First Reading @ PERTH POETRY CLUB

Yesterday afternoon, 2 to 4pm, Perth city was blocked off to traffic, anti-terrorist helicopters hovered over head, and security forces were on high alert for the first reading at the Perth Poetry Club at The Court Hotel. A string of police vehicles made their presence felt outside while the poets decimated flimsier aspects of Western society inside. Plain clothes detectives mingled in the bar beyond the amphitheatre area, variously disguised as persons of unfathomable reputes.

Den Mistress Janet Jackson and her sea-faring sidekick Helen Child plotted and planned the poetryscape, calling forth measured song from AnnaMaria Weldon, Kay Cairns, Sharon, Gabrielle Everall, Murray Jennings, a variety of other voices (whose names I couldn't catch), and myself as special guest.

Next week, the revolution continues with the Anti-Poet Allan Boyd gyrating through space and projecting syllables onto a thoroughly suspecting public. If you wish to see where poetry is going - down the gurgler or up the spout - come and have a beer at the Court while the poets lampoon the quotidian lives of Perth citizens.