Drinking Alone with the Moon - Li Bai

From a pot of wine among the flowers
I drank alone. There was no one with me –
Till, raising my cup, I asked the bright moon
To bring me my shadow and make us three.
Alas, the moon was unable to drink
And my shadow tagged me vacantly;
But still for a while I had these friends
To cheer me through the end of spring....
I sang. The moon encouraged me.
I danced. My shadow tumbled after.
As long as I knew, we were boon companions.
And then I was drunk, and we lost one another.
...Shall goodwill ever be secure?
I watch the long road of the River of Stars.

Nary a true verb be spake ...

J.D. Salinger Dies at 91: The Hermit Crab of American Letters

J.D. Salinger Dies at 91: The Hermit Crab of American Letters

Click on the hyperlink to see the story.

Great images of Australia! Koalas doing what comes naturally ...

Photos by Udo Zott and Deb Matthews-Zott - thanks for permission.

'The War Season' by William Stafford

The birds that winter blew past our yard
feathered along so young
that only the trees could follow their wings
or understand their tongue.

The north wind blew. Limbs bent down.
Leaves fell over the lawn.
The birds one day were young in the sky;
the next day they were gone.

This poem was written in 1945 when William Stafford was a conscientious objector in USA. He was a Quaker and a gentleman, a farmer and a family man. He is one of my favourite poets - a man who wrote a poem a day while his family slumbered before or around dawn. He used simple diction with lively imagery to celebrate the greatest passion of his life: the world about him. He had wit, humour, style and purpose. Thank you to The Friends of William Stafford who promote his work to this day throughout USA.

The photo and poem have been half-hitched from http://mikechasar.blogspot.com/2010/01/william-staffords-birthday.html

Call for Erotic Tales set in South East Asia

Here's an interesting call for submissions from Singapore!

Call For Submissions


“The Best of Southeast Asian Erotica” volume is the follow-up volume to the highly successful “The Best of Singapore Erotica” published by Monsoon Books (Singapore) in 2006.


For the new anthology, we are looking for stories of 2,000 to 5,000 words that address the themes of sex or sensuality. Unlike the first book, this second volume will be looking for stories based in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines as well as Singapore.


The editor and publisher stress the fact that this is erotica, not pornography. The stories must be well-written, original pieces that look at sex and sensuality. (The first volume even had a few stories in which there was no actual sex presented, but only longing and fantasy.)


And to answer a question that we heard while compiling the first erotica volume: Yes, the characters involved can actually be married to each other. Sounds a little perverse, of course, but we believe that even married couples can engage in engaging erotica.


Payment will be set according to royalties, divided between all the writers in the anthology.


All submissions and inquiries should be sent to eroscope2@gmail.com.

Deadline for submissions is April 10, 2010.

Roo Tales

Photo by Alan Donald Wilson, Australian activist and photographer.

Read Ned Kelly's famous Jerilderie Letter - original and transcription

Read the Jerilderie letter, dictated to Joe Byrne by Ned Kelly in 1879, and now one of the historic documents of Australian history. Around 8,000 words, the letter is an amazing epistle from a self-taught man, a young man who had only known the wilds and bush ways of Australia's rough-and-tumble early years. The original disappeared until donated to the Victorian State Library in November 2000. They have now generously put it on display for the world to read via the Internet. (Ned should have been a Twitterer!)

http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/collections/treasures/jerilderieletter/jerilderie00.html

2010 photos of Kelly's house by Deb Matthews-Zott. Thank you, Deb. The house was built by Ned's father, John, and housed the Kelly family in the early years of Ned's life. It is now in a serious state of disrepair.

St Helena: remotest cricketing nation in the world ...

This information is from CricInfo at http://blogs.cricinfo.com/btw/. Since my son has worked for the ICC I have been amazed at the amount of nations near and far who play cricket and field a national team. They are all layered in special rankings and play with the passion and commitment of Test cricket nations. Here's a small insight into one of the smallest cricketing nations in the world -

It is possibly the remotest cricket outpost in the world, and its national team is set to travel by ship to take the field for the first time.

St. Helena, with a population of 4000, is located about midway between Africa and South America. It boasts of a ten-team league, but no airport, and plans to send a squad to a Twenty20 tournament in Montserrat later this year.

When St. Helena’s officials attended the ICC Centenary Ball in London last year, they got there by the most direct route, a two-week South Atlantic voyage aboard the RMS St. Helena which stops in Tenerife.

The British Government recently delayed plans, yet again, to build an airport on the island, which is situated around 1700 km west of Luanda, Angola.

Should plans for St.Helena to make its ICC debut in 2011 at the Africa Third Division tournament come off, the team will most likely jump aboard the ship on its southbound journey via Ascension Island to Cape Town - eight days in all.

Barbara George, the secretary of the St. Helena Cricket Association, says that while there have been matches played against visiting Royal Navy ships, there has never previously been a need to pick an elite squad to represent the island.

"My guess is the team or squad will be chosen from a pool of the best players on the island and at present would be dominated by players from the three top teams – Levelwood C, Jamestown B and St Matthews A, with the remaining made up from the other teams."

Nowhere on the Nullarbor

Doing our Dean Moriarty bit as Aussie youths back in the sixties we stopped at Nowhere on the Nullarbor and sat to eat. The waitress gave us a decade or more start: bright red lipstick and too much foundation failing to cover the skin blemishes brought on by days and nights of greasy fat in the kitchen. ‘What are youse having?’ ‘You for starters,’ Jock said and they were off on a litany of flirtation until I sulked outside at closing time and waited in the cold desert air, my stomach battling the batter and the fatty bacon no limp lettuce could make good

Jock came back looking satisfied with himself, satisfied with her shooting his mouth off until I said peevishly, ‘Zip it, will ya, mate’.

Notebook Excerpt

41 Moves in Contemporary Poetics

A couple of poets - Elisa Gabbert and Mike Young - without enough to do otherwise in their lives, have carefully identified 41 'moves' used by contemporary poets - some grammatical, some simply style, some little more than passing fads or fashion.

Here's an example:

6) Verbing a noun or other nonverb
Examples:

From “[when you touch down upon this earth.little reindeers"] by D.A. Powell: “little reindeers / hoofing murderously”
From Scape by Joshua Harmon: “perceiving only how vertigo / secretaries me into the office”

END QUOTE

Read all 41 at http://htmlgiant.com/craft-notes/moves-in-contemporary-poetry/

City Lights 'Best Seller' lists

What were patrons of City Lights Bookstore, San Francisco, Calif., buying for the holiday season?

Hardcover

1. Naked Lunch 50th Anniversary Edition by William S. Burroughs
2. The Wild Things by Dave Eggers
3. You're A Genius All the Time by Jack Kerouac
4. The Humbling by Philip Roth
5. The Original of Laura by Vladimir Nabokov
6. Too Much Happiness by Alice Munro
7. The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
8. Unpacking My Library by Jo Steffens
9. Whole Earth Discipline by Stewart Brand
10. Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem

Paperback

1. Prison/Culture, edited by Sharon Bliss, Kevin Chen and Steve Dickison
2. Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
3. Beauty Salon by Mario Bellatin
4. Indignation by Philip Roth
5. Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
6. Wake Up: A Life of the Buddha by Jack Kerouac
7. To Die for the People by Huey Newton
8. Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell
9. Impossible Princess by Kevin Killian
10. Ms. Hempel Chronicles by Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum

"Poems have their own itineraries, issued only on the fly." Rachel Loden

The above is a quote from an article by Rachel Loden in The Washington Post. It is the tintroduction to a witty poem about Miss October and Hugh Hefner. Read it all at http://voices.washingtonpost.com/shortstack/2010/01/poets_choice_rachel_lodens_mis.html

The article is part of a series called Poet's Choice, worth researching I'd say.

There is also an interesting short interview at http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://home.earthlink.net/~lerphillips/images/loden.JPG&imgrefurl=http://herecomeseverybody.blogspot.com/2005/10/rachel-loden-is-author-of-hotel.html&h=287&w=180&sz=40&tbnid=uwSJhqCTud0qzM:&tbnh=115&tbnw=72&prev=/images%3Fq%3DRachel%2BLoden%2Bphoto&usg=__2OH5F6-mmK9-ufLZv5FEhTnzpI4=&ei=PA1US_qSHM2LkAWZ-YiNAw&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=1&ct=image&ved=0CAcQ9QEwAA

Australia picks up full Test Cricket points

3rd Test: Australia v Pakistan at Hobart - Jan 14-18
Australia won by 231 runs

Photos from New York's New Year Poetry Marathon

... @ The Poetry Project - some you'll have heard of, some not, but good to meander through a gallery of living breathing poets composing and reciting on the planet at the same time we do! Go to http://poetryproject.org/project-blog/photographs-from-the-36th-annual-new-years-day-marathon-reading-the-greg-fuchs-gallery.html

How to use an apostrophe

It's fun. Go to http://theoatmeal.com/comics/apostrophe

Short Fiction Contest 2010

Submissions will be accepted February 1st-February 28th, with the winner announced in late spring. Submissions must be 1200 words or less. There is no entry fee. Louise Erdrich, winner of the 2009 Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement, will be the final judge. The Kenyon Review will publish the winning short story in the Winter 2011 issue, and the author will be awarded a scholarship to attend the 2010 Writers Workshop, June 19th-26th, in Gambier, Ohio.

Submission Guidelines

* Writers must 30 years of age or younger at the time of submission.
* Stories must be no more 1200 words in length.
* One submission per entrant.
* Please do not simultaneously submit your contest entry to another magazine or contest.
* The submissions link will be active February 1st to February 28th. All work must be submitted through our electronic system [http://kenyonreview.org/krsubmit/submissions/ ]. We cannot accept paper submissions.
* Winners will be announced in the late spring. You will receive an e-mail notifying you of any decisions regarding your work.
* For submissions, we accept the following file formats only:
o .PDF (Adobe Acrobat)
o .DOC (Microsoft Word)
o .RTF (Rich Text Format)
o .TXT (Microsoft Wordpad and Notepad, Apple TextEdit

Submissions will be accepted February 1-28, 2010

Hallmark Launches World's First Twitter-only Romantic Verse Competition

RealWire
2010-1-12

• Search for the UK's best Twittermantic• Winner receives a luxury romantic break away
• Entry details at http://www.Hallmark.co.uk

Hallmark Cards is giving the UK's wannabe romantic poets, writers and song-smiths the chance to show off their talents through a new national creative writing contest, launching today. But there's a unique twist - it needs to be done in just 140 characters on the popular social network site, Twitter!

The competition - a world-first - is being launched by Hallmark's online personalised card service (http://cards.hallmark.co.uk/Cards/Seasonal/Valentines-Day/) as part of its build up to Valentine's Day, with a luxury weekend break away* on offer for the winning 'Twittermantic'…that's a romantic Tweeter to you and me!

The best entries collected before the end of this month (January 31st) - whether they are funny, soppy or plain old romantic - will be judged by an online public vote and by a panel of experts, including poet and published author, Christine Miller.

Jon Taylor, from Hallmark Cards online (http://cards.hallmark.co.uk/), commented: "It's really simple to enter; all people need to do is follow 'Hallmark Cards' on Twitter and then compose a verse in 140 characters or less, making sure they include Hallmark in their tweet entry. Full entry details can be found at Hallmark.co.uk.

"We want to see just how creative the great British public can be. We don't mind if people want to use text speak or clever abbreviations to keep it within the word limit, what's important is that it's original. We'll also be publishing regular hints and tips on our Twitter page as well as attempts from the pros. Remember anything goes, so get writing!"

The judging panel consists of seasoned limerick writer and author William Clark, professional poet and published author Christine Miller, as well as Hallmark's own editorial team.

The overall winning verse will be featured on a 2011 Hallmark Valentine's Day (http://cards.hallmark.co.uk/Cards/Seasonal/Valentines-Day/) card which will be available for the public to purchase through Hallmark.co.uk. The lucky winner will also scoop a luxury romantic cottage break for two courtesy of Cottages4You [cottages4You.co.uk].

Christine Miller, author of The Secret Garden of the Soul, who forms part of the expert judging panel, said: "Poetry is a way of re-interpreting the world through fresh senses, making unusual and unique connections, and can be a hugely liberating experience which really feels more like play!

"More and more people are being inspired to write poems themselves, and it can be a powerful exercise in how to express the most meaning in the fewest words. This fits well with Twitter, where each individual message or 'Tweet' at just 140 characters imposes a similar discipline of brevity."

The Twitter Verse Competition aims to bring creative writing to the masses with the contest open to everyone in the UK - from complete novices to quality amateur writers. The only criteria is that the verse must be the individual's own work.

William Clark, the panel judge and author of "700 Limericks and How to Write Them", commented: "This competition puts a clever modern twist on the traditional custom of writing romantic verses on Valentine's Day.

"The original St. Valentine, whose feast day on 14th February was thought to be when birds paired off, became associated with romantic love during the Middle Ages when a young knight would show his love for a lady through romantic verse. In the 12th century French poets and singers spread the idea of courtly love with song and verse across Europe, and it was this that led to Valentine cards containing a love-inspired verse. Who'd have guessed it would evolve into this!"

Hallmark Cards offers more than 1,000 card designs covering all occasions, including new and exclusive OK! Magazine Cards where you and your friends or family can follow in the footsteps of Posh and Becks and be cover stars, as well as Lego and Disney designs. Popular Hallmark brands, including Forever Friends and Purple Ronnie, are also available on the site.

ENDS

To request an interview with Christine Miller or William Clark, or for creative writing tips and hints on how to write your perfect romantic verse, please contact: Chris Norton or Will Ockenden at Moolah; T: 0113 243 1117; E: hallmark@lucre.co.uk

And here's some verses to get you started in 140 characters or less (remember, you can use abbreviations to meet the word limit!)

By William Clark • My love is a lady of fame, & herein is hidden her name. Relentless pursuit, is how I would put, every step of the game! • There's something I really must tweet: My true love is awfully sweet! She's sugar n spice/And ever so nice/To kiss her's a wonderful treat!• A rose is the symbol of love/And so is the purest white dove/My love it is true/And only for you/And falls like a dew from above. • When falling in love it is fun/To know what a true love you've won; But many a slip/ Betwixt cup and lip/Can leave you alone and undone!

By Christine Miller• Love arrives/Warmly wrapped./A scarf/Of/Softest silk/Sensuously slips/Around/Our beating hearts,/Glowing embers/Set aflame/By your/Beauty:/Bliss//

Editor's notes:

HallmarkEstablished in the UK in 1958, Hallmark Cards is the UK's leading greeting card publisher. As well as greeting cards, Hallmark also produce related products such as wrapping paper, gift bags, social stationery, and gift products, • Hallmark Cards Facebook group can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/HallmarkUK/211973881681• Hallmark Cards Twitter profile can be found here: http://twitter.com/hallmarkcards • For more information on Christine Miller, visit http://twitter.com/christinemiller• For more information on William Clark, visit http://www.clarkscript.com/how-to-twitter-limericks.html

*Twitter Verse Competition -Terms and Conditions - available at http://www.hallmark.co.uk

Gertrude Stein

For those of you who don't read http://ronsilliman.blogspot.com/ I pass on this wonderful photo of a sculpture of Gertrude Stein. Solid. Centred. Immovable in all weathers.

Issa Haiku

wild geese clamoring
and one pretentious
crow


-Issa, 1825

http://cat.xula.edu/issa/

Australian Jazz in New York

Many expat Australians are highly active on the jazz scene in New York and throughout the USA and Europe. There are also many gifted Australian graduate students at Juilliard, The New School and Miami School of Music. As well as the USA based musicians; there are a number of great players making the trip across the Atlantic from London for this very special event. This performance will bring together an amazing array of Australian New Yorkers, Australian Londoners, and Aussies in New York for January for a concert not to be missed.

The featured artists include Graham Wood – piano (Perth), Jamie Oehlers – saxophone (Perth/Melbourne), Barney McCall – piano (NYC/Sydney), Alison Wedding – vocals (NYC/Melbourne), Troy Roberts - saxophone (Miami/Perth), Danny Fisher – drums (NYC/Melbourne), Carl Mackey – saxophone (Perth), Sam Anning – bass (Perth/Melbourne), Linda Oh - bass (NYC/Perth), Matthew Jodrell – trumpet (NYC/Perth), Des White – bass (NYC/Melbourne/Perth), Daniel Susnjar – drums (Miami/Perth), Matt Clohesy – bass (NYC/Melbourne) and Grant Windsor – piano (London/Perth).

Australian Jazz and Australian Jazz musicians are really making a big impression on the international music scene. This will be a very special performance because for the first time a wide range of the best players who have been performing at the highest level in the international music industry will come together for one night to celebrate the music, art and culture of Australia and Australians.

Le Poisson Rouge is one of New York’s finest live music performance venues located at the same site as the former Village Gate Jazz Club on Bleeker St in Greenwich Village. It features a 650-capacity flexible performance space (300 seated) and state of the art audio, lighting and visual systems. It will be the perfect space for this once off performance that will hopefully be an annual event for years to come.

Damn - Forgot the Camera!

The Perth Poetry Club reading this afternoon at The Moon Cafe went well. It was poetry all sorts with improv poet Belowsky vying with the attractive young lady Caitlin; Mike T and Steve in the traditional bag with Ron Okely; there was Frances reading her well turned verses and a young lady who read in public for the very first time, reading her Bi-Centenary poem and signing up for more information; there was the convener and first half compere, Janet Jackson, happy to be back at PPC for 2010, followed by Neil Pattinson, compere of the second half and final poet on the afternoon, with rhythmic rants that work well as performance pieces. And in among it all I read two ten minute sets, mainly from my current title, Beyond City Limits (ICLL @ ECU, 2009). My long time friend Maggie Van Putten also read, one of her two poems from the corner of Jack Kerouac Lane - great to see friends from times gone by, isn't it. And that includes Shane Macauley, eminent poet and co-editor of Indigo magazine.

Nobody but nobody had a camera. Awk! How frustrating. My camera sat at home, forgotten. So no recording of this afternoon's show but great memories for us who were there. And there were at least thirty people there, in the hot back room at The Moon.

Today @ 2pm - I am reading at The Moon

Grab a couple of friends, or make a couple of new ones, and come to the Perth Poetry Club's first reading for 2010 at The Moon Cafe on William Street, Northbridge. The enthusiastic Janet Jackson will be compering and reading, and I will be doing a couple of spots. There will be Open Mike and probably some music - with drinks, food and conviviality available.

Entry fee? Zilch, nil, nought, nothing. You can't beat that ...

Sound ideas by John Cage

Listen to John Cage on Silence at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcHnL7aS64Y

Andrew Burke reading at Perth Poetry Club this Saturday 2pm

Perth Poetry Club resumes on Saturday 9 January 2010 and our featured reader will be well-known, entertaining Perth poet ANDREW BURKE. Andrew has just published his latest slim volume 'Beyond City Limits'. He'll be happy to sell you one on the day for $15.

Plus open mike, with professional sound. 2-4pm at The Moon, 323 William Street, Northbridge. Come and listen!

Coming up:
16 Jan: JAN NAPIER + MIKE T
23 Jan: DENNIS GREENE + JOHN MCBAIN
30 Jan: DEANNE LEBER + RON OKELY

More info: http://www.perthpoetryclub.com; mail to:perthpoetryclub@gmail.com;

joke

A guy goes into a bar and orders ten shots of vodka. The bartender sets up ten shots on the bar, and the guy takes the first and the last in the row and throws them on the floor. The bartender asks him why he did that, and the guy says, "Well, the first one always tastes terrible, and the last one makes me sick."


Thanks, Halvard Johnson.

'Wheelhouse' Magazine Submission Guidelines

from http://www.wheelhousemagazine.com/submissions.html

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:

Send all manuscripts, poetry, prose, essays, art, hybrid or multi-media work, Derridean monstrosities, word scarps, and other ephemera to wheelhouse@wheelhousemagazine.com. At this moment we cannot, unlike Congress, pay our online contributors in dollars. But we can pay you in fake dollars, which we will do, whether we use your work or not.

Specifically:

1) We welcome both new and established writers' submissions. However, we do favor the new writer. We especially welcome non-mainstream work, work that has of yet no agreed upon name or categorical framework. We are pluralists regarding text arts, but we are not eclectic. When we open submissions we take great pleasure in disruptive, performative, and philosophically violent poetic expectoration.

Send all work to wheelhouse@wheelhousemagazine.com, and, with the exception of poetry (which you may put in the body of your email), send your work as a DOC or RTF attachment.

Note on Wheelhouse Chapbooks: we are not currently accepting submissions for our chapbooks series.

2) Prose should be short, not long, say, no longer than 3,000 words--as a general rule. Please refrain from sending realist fiction, confessional fiction, genre fiction. In fact, if you tend to call your work "fiction," take this as a potential (though, due to its dogmatism, somewhat unreliable) sign that we will not be interested in publishing what you send. If, on the other hand, you have prose that challenges you (and us), that takes pleasure it its own alterity, or you sense that it does, we'd love to read it. Include in the subject line of your email: prose submission/last name.

3) Poems: if Billy Collins has been "an inspiration" to you, do not send us your poetry. Not that there is something necessarily wrong with your poetry, but there is, semi-factually, something wrong with Billy Collins. Poems that experiment with language as material, interrogate normative grammatical structures, exlore ideas as cultural artifacts and not merely givens, and that may be accused of falling prey to the difficult poetry epidemic of 1912 are especially welcome. As are: translations, ekphrastic work, sound and visual work, and collaborative ventures. We really love good collaborative pieces. Please send 3-10 poems. We like to get a deeper sense of your writing than, say, the lone poem, could give us. Include in the subject line of your email: poetry submission/last name.

4) Essays: should be limited to 10,000 words. We're interested in work with a left political slant, work on particular writers or text art movements, work that plays with form as any text art would, and that does not read as journalism (one extreme) or memoir (other extreme). Include in the subject line of your email: essay submission/last name.

5) Visual artwork (like, pictures of your paintings or pictures of someone else's paintings, or paintings of your pictures of...) should be submitted in JPEG format. Include in the subject line of your email: visual artwork submission/last name.

6) Filmmakers, multi media artists, composers, etc., should contact Wheelhouse Magazine for further information regarding formatting. We're interested if you are!

7) We hope to get back to those whose work we are considering within 1-3 months. Feel free to query us regarding your submission if you have not heard back from us within 3 months.

8) All copyright reverts to author upon publication. Wheelhouse Magazine reserves one-time electronic copyright for works submitted. All work will be considered for print publication and Wheelhouse Magazine reserves the right to archive the work and publish it in future print editions.

9) We do accept simultaneous submissions; please let us know asap if your work is accepted elsewhere. We will also consider reprints, though require acknowledgment/permission from the previous publisher in order to do so. We do not accept multiple submissions.

10) We do not require a bio with your submission, but you may include one in the body of your email. Truthfully, we don't particularly care about publication credits. We are interested, however, in notes on the process of your writing, how the work you've sent was constructed, and so forth.

Thanks for your interest in Wheelhouse. We look forward to hearing from you.

In Solidarity,

The Editors, Wheelhouse Magazine
David Michael Wolach
Eden Schulz
Andrew Csank
Jenny Paris
Lionel Lintz
& past contributors