in The New York Times. Her newest book of poetry is Flashlight (Guenica, 2010).

Gail Fishman Gerwin’s memoir Sugar and Sand earned finalist designation for the 2010 Paterson Poetry Prize and she has earned four honorable mentions for the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards. Her poems appear in journals including Paterson Literary Review, Lips, Edison Literary Review, Tiferet, Smith College Poetry Center online, Caduceus, Adanna, U.S. 1 Worksheets, The Fib Review, Jewish Women’s Literary Annual, and The American Voice in Poetry: The Legacy of Williams, Whitman, and Ginsberg. The Paterson, NJ, native is working on her second collection. She and her husband Kenneth live in Morristown and are parents of two daughters and grandparents of three boys and a girl.

Journal Launch: Southerly 71.1: Modern Mobilities

2011-09-27T17:53:00.001+10:00

When: Wednesday the 12th of October, 2011; 6:00pm for a 6:30pm start
Where: Woolley Common Room, John Woolley Building upstairs, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Email: southerlyjournal @ gmail.com
RSVP by email by October 5th

Southerly is delighted to invite you to the launch for its latest issue, 71.1 Modern Mobilities: Australian Transnational Writing. There will be readings, wine, nibbles, and general bonhomie. Please join us!

Arthur Henry Adams

2011-09-23T21:48:00.000+10:00

I've just started yet another project, what may well become a Collected Verses of Arthur Henry Adams. I've been reading his poetry lately, owning copies of two of his books of poetry, and wanting to own the other two. I have PDF copies of three of the books, but lack a copy, PDF or otherwise, of The Nazarene. There are copies in some Australian libraries, especially the State Library of New South Wales, as it happens, and I would love to collect both his uncollected and unpublished poetry for the volume.

I don't know if I'll find a publisher, of course, given that Adams has been so neglected since his death, but he is a good poet, very skilled and with a good head for technique. You can read some of his poems at the Australian Poetry Library, as it happens.

Black Lawrence Press Authors at the Bowery Poetry Club

2011-09-13T18:03:00.000+10:00

When: Saturday the 17th of September, 2011; 6:00pm
Where: 308 Bowery, between Houston and Bleecker, New York, New York

Spend an evening with three fantastic BLP authors: Yelizaveta Renfro, whose short story collection A Catalogue of Everything in the World won the St. Lawrence Book Award; Erica Wright, whose poetry collection Instructions for Killing the Jackal is hailed as an "imaginative counterforce"; and Patrick Michael Finn, whose short story collection Killing the Murnion Dogs has been likened to what "Balzac might have written if he had visited the economically ravaged American Midwest in the early 1980s."

Reading Tour: John Amen, September-October, 2011

2011-09-13T17:47:00.002+10:00

Reading in Claremont, CA
When: Sunday the 25th of September, 2011; 2:00PM
Where: Claremont Public Library; 208 N. Harvard Ave; Claremont, CA.

Reading in Redondo Beach, CA
When: Tuesday the 27th of September, 2011; 8:00PM
Where: Redondo Beach Poets; Coffee Cartel; 1820 South Catalina Avenue (cross street: Elena Avenue); Redondo Beach, CA.

Reading in Orange, CA
When: Wednesday the 28th of September, 2011; 8:00PM
Where: Ugly Mug Series; The Ugly Mug; 261 North Glassell Ave; Orange, CA.

Pedestal Magazine Event in Venice, CA
When: Saturday the 1st of October, 2011; 7:30PM
Where: Beyond Baroque; 681 Venice Blvd; Venice, CA 90291
Email: pedmagazine @ carolina.rr.com

John Amen will host a gathering of Pedestal Magazine contributors, including Lucia Galloway, Lee Rossi, Seth Michelson, Millicent Borges Accardi, Judith Terzi, PB Rippey, and Florence Weinberger.
For additional information, email.

Reading in Sacramento, CA
When: Monday the 3rd of October, 2011; 7:30PM
Where: Sacramento Poetry Center. 1719 25th Street (25th and R). Sacramento, CA

With Daniel Y. Harris. John and Daniel will read individually and together from their collaborative project, The New Arcana.

Reading in Davis, CA
When: Wednesday the 5th of October, 2011; 8:00PM
Where: Poetry Night Reading Series; Bistro 33. 226 F St; Davis, CA.

Reading in Crockett, CA
When: Sunday the 9th of October, 2011; 4:00PM
Where: Valona Poetry Series; Valona Deli; 1323 Pomona St; Crockett, CA.

Reading in Cave Junction, OR
When: Tuesday the 11th of October, 2011

More info soon.

Reading in Eugene, OR
When: Wednesday the 12th of October, 2011; 7:00PM
Where: Tsunami Books; 2585 Willamette St; Eugene, OR 97405.

Reading in Vancouver, WA
When: Thursday the 13th of October, 2011; 7:00PM
Where: Cover to Cover Books; 6300 NE St. James Road, Suite 104-B; Vancouver, WA.

Reading in Newport, OR
When: Saturday the 15th of October, 2011; 7:00PM
Where: Nye Beach Writers' Series/Writers on the Edge; Newport Visual Arts Center; 777 NW Beach Drive; Newport OR 97365.

Reading in Charlotte, NC
When: Friday the 28th of October, 2011; 7:00PM
Where: Final Friday Reading Series (hosted by Main Street Rag and Iodine Poetry Journal); Vin Master Wine Bar; 2000 South Blvd; Suite 610; Charlotte, NC.

Book Review: The Sons of Clovis / David Brooks

2011-09-10T12:10:00.002+10:00

Brooks, David, The Sons of Clovis: Ern Malley, Adoré Floupette, and a Secret History of Australian Poetry (St Lucia : U. of Queensland Press, 2011) ISBN 978-0-7022-3884-0 $39.95

The story of the Ern Malley hoax, and the subsequent prosecution of Max Harris and Angry Penguins for indecency, may seem to many of us to be quintessentially Australian. So too is the outcome, a seeming ossification of poetry, and the failure of Modernism, and Postmodernism, to appear for decades thereafter. However, as always, the reality differs from the familiar story, the model, the myth.

David Brooks' The Sons of Clovis is a re-examination of the Ern Malley hoax, that takes in more than just that. It also covers other literary hoaxes, particularly in Australia, and it argues that the origins of the Ern Malley hoax are both deeper and other than those claimed by the hoaxers. It also casts doubt on the familiar story that the poems are the product of an idle afternoon. Rather, it gives evidence that the hoax had been planned, and perfected, for longer, and does so using parallels with the Adoré Floupette hoax of the late Nineteenth Century.

The relationship between these twinned figures, Ern Malley and Adoré Floupette, take up the heart of The Sons of Clovis. Arguing that Ern Malley finds his origins in Floupette, Brooks argues that the parallels between the two are strong and pervasive enough to render the influence of the Floupette hoax to be integral to our rereading of the Malley hoax. Further, he argues that many of the textual similarities support a largely circumstantial argument that James McAuley was likely to be aware of the Floupette hoax, through McAuley's access to the French library once owned by Christopher Brennan, which held a copy of that work.

The Sons of Clovis also argues that there are parallels between the Malley hoax, and the poems of Mallarmé and others. It does so by pointing out the allusions and the parallels of certain lines in both poems, to the point of building a strongly argued case that the Malley poems were constructed with the Floupette poems, and the poems of other, specific poets in mind. In doing so, Brooks returns to the identification of Shakespeare as one textual source, arguing that the ambivalent nature of the ascription of the key play, Pericles, to Shakespeare rendered the play important to a number of the Malley poems.

As a result, The Sons of Clovis comes to the conclusion that the Malley poems rae more than extemporaneous works. That is, the level and degree of the allusiveness, and the poems' mannered style, as well as the poets alluded to, support a reading that the origins of the Malley hoax are other than the account of the afternoon's work. That there is more to them than an assortment of disconnected passages.

Brooks also argues that the Malley poems are more and other than just a parody of the Angry Penguin poets. He demonstrates this by examining key figures in the late British Modernists, e Apocalyptic poets, and argues that the hoax was intended to fool a key theoretical figure in that group. This reading is supported by key statements by the hoaxers, to this same effect.

One key argument made by Brooks is to do with the importance of the Symbolists: the hoax was not only an attempt to make the Modernists look ridiculous, but also to serves as a form of farewell for James McAuley, to his earlier, more Symbolist verse and interests. Hence the importance of Mallarmé for the poems. And hence also the degree to which McAuley appears in The Sons of Clovis and for the creation of the Malley poems. As a result, the arguments that the Malley hoax is deeper, and more resonant than just an attempt to make the Angry Penguins poets is both argued and supported.

The Sons of Clovis is more than just the account of the Ern Malley and Adoré Floupette hoaxes. It also talks about other hoaxes, particularly those in Australian poetry, the nature of literary influence, and argues that there is the probable influence on Malley on such integral Postmodernist poets such as Frank O'Hara, and others, who had been stationed in both Australia and New Guinea, for example, around the same time as McAuley's stints in those theatres of war.

The end result is a densely yet lucidly written account, that makes cogent arguments, and supports them with readings and other evidence. The Sons of Clovis has produced an important account of literary history, in The Sons of Clovis, one that may well provoke argument, but one that is both persuasive and evidence that there is more to Australian literature than the narratives that we are all familiar with.

Poem: Cane flowers

2011-08-14T17:53:00.000+10:00

Sugar cane flowers
an ashen grey
even against the blue
of unadorned skies.

The wind shifts
the cane beneath
and they seem to speak
with a rattling voice.

When the train's gone
the cane will last;
when the cane is gone
the earth will be bare.

David Meltzer at City Lights

2011-07-24T18:42:00.002+10:00

I'd love to thank Graham Nunn for bringing my attention to the following video of David Meltzer reading at City Lights. Mr Meltzer is one of my many heroes, and I love his work.

Blogs Elsewhere: Rotorua celebrates NZ National Poetry Day

2011-07-16T19:47:00.001+10:00

Hi Spirits has posted an entry about Rotorua celebrating the National Poetry day of New Zealand, here. It caught my eye, as I had visited Rotorua last year, when I travelled around the North Island with my partner. I wish that I had known, then, about the local poetry scene there.

"The Lurkers in Hubble’s Eye", by Randall D. Larson

2011-07-16T17:36:00.002+10:00

Hubble’s eye focused,
captured strange angles in space:
The Old Ones revealed!

A blackness darker
Even than the black center
Of our galaxy.

Festering shadows
Pictured in long-range lenses
The truth at last known.

The stars are notstars
that gleam through cosmic expanse
Seen anew: they’re eyes.

The shadow’d heavens
Occupy not endless space
But hide ancient gods.

Orbiting cameras
Reveal for all to see, the
approach of Them All.

Earth’s atmosphere wrapped
in wriggling tendrils of smoke.
Cthulhu risen.

Beneath its orbit
Earth is dissolved
Hubble is alone.

Polished orbs refract
Nothing but dust, memories.
Silent epitaph.

Darkness receding.
Shadows upon more shadows
Old Ones drift away.

To sleep anew ‘midst
Oort’s drifting, angled spaces.
Until a new birth.

Update to Scheduled Reviews

2011-07-14T18:52:00.002+10:00

I was cleaning my bedroom when I located another item scheduled for review. It is as follows:

Dingli, Rosanne, All the Wrong Places

The Brownstone Poets 2011 Anthology is Here!

2011-07-14T16:14:00.002+10:00

A labor of love brought together by Patricia Carragon with the help of her team of assistant editors, Cindy Hochman, Brenda J. Gannam, and Karen Neuberg.

Copies are being sold at the readings for $6 and $8 at BookCourt located at

163 Court St
Brooklyn, New York 11201
(718) 875-3677

Take the F or G to Bergen or the R, 2, 3 to Court/Borough Hall

Congrats to the contributors (the features from last year and the poets who came to support the Brownstone Poets venues), who will be getting their complementary copy.

The Annual Brownstone Poets Anthology Reading

2011-07-14T16:05:00.001+10:00

When: Monday the 12th of September, 2011; 7:00pm
Where: BookCourt, 163 Court St, Brooklyn, New York, USA 11201
Phone: (718) 875-3677

Take the F or G to Bergen or the R, 2, 3 to Court/Borough Hall

Poetry Grows In Ft. Greene

2011-07-14T16:01:00.002+10:00

When: Tuesday the 16th of August, 2011; 6:45pm signup for a 7:00pm start and 9:00pm finish
Where: Tillies of Brooklyn, 248 DeKalb Ave. (corner of Vanderbilt and DeKalb), Brooklyn, NY, USA 11205
$3 Donation – plus Food/Drink – Limited Open Mic - one poem (3-minute limit)
Email: pcarragon @ gmail.com
Phone: (718) 783-6140
Websites: http://brownstonepoets.blogspot.com/ -- http://patriciacarragon8.wordpress.com/ -- http://myspace.com/pattiekake8 -- http://en-gb.facebook.com/people/Brownstone-Poets/541314712

The Brownstone Poets presents David Lawton and Carolyn Ota curated by Patricia Carragon.

Take the J, R or Q trains to DeKalb Avenue, the C to Lafayette, the G to Clinton/Washington
2, 3, 4, 5 to Nevins St.

For further directions see: http://www.hopstop.com/

Bios:

David Lawton is a performance poet with a background in theatre and music. He has poems forthcoming in the anthologies -gape-seed- and Spiny Babbler, and is one of the featured artists on the upcoming Hydrogen Jukebox CD. David hosts the JujoMukti Tea Lounge Spoken Word Sundays weekly from 6-8 p.m. on 4th St. bet. A & B.

Carolyn Ota is a NYC singer-songwriter who comes from Hawaii. She recently graduated from The NY Open Center Sound & Music Facilitators program and has begun recording her music with RAD studio. Her music is a vehicle for transformation.

Poetry Grows in Brooklyn Heights

2011-07-14T15:51:00.000+10:00

When: Saturday the 6th of August, 2011; 2:30pm
Where: Park Plaza Restaurant, 220 Cadman Plaza West near Clark St and Pineapple Walk, Brooklyn, NY, USA 11201
$3 Donation – plus Food/Drink - Open-Mic
Email: pcarragon @ gmail.com
Phone: (718) 596–5900
Websites: http://brownstonepoets.blogspot.com/ -- http://patriciacarragon8.wordpress.com/ -- http://myspace.com/pattiekake8 -- http://en-gb.facebook.com/people/Brownstone-Poets/541314712

The Brownstone Poets presents Tina Chan, Gregory Vincent St. Thomasino, and Jacob Victorine, curated by Patricia Carragon.

Take the A or C to High Street, 2 or 3 to Clark Street,
4, 5 or R to Court Street, Borough Hall

For more directions: http://www.hopstop.com/

Bios:

Tina Chan is a prolific poet whose writing style is a poetic puzzle for readers to determine the definitive underwriting. She has an abiding passion for writing ablaze: be it poetry or be it Yelp reviews with wittiness based on personal experiences. She believes life’s juicy sweetness is to eschew the negativity for a motivator as an inspiration outlet in her writing. With her writing, she is able to achieve closure to her life’s difficulties as the author of one’s own story.

Tina made her poetry debut in early 2009 and has been fortunate to be selected as a feature performer at various open-mikes. She recites with sprightly liveliness energy to ignite flames.

Gregory Vincent St. Thomasino was born in Greenwich Village, New York, and was raised in both the city and in the country across the Hudson River in New Jersey. He was educated at home, eventually to enter Fordham University where he received a degree in philosophy. In 2009 he received the Distinguished Scholar Award from the Doctor of Arts in Leadership program at Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire. His e-chaps include The Logoclasody Manifesto (2008), Six Comets Are Coming (2009) and The Galloping Man (2010). In his spare time he writes at his blog, The Postmodern Romantic, and edits the online poetry journal, Eratio.

Jacob Victorine is a poet and performance artist born and bred on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. A 2009 graduate of Brooklyn College, he has won awards for both his poetry and literary criticism. Jacob has featured or spotlighted at venues throughout New York and New Jersey such as the Cornelia Street Café and the Nuyorican Poets’ Café, where he competed in the 2009 runoffs for their National Slam Team. He was a 2010 Intangible Grand Slam finalist and is a member of the 2011 Jersey City National Slam Team. His work appears in the Uphook Press anthology, Hell Strung and Crooked and is forthcoming in the newest Uphook Anthology, Gape Seed. Find him at http://www.jacobvictorine.com

Scheduled Reviews

2011-07-13T18:59:00.002+10:00

The following poetry books are scheduled to be reviewed. If you'd like your poetry book reviewed on the blog, please contact me and I'll get back to you.

*****

Busato, Melanie, Destinations Unknown
Caddy, Caroline, Burning Bright
Copello, Beatriz, Meditations at the Edge of a Dream
Duhig, Ian, Pandorama
Kinsella, John, The New Arcadia
Licari, Rosanna, An Absence of Saints
Mateer, John, The West
Potter, Claire, Swallow
Ryan, Tracy (ed.), Fremantle Poets: New Poets 1

A Message from The Muse: an International Journal of Poetry

2011-07-13T15:57:00.000+10:00

Dear Friends,

In a short span of time we have readership of 42 countries and the number is increasing with each day. Now we have started a new blog which is associated with our Poetry Journal website and is entitled-'The Muse-An International Journal of Poetry Blog' (link: http://www.themusepoetry.wordpress.com). We wish it to be a platform to share information regarding poets/poetry and latest happenings in this field. To start with on this blog we have made some useful sections
both for poets and readers. Which are:

1. Personal websites/blogs of poets.
2. List of Poetry Journals/Magazines
3. Call for submissions

You are welcome to send us information to be published on this blog. Your feedback and support is important for us.

http://www.themusepoetry.wordpress.com

best wishes
Pradeep Chaswal
Chief Editor
The Muse-An International Journal of Poetry
http://www.themuse.webs.com

Blogs Elsewhere: The Muse on Poetica

2011-07-11T19:34:00.002+10:00

Website: http://themusepoetry.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/poetica-a-useful-website-for-poets-2/

The blog of The Muse has just posted an entry about Poetica, the weekly Radio National poetry programme. They very generously mentioned myself in the post, thanking me for passing along the URL, but it was the least that I could do for them.

Drop by the post, linked above, and explore not only the blog for The Muse but also the website for Poetica.

Blogs Elsewhere: The Muse: an International Journal of Poetry

2011-07-11T17:46:00.001+10:00

Website http://themusepoetry.wordpress.com/

This is the blog for The Muse, a journal that has only recently started up, and which had accepted a couple of my pieces. As of the moment of writing, it has very little online, but I see that the site has promise, and a future, especially if it talks about world poetries outside of its issue. Drop by, at least, and see what is on the site, and feel free to get in touch with details of other sites to link to.

Interviews

2011-07-11T16:41:00.000+10:00

There's an interview of myself by Morgen Bailey, online here. In it I talk about my poetry, and about my work as a poet, so if you'd love to be interviewed by Morgen, drop by her blog via the link above, and contact her.

If you do get an interview, let me know and I'll link to it from the relevant blog, ok?

Poetica Schedule for August to October 2011

2011-07-09T17:16:00.000+10:00

When: Saturdays, 3:05pm; repeated Thursdays, 3:05 pm
Where: ABC Radio National
Website: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/arts/poetica/
Presented by: Mike Ladd

Program details:
August
6th -- Both Worlds -- selected works by popular American nature poet, Mary Oliver.
13th -- Chiaroscuro -- a meeting with Filipino poet, Joel M. Toledo.
20th -- Mahmoud Darwish -- a feature on the late, great Palestinian poet.
27th -- Lynette Roberts -- the letters and poems of this celebrated Welsh poet.

September
NATIONAL POETRY WEEK BECOMES NATIONAL POETRY MONTH ON POETICA.
3rd -- National Poetry Week 2011 -- a round-the-nation sampling of recent Australian poetry.
10th -- Speaking to Blue Winds -- a feature on classic Australian poet, John Shaw Neilson.
17th -- Little Bit Long Time -- a meeting with indigenous poet, Ali Cobby Eckermann.
24th -- Wild Bees -- an interview and readings with Martin Harrison.

October
THE SENSES: A SERIES OF HYBRID POETICAL WORKS FOR RADIO
1st -- Touch -- created by Anne McInerney.
8th -- Smell -- created by Justine Sloane-Lees.
15th -- Taste -- created by Libby Douglas.
22nd -- Sight -- created by Krystyna Kubiak.
29th -- Hearing -- created by Jane Ulman.

Information courtesy of: Mike Ladd and Poetica.

Performance poets announced for Fremantle Poets 3

2011-07-09T16:55:00.000+10:00

Fremantle Press Poetry Publisher Georgia Richter announced the writers selected for Fremantle Poets 3: Performance Poets today.

Eleven Western Australian performance poets have been chosen for the collection which will be published in Fremantle Poetry Month in July 2012. They are: Allan Boyd (aka the antipoet), Jeremy Balius, Liana Joy Christensen, Gabrielle Everall, Amber Fresh, Afeif Ismail, Janet Jackson, Sam Knee (aka Byron Bard), Dosh Luckwell, Kaitlyn Plyley and John Charles Ryan.

Richter said the poets selected showed the range of voices and styles in Western Australia.

“These poets give a sense of the diverse talent, variety and vigour of our performance poetry scene,” said Richter.

Guest editor and performance poet Scott-Patrick Mitchell said he believed Fremantle Poets 3 was something West Australians would be intrigued by.

“The poets selected for this anthology represent what makes the Perth performance poetry scene so exciting and unique – this is the survey our city needed,” said Mitchell.

Poets were selected by an editorial committee comprised of Georgia Richter and Wendy Jenkins of Fremantle Press and guest editor Scott-Patrick Mitchell. They were chosen for the survey on the basis of written manuscripts and a recorded performance piece.

Fremantle Poets 3: Performance Poets will be published in July 2012 and will include a CD of performances.

Sponsors

Fremantle Poetry Month is sponsored by Australian Poetry, Clancy’s Fish Pub Fremantle, dotdotdash magazine, Fremantle Arts Centre, the Fremantle Children’s Literature Centre, the Fremantle Library, Fremantle Radio, Thompson Estate, Out of the Asylum Writers Group, Voicebox, WritingWA and WA Poets Inc.

Information courtesy of: Fremantle Press.

Some poetry submission tips from Wendy Jenkins and Georgia Richter

2011-07-09T16:41:00.000+10:00

Website: http://fremantlepress.blogspot.com/2011/07/some-poetry-submission-tips-from-wendy.html

Wendy Jenkins and Georgia Richter give the lowdown on submitting to Fremantle Press. They're a great publisher of contemporary poetry, and though I doubt they'd accept my work I am more than happy to collect, read and review the wonderful work that they produce.

PASH Poetry

2011-07-06T20:29:00.000+10:00

Website: http://www.facebook.com/pages/PASH/246981518651531?sk=wall

You'll find the new Facebook page for PASH poetry, a cool journal of hot poetry. I should know; I'm in it!

Off the Page with Sandra Thibodeaux & Sietta

2011-07-06T19:42:00.000+10:00

When: Friday the 22nd of July, 2011;7:00pm - 10:00pm
Where: Railway Club, Northern Territory, Australia

The feature artist for Off The Page is poet, playwright and musician, Sandra Thibodeaux. Sandra has written twelve plays and three collections of poetry. In 2005, she was short-listed for the Patrick White Playwright’s Award. Her poetry is inspired by the prosaic and the profound – from traffic signs to devastating tsunamis. Sandra was the powerhouse Executive Officer of the NT Writers' Centre from 2006-2010, enthusiastically supporting the careers of writers from across the Territory and beyond. This month’s Off The Page promises to be a great night of entertainment with Sandra’s trademark wit, her beautiful way with words and her cool rhythms.

Sietta are an electronic soul duo from Darwin, made up of producer/instrumentalist James Mangohig and vocalist Caiti Baker. In a refreshed imagining of dubstep and blues, hip hop and electronic soul Sietta tackle themes of empowerment, love, hurt and mental health. Their sound is ambitious electronic soul drenched in blues and hip hop, with no peer in Australian music.

Open mic registration from 7pm.

Information courtesy of: the NT Writers Centre

The Sugar Studio

2011-07-05T19:40:00.000+10:00

I've been offered the chance to have some of my poetry recorded and placed online, at the Sugar Studio. Drop by for a visit, and enjoy! There's much sweetness to be found there!

A Syllabic Rispetto on Certain Hours

2011-07-05T17:30:00.000+10:00

As the afternoon slides to the night,
or the darkness dies like dreams
when the morning forms in light,
then I feel what seems

to be beautiful, glorious, fair,
like magpies that ring their air,
a peacefulness sweet to taste,
rewarding no haste.

*****

I was sitting in the car, this afternoon, just thinking about poetry (as usual) and about how I had hardly written anything the previous month, while my father was visiting from out-of-state. Before I knew it, I was thinking about writing a rispetto, in syllabics, and was playing around with the numbers of syllables per line of the two quatrains. I wanted the counterpoint of line lengths and the rhyme scheme; it felt right in the moment.

I also decided that I wanted them to be imparisyllabic. There's something about out numbers of syllables that digs into my ribs, and eases the itch for writing. So I eventually came up with a quatrain with 9 syllables in the first line, five in the fourth, and seven in the central two.

When I got home, I set to on writing the rispetto, and it came out relatively painlessly, since I had no idea when I started what I was to write about. A major revision in the pause between the quatrains led to the rest of the poem, the direction that it was going to take, so I was pleased at the end, about how it flowed after polishing.

I am also happy about its musicality as well. I love musicality in a piece, a strong sense of rhythm as well as a certain clarity of sound.

Bluepepper is Seeking Submissions

2011-07-05T17:04:00.000+10:00

Bluepepper has put a call out for more poetry submissions here. You can read what and how much they want at the site, and you can get an idea of what they like from what's already online.

Good luck!

Afeif and Vivienne

2011-07-04T19:14:00.000+10:00

When: Wednesday the 6th of July, 2011; 1:00pm
Where: ABC Radio National, 360documentaries programme
Website: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/360/stories/2011/3240126.htm#transcript

'My need of writing is the same as my need of breathing'. That's how Sudanese-born Afeif Ismail feels about his life as a poet and playwright. Fleeing his homeland in 2003 as a political refugee, and with limited understanding of English, he faced a difficult future, until he met Australian poet Vivienne Glance, and they began a process they call 'transcreation' - to translate Afeif's work from his native Arabic, and still maintain its poetry and imagery.

Information courtesy of: Radio National and Vivienne Glance.

Radio Broadcast of portrait poems from "Beneath our Armour"

2011-07-04T17:12:00.003+10:00

When: Saturday the 9th of July, 2011; 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Where: ABC Radio National "Poetica" programme
Website: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/poetica/stories/2011/3241325.htm

This coming Saturday, 9 July 2011 on the ABC Radio National's "Poetica" programme there will be a special broadcast of Peter Bakowski reading poems from his 2009 poetry collection, Beneath our Armour. In the programme he also explains the genesis of these portait poems informed by two funded residencies in China.

Information courtesy of: Peter Bakowski.

Contest: the Arts Qld Val Vallis Award for Unpublished Poetry

2011-07-04T16:18:00.001+10:00

Deadline: Thursday the 7th of July, 2011; 5:00pm
1st Prize: $1,000 plus 1 week fully paid at Varuna Writers House
Website: http://www.queenslandpoetryfestival.com

The Arts Qld Val Vallis Award for Unpublished Poetry is open to all Australian poets. Entrants may submit more than one poem/suite of poems, but each entry must be accompanied by a separate entry form and a separate entry fee of $20. Guidelines and entry form can be downloaded at the website.

Thanks to Qld Writers and Zeus Publications for the heads-up.

Update on Melaleuca

2011-07-02T14:29:00.000+10:00

FYI: Melaluca 20-24: February to June 2011, should be released tonight or tomorrow. I have to process some more poems.

Interview Coming up

2011-07-01T21:58:00.000+10:00

I am in the process of being interviewed by Morgen Bailey, who posts her interviews online, here at her blog. I'll let you know how it goes, and as soon as it goes online. In the meantime, drop by her blog and have a look at the other reviews, and let her know that I recommended that you drop by and say hi, ok? Because she's doing a good job for her fellow authors.

Thank you!

Evening Sonnet

2011-06-30T20:44:00.001+10:00

Sam Pash has placed the following online, on his blog, here.

After the bird stops
calling in the eucalypts outside,
and after the cat
has finished eating at its kitchen bowl,
the food having been prepared,
we start the stove
and the processes of cooking,
savouring the slow onset of night.

After eating,
and cleaning, and the dog is fed,
we may lie back on the couch
and feel the night breathe
through the open door
as if the darkness were alive.

The Muse Issue 1 Now Online

2011-06-30T19:23:00.000+10:00

The first issue of The Muse: an International Journal of Poetry is now online. It features the work of over thirty poets, along with three essays, two reviews, and two interviews. The poetry comes from around the world, so they're a market well worth considering.

There are, as it happens, two of my poems in the inaugural issue, so feel free to drop by and read what's available.

Launch: Fremantle Poetry Month

2011-06-16T19:20:00.002+10:00

When: Thursday the 7th of July, 2011; 6:00pm for a 6:30pm start
Where: Fremantle Arts Centre, 1 Finnerty Street, Fremantle, WA, Australia
RSVP: admin@fremantlepress.com.au

Fremantle Press and the City of Fremantleinvite you to the launch of Fremantle Poetry Month. Celebrate the launch of three new poetry collections with an evening of live music and performance poetry, featuring: Tracey Ryan, Michael Heald, Kevin Gillam, Andrew Lansdown, Liana Joy Christensen, Amanda Joy, John Charles Ryan, and Caitlin Maling.

June SpeedPoets

2011-06-01T17:37:00.000+10:00

Read about the June SpeedPoets here. not only is it happening this Sunday, but I am the featured poet.

A Poem by Christopher Brennan

2011-05-24T16:52:00.000+10:00

If fairy tales were true
and all the world were mine
there would be nought so fine
as you

If all the world were mine
I'd fling it all away
and go my gallant way
with wine

and even if God were mine
I'd let Him go his way
as long as I could stray
on Mine.

* * * * *

This is one of those late poems by Brennan that were written for Vie Singer. It is also one of the poems outside of Poems that I value highly, because it is direct and emotive, that tells and does not just emote.

Three Bad Boys and a Microphone #2

2011-05-24T16:28:00.000+10:00

When: Thursday the 26th of May, 2011; 8:00-11:00pm
Where: Bar Nancy, 61 High St, Westgarth, Melbourne, Australia

The Bad Boys are back at Bar Nancy in Westgarth -- the sexy downstairs neighbour suburb of Northcote. We're going to make you eat our words. And swallow.

Featuring:
Leigh Robertson
Randall $tephens
& Steve Smart

Entry is $7 which gets you into the draw to win some the nastiest door prizes you've ever scene. Poetry, music, booze and prizes. What more do youse want? A gallery of historical bad boys? Yep, we've got that too. Ha!

The Black River Chapbook Competition

2011-05-23T17:00:00.000+10:00

Deadline: Tuesday the 31st of May, 2011
Guidelines: http://www.blacklawrence.com/BRCCContestPage.html

Black Lawrence Press is now accepting submissions for the Spring, 2011 Black River Chapbook Competition.

The Black River Chapbook Competition is a semi-annual prize from Black Lawrence Press for a chapbook of short stories or poems. Entries should be between 16-36 pages in length. The winner receives $500 and publication. Previous winners of The Black River Chapbook Competition include Helen Marie Casey, Frank Montesonti, D. E. Fredd, Sandra Kolankiewicz, Tina Egnoski, T. J. Beitelman, David Rigsbee, Lisa Fay Coutley, Amelia Martens, and Charlotte Pence.

Apologies

2011-05-10T18:00:00.000+10:00

I have been silent since the first, due to a death in the family that occurred shortly after my last post, that very afternoon, in fact. But I plan to start posting again very shortly, with a series of short posts exploring poetic form.

Videos: David Falcon Reads

2011-05-01T16:16:00.000+10:00

David L. Falcon emailed a couple of links to me, to videos of him reading his poetry. This one is him reading "The Bridge". And this one is of him reading "Balls Head".

Since I love "The Bridge", and since I would like to see the readings appreciated more widely, I decided to link to them. I hope that you like them too, and that you look up his work.

Thank you, David!

A Heroic Rispetto and Note

2011-05-01T15:15:00.000+10:00

"A Heroic Rispetto"

I know it is a joke to say this thing –
that humans are not animals, but worse,
and that all animals are glad to sing
this very fact, in chapter, note, and verse –

but let me note, to those who feel it wrong
to even compare us to such beasts in song,
we humans are all animals, who've sent
to other animals a clear “get bent!”

*****

I occasionally find myself versifying in such a fashion that I shape my beliefs into a poem. Usually, these are poems which promote and explore atheism, but occasionally others creep through. The problem should not be that we use poetry to explore and articulate such beliefs, but whether, in doing so, we are writing poetry or not.

I forget who said it, but someone other than myself once said that reading Lucretius, we understand what it feels like to have been a Roman Epicurean. This is an important statement because, where we value the emotional content of poetry, and when we do so, there is always room for conveying what it feels like to hold a belief. Hence the mild satire in the rebuke above.

Quite literally, too many distinguish a difference between humans and animals; we are human, other animals are not. We do not call ourselves animals, but humans, thereforeif animals are non-human, we cannot be an animal.

But we are. The difference is this: humans are a subset of animals, one among many, not one of a pair in an opposed and immiscible binary equation. This also removes the emotional objection to evolution, especially when those so objecting cannot countenance our relationship with our ape kin.

Hence the above heroic rispetto: it is my way of pointing out that we are wrong when we artificially maintain a difference between human and non-human animals, purely on the level of linguistics. And, as a result, maybe I shall one day write a sonnet on the subject of animal rights. it's long overdue, after all....

Resting

2011-04-30T16:22:00.000+10:00

I am now officially resting as, on top of the poems written for NaPoWriMo, I have just completed another four poems. These, plus the latest NaPoWriMo piece will go in a slim chapbook of poems, that I am submitting to a chapbook contest. Yay!

Although I am pleased that I can now rest from writing, I am hepped up enough that odds on I'll be writing again tomorrow morning, even maybe tonight. I say this as I am in the mood for poetry writing, thanks to 30 days of a poem a day, and I miss the years when I wrote at least one poem a day, every day, for a year.

In any case, I am weary, but with a glow of happiness at the end of my labours. :)

NaPoWriMo Final Day: Twelve Distiches

2011-04-30T09:11:00.000+10:00

"Twelve Distiches"

1

Evening is over us, deepening steadily, tending
nightwards and dreamwards, cooler or colder and darker.

2

Stars are emerging as skies are descending to darkness,
trees and their branches are fading as shadows are swelling.

3

Venus is gleaming, a beacon of brightness and whiteness
brighter than light in the corners of eyes from the streetlamps.

4

Windows are closing and curtains are drawn, and the houses
shutter their faces, returning to contemplate silence.

5

Somewhere, a cat is emerging to shadows and darkness;
somewhere, a collie is waiting for dinner in darkness.

6

Fledglings are nestbound and starting to sleep, with their parents
settling to somnolence, settling in nests and so weary.

7

Somewhere, I wander in thought as I sit, the computer
glowing as poetry forms as I type, like a painting.

8

Drawing the words to the screen, I am thinking of silence
round me as, summoning couplets, the evening is deeper.

9

Somewhere, that cat is a hunter and stalking a cricket;
somewhere, that collie is circling, flattening bedding.

10

Writing of evening, the motion of fingers is shadowed,
nigh on unseen, with the darkness so deep I am brooding.

11

Would that my wife was here, fearlessly turning the lights on,
turning the darkness away, till the darkness was cowered.

12

Would that my wife was here; solitude stays, and the shadows
seep in my heart and are silence, are joylessness singing.

A Note from Anna Fern

2011-04-29T18:32:00.002+10:00

Hi everyone!

Please note that La Mama Poetica (Monday night, 2 May) is relocating to the Carlton Courthouse, just around the corner at 349 Drummond St. Look forward to seeing you there!