To you all out there, Happy New Year

This old dude will be snoring at midnight,

so may you all have a happy and prosperous

New Year 2015.

Katherine Gallagher - Melbourne, Paris and London

 '... Bring out your gambler, / risk-taker. Surprise yourself.'

- Katherine Gallagher

http://www.katherine-gallagher.com/CarEdge-01.html

Monk at the Five Spot

Listen to this historic set on ABC JAZZ Thursday January 1 at 9pm Australian Eastern Standard Time. 

On this episode, we revisit a classic performance from Thelonious Monk and his 1958 quartet with a killer line-up of hard-bop stars.

Our set tonight’s comes from a release aptly titled Thelonious In Action, which is every bit true when you include a line-up of Johnny Griffin, Ahmed Abdul-Malik and Roy Haynes. Featured are some classic Monk tunes in true Monk style.

In the band

Thelonious Monk; piano
Johnny Griffin; tenor saxophone
Ahmed Abdul-Malik; bass
Roy Haynes; drums

Tracks in this feature

1. 'Light Blue'
2. 'Coming on the Hudson'
3. 'Rhythm-A-Ning'
4. 'Epistrophy (Theme)'
5. 'Blue Monk'
6. 'Evidence'
7. 'Epistrophy (Theme)'
8. 'Unidentified Solo Piano'
9. 'Blues Five Spot'
10. 'In Walked Bud/Epistrophy (Theme)'

All compositions by Thelonious Monk

Recorded August 7, 1958. CD: Thelonious In Action(Riverside/OJC 103-2)

Wendell Berry & Gary Snyder: Distant Neighbors EDITED - 2014 Festival of...

Sorry it's late, but it is funny ...

Night Before Christmas in Aussie land  'Twas the night before Christmas;  there wasn't a sound.  Not a possum was stirring;  no-one was around. We'd left on the table  some tucker and beer,  Hoping that Santa Claus  soon would be here; We children were snuggled up  safe in our beds,  While dreams of pavlova danced  'round in our heads; And Mum in her nightie,  and Dad in his shorts,  Had just settled down  to watch TV sports. When outside the house  a mad ruckus arose;  Loud squeaking and banging  woke us from our doze.  We ran to the screen door,  peeked cautiously out,  snuck onto the deck,  then let out a shout. Guess what had woken us  up from our snooze,  But a rusty old Ute pulled  by eight mighty 'roos.  The cheerful man driving  was giggling with glee,  And we both knew at once  who this plump bloke must be. Now, I'm telling the truth  it's all dinki-di,  Those eight kangaroos  fairly soared through the sky. Santa leaned out the window  to pull at the reins,  And encouraged the 'roos,  by calling their names. 'Now, Kylie! Now, Kirsty!  Now, Shazza and Shane!  On Kipper! On, Skipper!  On, Bazza and Wayne!  Park up on that water tank.  Grab a quick drink,  I'll scoot down the gum tree.  Be back in a wink!' So up to the tank  those eight kangaroos flew,  With the Ute full of toys,  and Santa Claus too.  He slid down the gum tree  and jumped to the ground,  Then in through the window  he sprang with a bound. He had bright sunburned cheeks  and a milky white beard.  A jolly old joker  was how he appeared.  He wore red stubby shorts  and old thongs on his feet,  And a hat of deep crimson  as shade from the heat. His eyes - bright as opals -  Oh! How they twinkled!  And, like a goanna,  his skin was quite wrinkled!  His shirt was stretched  over a round bulging belly  Which shook when he moved, l ike a plate full of jelly. A fat stack of prezzies  he flung from his back,  And he looked like a swaggie  unfastening his pack.  He spoke not a word,  but bent down on one knee,  To position our goodies  beneath the yule tree. Surfboard and footy-ball  shapes for us two.  And for Dad, tongs  to use on the new barbeque.  A mysterious package  he left for our Mum,  Then he turned and he winked  and he held up his thumb; He strolled out on deck  and his 'roos came on cue;  Flung his sack in the back  and prepared to shoot through.  He bellowed out loud  as they swooped past the gates-  MERRY CHRISTMAS to all,  and goodonya, MATES!'

In honour of Hannah Weiner

Six books by Hannah Weiner from Eclipse (free digital versions) Posted: 24 Dec 2014 06:42 PM PST Craig Dworkin just posted six Hannah Weiner books on Eclipse. All free digital versions. NEW TO THE ARCHIVE:  in appreciation of the new typographically correct edition of Hannah Weiner's Clairvoyant Journal by Bat-editions (France), the editorial and archival work of Patrick Durgin, and the dedicated stewardship of Charles Bernstein, Weiner's literary executor, Eclipse is proud to present six of Weiner's books: Sun June 9, issued as one of Diana's Bimonthly "Deduction of the Innocents" pamphlets in 1975; the original Angel Hair edition of Clairvoyant Journal; the fourth Potes & Poet's pamphlet, Nijole's House, issued in 1981; SPOKE (Sun & Moon, 1984); the seminal clairvoyant journal work The Fast, published by United Artists Books in 1992; and Sixteen, elegantly hand-set at Awede Press in 1983.

Allen Ginsberg: Drawings and Inscriptions Gallery

Buddhist Wheel of Life, June 1990

If we are going to celebrate, let us all celebrate Living 

and the ups-and-downs of Life on this plant.

See many more at http://www.poetspath.com/exhibits/ginsberg_doodles/06_1990.html

The Shrouded Stranger by Allen Ginsberg

Early Ginsberg read late...

Astronaut’s-Eye View of NASA’s Orion Spacecraft Re-entry

RECENTLY RELEASED FROM LITTERARIA PRAGENSIA BOOKS

HTTP://WWW.LITTERARIAPRAGENSIA.COM

TERRAIN
Essays on the New Poetics
eds. David Vichnar & Olga Pek

ISBN 978-80-7308-526-1 (paperback). 208pp
Publication date: December 2014
http://litterariapragensia.wordpress.com/2014/12/15/terrain/

Within our global-local environment there reverberates a polyphony of realities
that are inter-actual, intersecting, constantly contested, and always in the process
of assuming new forms, forming new hybrids, taking new plunges in transversal
directions. The essays collected in the present volume have been written in and
between London, Paris, Berlin and Prague and first appeared in the arts and poetics
magazine VLAK. As such, the essays position themselves “in between”–internationally,
interculturally, and intertextually–in order to map the terrain of an emergent poetics.
Contributors include: Guillermo Suarez Ara, Matthew Hall, Louis Armand, Jeroen
Nieuwland, David Vichnar & Olga Pek.


HELIXTROLYSIS
Cyberology & the Joycean “Tyrondynamon Machine”
by Louis Armand

ISBN 978-80-7308-539-1 (paperback) 256pp
Publication date: December 2014
http://litterariapragensia.wordpress.com/2014/12/15/helixtrolysis/

It is an intriguing feature of cybernetics, cognitive science, psychoanalysis,
critical theory & particle physics that at key moments in their recent evolution
their major practitioners have turned to the work of one particular “experimentalist”
writer, James Joyce, in whose key works — Ulysses & Finnegans Wake — they
have sought an articulation of the emergent virtuo-real universe which since the
mid-20th century we have increasingly come to inhabit. From these two books
have directly been drawn the name for the fundamental constituent of the nucleon
(Murray Gell-Mann’s quark), a new model of cognition (Daniel Dennett’s Joycean
machine), a radical cybernetic conception of language (Jacques Derrida’s
Joyceware), a psycho-analytical paradigm (Jacques Lacan’s sinthome), & the
foundations of post-War media theory (Marshall McLuhan’s Gutenberg Galaxy,
originally called The Road to Finnegans Wake).This volume examines a series of
counter arguments to the conventional account of literary cybernetics in light of
developments which have accompanied the encounter between critical theory
and cultural studies, namely ‘hypertextuality’ and ‘posthumanism.’ In each instance,
the continuing legacy of Joyce’s works is examined in detail.

'A Visit from St Nicholas' by Clement Clark Moore

The best-known Christmas poem of all, better known as 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, was first published anonymously, but was the work of the American poet Clement Clark Moore (1779-1863):

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds;
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap,
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow,
Gave a lustre of midday to objects below,
When what to my wondering eyes did appear,
But a miniature sleigh and eight tiny rein-deer,
With a little old driver so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment he must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name:
"Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donner and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"
As leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;
So up to the housetop the coursers they flew
With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too—
And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a pedler just opening his pack.
His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples, how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard on his chin was as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke, it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face and a little round belly
That shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight—
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”

Read more: http://www.theweek.co.uk/arts-life/61849/christmas-poems-ten-celebrations-of-the-festive-season#ixzz3MKyrks8e

Starting to Write Poems: Online Course

Writers Centre Norwich and the University of East Anglia have teamed up to offer a suite of creative writing courses. 

Led by writers with excellent records in teaching, the UEA-WCN Creative Writing Programme offers courses in both poetry and prose fiction and caters for beginners as well as for those who are more advanced. Benefit from the expertise of the UEA's creative writing department and learn online from anywhere, at any time.

This 12-week course, run by poet Helen Ivory will help you get to grips with key elements of writing poetry – learning how to explore the power of language and as a result, begin to develop your own voice. 

You will benefit from one-to-one feedback throughout the course. Runs 20 April-6 July 2015; course fee is £450. 

For details, click here.

About Starting to Write Poems - Online                              w/c 20th April - w/c 6 July 2015

Led by Bloodaxe-published poet Helen Ivory, this 12-week course will help you get to grips with key elements of writing poetry, from imagery and metaphor to how the poem looks on the page and sounds to the ear. You’ll learn how to explore the power of language and as a result, begin to develop your own voice.

Helen, who has over 15 years teaching experience, will give you one-to-one feedback throughout the course and you’ll be encouraged to share your learning and ideas with fellow classmates via the online discussion forum.  By working on set exercises and completing assignments, you’ll gain a basic understanding of poetic form and feel confident about writing poetry. Your efforts will be rewarded with a Certificate of Completion from the University of East Anglia.*

*This course is not formally accredited however it is equivalent to an undergraduate Year One Creative Writing module.

Read the full course outline: Word / PDF.

Andrew Burke early website

My early website, composed and maintained by my eldest son Miles Burke some twenty years ago is now archived by Pandora at the address below. 

Lots of mid career poems and stale bio, etcetera.

http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/33538/20030408-0000/www.bam.com.au/andrew/index.html

John Kinsella published this title in 1996 as a FOLIO/SALT book. 

larf (at myself)

SUBMISSIONS FOR TINYWORDS 15.1

With Ed Markowski’s holiday poem we conclude tinywords issue 14.2. And OPEN our next reading period for tinywords 15.1. Thanks all for visiting. Now’s your chance to add a tiny poem of your own into the mix.

From December 11th, 2014 until January 15, 2015 we will be accepting submissions for our next issue that we expect to present in February 2015. So, go to our submissions page where you can send us up to five poems for consideration. There you will find more detailed guidelines. We look forward to reading your work.

No themes for this issue — just thoughtful words that make a small difference in the world. A worthy task. But that’s what poems are for.

With thanks,

Kathe L. Palka

Peter Newton

Editors, tinywords

POSITION VACANT: EDITOR FOR 'MEANJIN'

16.12.2014

Summer is here, and so is the December issue of Meanjin. In the new issue, Ashlynne McGhee finds hope in a new generation of young journalists, James Douglas looks at George RR Martin’s distinctive gift for narrative acrobatics, Katherine Hattam exhibits a series of works about the forgotten places in our cities, plus we present a host of new fiction, memoir, essay and poetry. News Meanjin relies on our passionate community of readers to support us, as well as generations of Australian writers. Now we want to know more about you, our readers: who you are and what you care about. If you haven't already, please take our 10-minute audience survey and enter into the draw to win an iPad Mini or a holiday book pack from MUP. And in even bigger news, Meanjin is looking for a new editor to take over from our current editor Zora Sanders, who will be returning to study in 2015 (read more about it on Bookseller + Publisher). And while we are sad to see Zora go, it's always exciting to welcome a new person into our small team. Know the perfect candidate for the job? Find more information and a full position description here. Subscribe You can give the gift of Australian literature this Christmas with a Meanjin gift subscription, and for the many of you whose subscriptions end with the last issue of the year, don't forget to resubscribe. Subscribe to Meanjin.

Ron Pretty Poetry Prize 2014 - New Deadline

First Prize: $5000

Judge: Ron Pretty

Closing Date: 15 December 2014

The prize is named in honour of the distinguished Australian poet Ron Pretty, who founded Five Islands Press in 1986. As head of Five Islands Press, Ron published over 230 books of poetry by Australian poets, before retiring in 2007. Since this time, FIP has maintained its commitment to publishing fine Australian poetry, including the work of emerging and established poets.

Ron’s inexhaustible energy and creative vigour have been devoted to poetry for more than 40 years. He won the NSW Premier’s Special Prize for services to literature in 2001 and received an AM for services to Australian literature in 2002. He has published eight collections, and four chapbooks, of his own poetry; most recently, What the Afternoon Knows (Pitt Street Poetry, 2013).

The prize will be awarded to a single poem of up to 30 lines, and is open to anyone over the age of 18 years, including overseas applicants.

Entry fee is $20 for the first poem and $10 for subsequent poems. Multiple entries are permitted. Online submissions only.

A shortlist of four poems will be posted on the FIP website on 1 February 2015 and the winner will be announced on 6 March 2015.

For conditions of entry, click here.

Kerouac letter’s discovery shows poet didn’t toss it

LOS ANGELES — When a letter credited with inspiring Jack Kerouac to create a new literary genre suddenly surfaced, no one was happier than an 86-year-old poet and playwright from New Jersey.

For more than 50 years, Gerd Stern had been wrongly accused of tossing what Kerouac called “the greatest piece of writing I ever saw” over the side of a houseboat.

“Yes, I’m the guy who dropped the letter off the boat, but of course I didn’t,” Stern, laughing heartily, said after the Associated Press reported Sunday that the 16,000-word screed to Kerouac from his friend and literary muse Neal Cassady was found intact last week in a house in Oakland.

“At least 12 literary publications through the years have accused me,” Stern said. “People have written to me and damned me for this. After 50 years, it’s a blessing to be vindicated.”

READ MORE HERE

John Ashbery reads "Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror" (full poem)

Haiku Submissions - The Heron's Nest

The Heron’s Nest: Submissions due December 15 (for the March issue)

Please submit 5 - 15 poems at a time.

Haiku may be sent at any time for consideration for the next available issue.

http://www.theheronsnest.com/submit.html

Welcome to The Heron's Nest.

The Heron's Nest, founded in 1999, is a quarterly online journal. A new edition is published during the first week of March, June, September, and December. We publish multiple pages of fine haiku in each issue, plus three Editors' Choice Haiku; one of which is presented with the Heron's Nest Award, and receives special commentary. The Heron's Nest also appears in a single annual paper edition anthology each April.

It is our intention to present haiku in which the outward form of each poem has been determined by two important elements. The primary element is the poetic experience, faithfully and uniquely evoked in words. The second element helps to shape the first; it is the poet's knowledge and respect for traditional haiku values. When well balanced these elements result in work that is distinctively and unmistakably haiku. "Poetic experiences" are those that inspire us to express ourselves creatively with words. "Haiku values" are the traditional underpinnings, both Japanese and Western, by which haiku sensibility has evolved into what it is today, and which will continue to shape haiku traditions in the future. There are many ideals equated with each of the various haiku forms. No one poem can embody all, or even a majority of these ideals. Each of us must decide for ourselves what is important in the writing and appreciating of haiku. To help you decide whether to submit your work, you should know the qualities (described on our "Submit" page) that we regard as important to haiku.

Thank you for coming to The Heron's Nest. We hope you enjoy what you find, and share what you have.

— John Stevenson, Managing Editor

Philip Salom ALTERWORLD launch

STOP PRESS: SATURDAY WORKSHOP

"The Extra Mile": Workshop with Sandra Thibodeaux

We can all become complacent in our approach to writing poetry. This workshop, suitable for both beginners and experienced poets, will encourage participants to go harder and dig deeper. 

Although the class will be shaped somewhat by participants’ needs, it is likely the following will be covered: moving from the abstract to the concrete; using nouns and verbs that punch above their weight; ‘the magic if’; economy; titles; and last lines. 

The class will be active, with new work created and the odd rug pulled out from beneath a writer’s feet. 

Sandra Thibodeaux is a poet and playwright who has recently released her fourth collection of poetry. 

From 10:00am-1:00pm, 6 December at Mattie Furphy House, Clare Copse, Swanbourne. Cost: $45, discounted for members of any writers centre to $30. For details and bookings, click here.

A Modern Don Juan now released

A Modern Don Juan: Cantos for These Times by Divers Hands has been published by Five Leaves Publications, Nottingham UK.  

Edited by Andy Croft and N. S. Thompson, it follows the sexual and other adventures of Byron's picaresque anti-hero in the 21st century, with ottava rima cantos written by Ben Borek, Andy Croft, Claudia Davebtry, Ian Duhig, Rachel Hadas, W. N. Herbert, George Jowett, John Lucas, Amit Majmudar, Sinead Morrissey, A. E. Stallings, Geirge Szirtes, N. S. Thompson, Tim Thorne and Mike Wilson.

It was chosen by Blake Morrison in The Guardian as one of the books of the year.

Unfortunately it is not available in Australian bookstores, but it can be purchased online via Amazon or Inpress.

I hope you enjoy it

Tim Thorne

'I hope it is no crime / To laugh at all things', wrote Byron in Don Juan; 'for I wish to know / What, after all, are all things but a show?' Two hundred years after Byron turned his back on the hypocrisy and cant of his native England, fifteen contemporary poets pay homage to Byron s greatest satirical creation by writing a new Don Juan for our own age of cant. A Modern Don Juan follows the sexual adventures of Byron's picaresque anti-hero in the twenty-first century. Mixing Low Comedy and High Seriousness, the book follows night-club DJ Donald Johnson as he stumbles from one romantic disaster to the next. Along the way, the authors pass comment on the customs and common-sense of the contemporary world. Donny seeks his fortune in Cameron's Britain, Berlusconi's Italy and Sydney's clubland. He is a London restaurant critic, a Brussels Eurocrat and a reality TV celeb. If you are quick you can catch him in Greece, Budapest, Central America, a prison cell even in Outer Space. He is indeed new Don Juan for the twenty-first century.

Ha-ha-haiku

Thanks to Maureen for this one.

Controlling Interests: 35th anniversary ebook edition | Jacket2

My favourite poet writing today ... Charles Bernstein. 

A good poem attched to the article when you open it up. 

Enjoy.

Controlling Interests: 35th anniversary ebook edition | Jacket2

VAGABOND PRESS invites you to the Melbourne launch of the 'deciBels series'

 

Superlative new work by Anselm Berrigan, Don Mee Choi

Stephanie Christie, Toby Fitch, Angela Gardner

Jaimie Gusman, Rachel Loden, Susan M. Schultz

Ann Vickery & Maged Zaher.

 

(Series edited by Pam Brown

Designed by Chris Edwards)

To be launched by Justin Clemens

Readings by Angela Gardner, Ann Vickery & Toby Fitch

PLUS - Chris Edwards will perform work from his new 

& wondrous book After Naptime

(hosted by Liz Allen & Pam Brown)

6pm Wednesday 10th December 

at

The Alderman Hotel

134 Lygon Street

East Brunswick

everyone welcome

For more information on the books and/or if you can't come to the launch party you can order copies of the books at the website - 

http://vagabondpress.net/collections/the-db-serieshttp://vagabondpress.net/collections/frontpage/products/chris-edwards-after-naptime

_____________________

Mark Strand Poetry Reading | Sewanee Writers' Conference

From The Kenyon Review, New Series, Summer 1991, Vol. XIII, No.3: Tomas Transtromer

Poem of the week: April and Silence by Tomas Tranströmer Translated from Swedish by Robin Fulton Spring lies desolate. The velvet-dark ditch crawls by my side without reflections. The only thing that shines is yellow flowers. I am carried in my shadow like a violin in its black box. The only thing I want to say glitters out of reach like the silver in a pawnbroker's. http://www.kenyonreview.org/kr-online-issue/weekend-reads/

China bans wordplay in attempt at pun control

 China’s print and broadcast watchdog says puns may mislead the public – especially children. Photograph: Chen Li/ Chen Li/Xinhua Press/Corbis

From online discussions to adverts, Chinese culture is full of puns. But the country’s print and broadcast watchdog has ruled that there is nothing funny about them.It has banned wordplay on the grounds that it breaches the law on standard spoken and written Chinese, makes promoting cultural heritage harder and may mislead the public – especially children.The casual alteration of idioms risks nothing less than “cultural and linguistic chaos”, it warns.

Chinese is perfectly suited to puns because it has so many homophones. Popular sayings and even customs, as well as jokes, rely on wordplay.But the order from the State Administration for Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television says: “Radio and television authorities at all levels must tighten up their regulations and crack down on the irregular and inaccurate use of the Chinese language, especially the misuse of idioms.”

Programmes and adverts should strictly comply with the standard spelling and use of characters, words, phrases and idioms – and avoid changing the characters, phrasing and meanings, the order said.

“Idioms are one of the great features of the Chinese language and contain profound cultural heritage and historical resources and great aesthetic, ideological and moral values,” it added.

“That’s the most ridiculous part of this: [wordplay] is so much part and parcel of Chinese heritage,” said David Moser, academic director for CET Chinese studies at Beijing Capital Normal University.

When couples marry, people will give them dates and peanuts – a reference to the wish Zaosheng guizi or “May you soon give birth to a son”. The word for dates is also zao and peanuts are huasheng.