Monday, May 31, 2010

Randolph Stow, West Australian poet and novelist, has died.




Merry-go-Round in the Sea
(1965) is perhaps his best known novel, but for me Tourmaline(1963) is outstanding. I'm glad to see it is in reprint and may still be available.

His poetry also had me mesmerised when I was younger. I shall go and read some now in homage.

Read more, and perhaps contribute some, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randolph_Stow

Saturday, May 29, 2010

I Taught Myself to Live Simply - Anna Akhmatova

I taught myself to live simply and wisely,
to look at the sky and pray to God,
and to wander long before evening
to tire my superfluous worries.
When the burdocks rustle in the ravine
and the yellow-red rowanberry cluster droops
I compose happy verses
about life's decay, decay and beauty.
I come back. The fluffy cat
licks my palm, purrs so sweetly
and the fire flares bright
on the saw-mill turret by the lake.
Only the cry of a stork landing on the roof
occasionally breaks the silence.
If you knock on my door
I may not even hear.

Anna Akhmatova

No news so a larf instead ...

Those who jump off a bridge in Paris are in Seine.

A man's home is his castle, in a manor of speaking.

Dijon vu - the same mustard as before.

Practice safe eating - always use condiments.

Shotgun wedding - A case of wife or death.

A man needs a mistress just to break the monogamy.

A hangover is the wrath of grapes.

Dancing cheek-to-cheek is really a form of floor play.

Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?

Condoms should be used on every conceivable occasion.

Reading while sunbathing makes you well red.

When two egotists meet, it's an I for an I.

A bicycle can't stand on its own because it is two tired.

What's the definition of a will? (It's a dead give away.)



Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

In democracy your vote counts. In feudalism your count votes.

She was engaged to a boyfriend with a wooden leg but broke it off.

A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.

If you don't pay your exorcist, you get repossessed.

With her marriage, she got a new name and a dress.



The man who fell into an upholstery machine is fully recovered.

You feel stuck with your debt if you can't budge it.

Local Area Network in Australia - the LAN down under.

Every calendar's days are numbered.

A lot of money is tainted - It taint yours and it taint mine.

A boiled egg in the morning is hard to beat.

He had a photographic memory that was never developed.

A midget fortune-teller who escapes from prison is a small medium at large.

Once you've seen one shopping centre, you've seen a mall.

Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead-to-know basis.

Santa's helpers are subordinate clauses.

Acupuncture is a jab well done.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Environs Kimberley Art Auction 12 June


One of the highlights of Broome's social & arts calendar is the Environs Kimberley Art Auction. The fundraiser will feature the work of a broad range of local Broome artists and Indigenous artists from around the Kimberley.

There will be music, a licensed bar and plenty of delicious food.

Date: Saturday June 12th, 2010 Place: The Broome Convention Centre 19 Frederick st, Broome Doors open & preview: 3 pm Auction starts: 7 pm

Thursday, May 27, 2010

John Lennon Poetry Competition to be judged by Poet Laureate

Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy has agreed to judge a new international poetry competition celebrating the life of master lyricist, published poet and world icon John Lennon.

The final stages of an international hunt for ‘Liverpool Lennon Poet 2010' will take place during the John Lennon Tribute Season, a major two-month cultural programme marking 70 years since Lennon's birth and 30 years since his untimely death. The season takes place from 9 October - 9 December 2010.

The Liverpool Lennon Poet competition is being organised by the world's leading permanent Beatles-themed visitor attraction, the Beatles Story and Liverpool-born poet Roger Cliffe-Thompson who is the official Liverpool BT Arena poet.

This world-wide poetry competition will form a significant part of the John Lennon Tribute Season, bringing tourists and poetry lovers from across the globe to Liverpool and culminating in a Liverpool Lennon Performance Poetry Slam on 6 November co-hosted by Jason Richardson of poetry collective, Wirral Ode Show.

Poets from across the world are encouraged to enter unpublished verses which celebrate the life of the music legend. Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy will lead a team of judges who will award prizes in two categories:

1. Performance Poet - Poems composed and performed in Liverpool by their writers
2. Paper Poet - Poems submitted by email

Early in The Beatles' career, John Lennon was tagged the ‘literary' Beatle, having written two books, In His Own Write (1964) and The Spaniard in the Works (1965) plus a number of poems which appear throughout the books.

In 1965 he performed his poem ‘I Sat Belonely' in the Beatles movie Help and in the same year he performed his verse ‘The Wrestling Dog' on BBC2's satirical programme ‘Not Only, but Also'. His other poems include ‘Deaf Ted, Danoota (and me)' and ‘The fat budgie'.

Lennon named Oscar Wilde and Lewis Caroll among his literary influences. His 1967 song "I Am the Walrus" borrowed imagery from Lewis Carroll's poem "The Walrus and the Carpenter," and words from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake.

The competition is open to anyone in the world and the winning poet will be the first to hold the accolade of Liverpool Lennon Poet 2010. Competition organisers are hoping to publish the poems in a poetry anthology.

A separate Schools Poetry Competition will encourage secondary school pupils in Merseyside to write and perform their verses at a Schools Poetry Slam on 9 November. With John Lennon and the Beatles now on the curriculum, local pupils will be asked to compose a poem based on Lennon's lyrics and song titles and another verse celebrating the icon's life.

Carol Ann Duffy, Poet Laureate said, "I'm delighted to judge this competition which honours a famous son of a wonderful city. Liverpool is a city vibrant with language and poetry and from his earliest lyrics John Lennon displayed a poet's sensitivity to language."

Jerry Goldman, Managing Director of the Beatles said, "John Lennon's fans worldwide still adore his lyrics and poetry decades after his death. His songs were packed with lyrical debate and timeless words. We wanted to set up an international poetry competition allowing people across the globe to demonstrate the influence Lennon has had on their lives and lyrics."

For full entry details, terms and conditions please visit http://www.beatlesstory.com

Media enquiries: Rowan Atkins M: 07834 158 725 E: rowan@rowanatkins.co.uk

How to enter

1 - Performance Poet
Closing date for entries - 5pm Friday 10th September 2010
Email your entries to: poetry@beatlesstory.com
Poems will be performed on Saturday 6 November 2010

2 - Paper poet
Closing date for entries - 5pm Friday 10 September 2010
Email your entries to: poetry@beatlesstory.com
Finalists will be notified by 5pm Friday 8 October 2010

3 - Schools Poet
Register your secondary school's interest by 5pm Friday 11 June 2010 by emailing: shelley@beatlesstory.com
Closing date for entries: 5pm Friday 02 July 2010
Schools event Tuesday 9 November 2010

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Haiku and Senryu POETICA ABC National - 3pm Saturday 29 May 2010


Photo by Ron Sims

The haiku and the senryu in contemporary Australian poetry.

In Poetica's two-part feature, program producer Ron Sims asks: what is it about the haiku that commands so much time and effort in creating a thing so small? The answer reveals a private world of passion, dedication, honesty and wry humour from writers who produce a haiku a month to those who produce them in their hundreds. The haiku poem is a tiny 'window-on-life' opening up for the reader an often startling vision of the nature of the world... or of their own nature. As the writers explain, the haiku really 'takes off' when the tiny spark they set up catches alight with a surprising brilliance in the reader's mind.

In Part 2 we hear from Janice Bostok, Andrew Burke, Bruce Dawe, Robert Gray, Jodie Hawthorn, Andrew Lansdown, Susan Murphy, Doris Reeves, Katherine Samuelwicz and Norman Talbot.

Readers: Peter Holland, Jodie Buzza, Murray Dowsett
Producer: Ron Sims
Sound Engineer: David LeMay

All this from http://www.abc.net.au/rn/poetica/stories/2010/2870565.htm

off the (other) cuff / poetry jots by Andrew Burke

twinkling lights in a grey sky

here to there

homage to
the Flight Bros

a wing and a prayer

*

Fatty played jazz eighty eight

before pulling out all the stops
switching to rock’n’roll organ

renamed Piggy
bringing home the bacon

*

I’m light on
the distortion pedal
in poetry

telling it
like it TI is

Monday, May 24, 2010

VOICEBOX Fremantle THURSDAY JUNE 3RD


Doors open 7pm

POETS IN PERFORMANCE

Liana joy christensen

& JOHN RYAN


Liana Joy Christensen is a Fremantle local with a longstanding interest in nature writing and the environment. She intends to contribute a few animal-themed poems to complement John’s botanical epiphanies and honour World Environment Day. However, her main focus tonight is a celebration of the completion of her Australian Poetry Centre gig as La Tropicana’s own resident poet. She will read some of her poems from that residency and talk briefly about the highlights of the experience, before throwing a metaphorical bouquet to open the space for the next potential Café Poet.



John Ryan is an American from New Jersey who now resides in Perth. Since coming to W.A., he has been working on a suite of poetry about the native flora of the Southwest, drawing inspiration from the poet botanists John Clare and H.D. Thoreau. Having spent many years walking long distances across the North American continent, his poetry invokes threshold moments of inspiration, epiphany, and kindredness during migrational movements across landscapes. Some of his works have been published recently in SWAMP, Philament and Australian Humanities Review. He cross-breeds poetry with amateur song-writing and guitar-playing.

@ LA TROPICANA 177 High Street Fremantle

Fair Trade coffee and tasty snacks

OPEN MIC – POETS & SINGERS

* FRIENDLY FREO VIBE *

voicebox@live.com.au: 9336 2836 : http://voicebox-fremantle.blogspot.com

VOICEBOX Fremantle:

FIRST THURSDAY EVERY MONTH


Donation: $5/$3 conc.

Letter from Pam Brown


Dear friends and poetry fans,

I am in the midst of what in mediaspeak is called a year of ‘downtime’and because of this unexpected circumstance I am writing to let you know that, unusually, there will be no book launch party for my new collection of poems, 'Authentic Local'.

The adventurous independent publisher, Papertiger Media, has recently published this slim volume as part of its ‘soi3 modern poets’ series.

As the book won’t be available at a booklaunch, I'd like to ask you to buy a copy of 'Authentic Local' at the inexpensive price of $20.95 (Austn) from the Papertiger Media website. It has totally secure payment facilities via paypal

http://www.papertigermedia.com/shop/

Or, if you prefer to support your local bookshop - in Australia - gleebooks, Berkelouw’s, Ariel, Bray’s, Readings, Brunswick St, Polyester,Collected Works, Avid Reader, Dark Horsey and many others - please ask your bookseller to order your copy from the Australian distributor Dennis Jones and Associates -
http://www.dennisjones.com.au/

Author: Pam Brown
Title: Authentic Local
ISBN: 978-0-9807695-1-7
Series: soi 3 modern poets
Language: English
Publisher: papertiger media inc
Pub date: 01 March 2010
Extent: 81pp
Height: 218mm
Width: 135mm
Thickness: 5.5mm
Format: Paperback

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Poem beginning with a line by Miles Davis

Don't play what's there -
play what's not there.


upright in
the long paddock
gathers rain

**

we praise each new word
on the child's lips

moon moon

pale cuticle
in the daylight sky

**

body rags
slouch toward
dark

pianola rolls at play
in memory's chapel

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Hear Rae Armantrout's interview

Q: What quality above all do you look for and love in somebody else's poem?

Rae Armantrout: Fierceness. Speed. Quickness. That's why I don't do that filler stuff we were talking about earlier. Grace, actually. Sonic pleasure is important to me. And surprise. When something surprises me, when there's a word that seems right but you didn't see it coming at all. That.

Hear the interview at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christopher-lydon/pulitzer-poet-rae-armantr_b_582301.html

from Friends of Irony

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

off the cuff / poetry jots by Andrew Burke



whistling without charts
I air my tongue
airs and graces of
a leftfooter’s choir

all language metaphor

**

silver wakes

fence dotted like
manuscript with
white snails

small autumn regatta

**

biting into an apple
hanging off a tree
in weather
written juices on skin

bought and sold

Monday, May 17, 2010

Call for Submissions: Blackmailpress 29 WA to NZ


Blackmail Press is calling for submissions of poetry from Western Australian Poets. The issue has no specific theme and is intended to bridge the divide.

Please send 3- 5 works for consideration to editor@blackmailpress.com
Doug Poole
e-publisher/ editor

Blackmail's web address is http://www.blackmailpress.com/Index27.html

Illustration :: Shane Eggleton
Thanks to David Barnes for information above.

Friday, May 14, 2010

COMING UP AT PERTH POETRY CLUB plus other poetry events

15 May: Mardi May + Scrutineer of Splodge, followed by Mardi's book launch at 4pm (The Scrutineer has been challenged to do no less than FOUR poems in ten minutes)

22 May: some seriously poetic blokes: Stewart Hunt + Raymond Grenfell

29 May: Molly Hall (from Margaret River)

5 June: ACR (any performance by this powerful woman is NOT TO BE MISSED)

12 June: philosophical lines: Jo Clarke + Jonothon Twist

19 June: SPECIAL DOUBLE FEATURE: Mad hatters from Melbourne: Randall Stephens & Steve Smart

26 June: Kevin Gillam (the much-loved cello-playing poet himself)

Plus 3-minute open mike spots, professional sound, interesting company, and food and drink of various strengths. 2-4pm at The Moon, 323 William Street, Northbridge.

More info on artists and Perth Poetry Club: http://www.perthpoetryclub.com
Email: perthpoetryclub@gmail.com Phone: Janet 0406 624 578

--
Perth Poetry Club, where slams meet sonnets.

***

Other poetry events coming up:

* Mardi May's book launch, Sat 15 May, 4pm at The Moon. Immediately after Perth Poetry Club.
* Ron Okely's book launch, Sun 16 May, Hazel McDougall House, Como. rokely@argo.net.au
* Sun 30 May Fringe Gallery features Allan Boyd, Kevin Gillam & Janet Jackson. 7-10pm at 94 Bawdan St, Willagee. http://thefringegallery.blogspot.com

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Izumi Shikibu's love poems


For the full story of this beautiful poet, go to http://poem-a-day.knopfdoubleday.com/2010/04/29/izumi-shikibu/

Nothing
in the world
is usual today.
This is
the first morning.

*

Come quickly—as soon as
these blossoms open,
they fall.
This world exists
as a sheen of dew on flowers.

*

Even though
these pine trees
keep their original color,
everything green
is different in spring.

*

Seeing you is the thread
that ties me to this life—
If that knot
were cut this moment,
I’d have no regret.

*

Sleeplessly
I watch over
the spring night—
but no amount of guarding
is enough to make it stay.

from The New York Review of Books

The Two Raymond Carvers
Giles Harvey

The editors of the new Library of America edition of Carver’s Collected Stories made the decision to include the manuscript version of What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, the book that established his reputation, under the title Beginners. Beginners is twice as long, and about half as interesting. One can’t help but wonder whether the Library of America would be republishing Carver now if it had been this version of the book, and not the one pruned and scoured by his editor, Gordon Lish, that had appeared in 1981.

Oxford Dictionary Mistake Noticed By QUT's Dr Stephen Hughes

The Oxford dictionary is the bible for word lovers in the English language, yet a mistake of definition has gone unchallenged for 99 years. Phew, whatever next!

Oxford Dictionary Mistake Noticed By QUT's Dr Stephen Hughes

Sunday, May 09, 2010

Happy Birthday, Gary Snyder « Being Poetry


Happy Birthday, Gary Snyder « Being Poetry

A quote from Gary Snyder:

“As a poet, I hold the most archaic values on earth. They go back to the late Paleolithic: the fertility of the soil, the magic of animals, the power-vision in solitude, the terrifying initiation and rebirth; the love and ecstasy of the dance, the common work of the tribe. I try to hold both history and wilderness in mind, that my poems may approach the true measure of things and stand against the unbalance and ignorance of our times.”~ from A Controversy of Poets and quoted in the above article.

Saturday, May 08, 2010

Elmore Leonard and Others - Tips for Writers



'My most important rule is one that sums up the 10: if it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.'

A great website for writers of all kinds of genre and experience: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/feb/24/elmore-leonard-rules-for-writers

Thursday, May 06, 2010

COMING UP AT PERTH POETRY CLUB



8 May: the highly entertaining Alan Hancock (http://www.freeflow.net.au)

15 May: Mardi May + Scrutineer of Splodge, followed by Mardi's book launch at 4pm (The Scrutineer has been challenged to do no less than FOUR poems in ten minutes)

22 May: some seriously poetic blokes: Stewart Hunt + Raymond Grenfell

29 May: Molly Hall (from Margaret River)

5 June: ACR (any performance by this powerful woman is NOT TO BE MISSED)

12 June: philosophical lines: Jo Clarke + Jonothon Twist

19 June: SPECIAL DOUBLE FEATURE: Mad hatters from Melbourne: Randall Stephens & Steve Smart

26 June: Kevin Gillam (the much-loved cello-playing poet himself)

Plus 3-minute open mike spots, professional sound, interesting company, and food and drink of various strengths. 2-4pm at The Moon, 323 William Street, Northbridge.

BTW -- Perth Poetry Club needs more WOMEN on the mic! We love men too, but there's been an imbalance lately... come and share your (or your favourite) words, sisters!

Other poetry events coming up:


* Voicebox, Thu 6 May, 7pm at La Tropicana, 177 High Street, Freo
* Ron Okely's book launch, Sun 16 May, Hazel McDougall House, Como. RSVP by 7 May, 9459 2342, rokely@argo.net.au

Tuesday, May 04, 2010

Submission Guidelines for Best Australian Stories & Poems 2010

The Best Australian Stories 2010

Edited by Cate Kennedy

Please send one story – recent work only, published or unpublished – to Cate at the address below. Previously published work must have been published after
1 August 2009.

Cate Kennedy
c/- Black Inc.
Level 5, 289 Flinders Lane
Melbourne VIC 3000

The deadline for submissions is 30 July 2010, but early submission would be appreciated.

Due to the number of submissions we receive, stories cannot be returned and the editor is unable to comment on individual stories.


The Best Australian Poems 2010

Edited by Robert Adamson

Please send one, two or three poems – recent works only, published or unpublished – to Robert at the address below. Previously published work must have been published after 1 August 2009.

Robert Adamson
c/- Black Inc.
Level 5, 289 Flinders Lane
Melbourne VIC 3000

The deadline for submissions is 30 July 2010, but early submission would be appreciated.

Due to the number of submissions we receive, poems cannot be returned and the editor is unable to comment on individual poems.

Ain't it so.



Thanks, Jayne.

Peter Carey's only Melbourne public appearance


Federation Square hosts Peter Carey's only Melbourne public appearance. At this event he discusses literary fame and fortune, from Bacchus Marsh to New York.

Tickets $20, bookings essential.
More details: http://wheelercentre.com/calendar/event/peter-carey/

Carey is one of Australia’s best-loved and most internationally recognised authors. He's won or been shortlisted for every major literary prize in Australia. His most recent book is Parrot and Olivier in America, which has just been longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award.

Monday, May 03, 2010

Congratulations, Anthony Lawrence, winner of the 2010 ABR Poetry Prize


Announcing the winner of the sixth annual Australian Book Review Poetry Prize

ANTHONY LAWRENCE: ‘Domestic Emergencies'

Australian Book Review has much pleasure in announcing the winner of the sixth annual Australian Book Review Poetry Prize. Anthony Lawrence receives $4000. The judges – Ian Donaldson, Morag Fraser and Peter Rose – chose the poem from a field of just under 400 poems. Five poems were shortlisted, the details of which are below.


About the winner


Anthony Lawrence's most recent book of poems, Bark (UQP 2008) was shortlisted for the Judith Wright Calanthe Award. He is currently completing a PhD on the poetry of Richard Hugo and a book-length poem, The Welfare of My Enemy. He lives in Newcastle.


The winner's thoughts on the Prize


‘I’m thrilled to have won the Australian Book Review’s poetry prize. I’ve been reading the Review for many years and the fact that it gives serious space and consideration to poetry, both in its reviews and the publishing of individual poems, is to be celebrated. I’d like to congratulate the other poets – I loved reading their poems in the April issue, and look forward to reading them again, in book form.’


SHORTLISTED POEMS


Diane Fahey: 'The Hummingbird Suite'

Anthony Lawrence: 'Domestic Emergencies'

Jillian Pattinson: 'Estuary'

Philip Salom: 'Here Come the Missionaries'

Ynes Sanz: 'Taken as Required'



These poems were published in the April 2010 issue of Australian Book Review.

Now Available: 'Mother Waits for Father Late', Picaro Press 2010


Picaro Press has published a beautiful new and revised edition of Mother Waits for Father Late, first published by Freo Press in 1992, but sold out and out of print for some time. I've tweaked the text a little, thrown some poems out and added some in. For the cover, there is an archival photo of the Burke family from 1947 or so, having dinner out in the yard. The little boy standing at the far table is myself, between my grand parents with my mother nearby. Yes, I had hair then. My siblings are at the front table, all five of them.

The book is available for $15 from myself or online at http://www.picaropress.com/ Please support Rob Riel, the brave publisher who supports Australian poetry by keeping in print those titles which have made an impact on their first showing. The press also publishes chapbooks and new titles, plus the wonderful Wagtail series of monthly compilations of individual poet's works.

Saturday, May 01, 2010

AGE SLIDES UNDER THE DOOR AS OIL PAINTS by Kenneth Wolman

I don't need to shave to see my future
in the purple scream.
On TV between shows about predatory big cats
there's a commercial for a scooter chair,
the old fart motorchair for aggressive men sick of their lives
who race down the middle of the boulevard
in Long Branch, New Jersey, trying to stage
insurance collisions because they need a Medicare supplement
or maybe because they might just be killed and end it.

I awaken and, before my daily filter kicks in, I am in a scooter too
and (sing) Do You See What I See?--
I am a paint-by-numbers copy of Francis Bacon's
"Study after Velazquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X"
with the ghastly old dude seated on a scooter throne
looking to play bumper cars with Cardinal Borgia
because they both are waiting for death and it's been
years since Borgia, at least, can remember
what it feels like to get laid.

That makes me feel just a bit better
because if my dreams are not much fun,
at least Bacon's must have been rarer than overcooked steer.
For how else could anyone bear to face a day
with that inner face, truthtelling, open to the world,
a purple splot of skeleton bleeding rage from every pore,
forcing some sucker priest to take him out in his scooter
to witness his final prayer, slamming at full force on the downgrade
into the back of a tractor trailer to end this holy farce
and send home the painter, his work done for the day.

Kenneth Wolman
USA poet and assoc prof

Why Les Murray doesn't want a Nobel Prize


Why Les Murray doesn't want a Nobel Prize

Yes, an interesting article that goes beyond that silly headline.

They quote part of a poem in there, The Instrument (pp.457, 458, Collected Poems, 2002). Here's another part of the same poem:

Poetry is read by the lovers of poetry
and heard by some more they coax to the cafe
or the district library for a bifocal reading.
Lovers of poetry may total a million people
on the whole planet. Fewer than the players of skat.