HAPPY NEW YEAR 2017 / ISSA HAIKU

clamoring geese--
over there is the year
ending too?

 

 

.さわぐ雁そこらもとしが暮るかよ
sawagu kari sokora mo toshi ga kururu ka yo

 

 

 

http://haikuguy.com/issa/

Marcus Aurelius

POEM FOR MILLIE

There’s a dead dragonfly hanging

on to our car’s front number plate. One

fine wing blowing in the wind

stops me today as I grieve for Millie,

my faithful companion who died

quietly in my hands, her body

losing all the tension

of her final fevers. Death

is the last roll of life’s dice,

the final token we pay – yet

our greatest relief.

                                    I file this poem

under POEM FOR MILLIE yet

I know it is for me, perhaps

for you, to lessen the sorrow, yet

to remember Millie. My bare feet

are cold as I type, cold where she

would lie across and keep them warm.

Cartoon: Comma Cup

Home Scene

'I came back. I always come back.'

Tom Collins Poetry Prize 2016 - ENTER NOW

Ends on January 15, 2017        

$20.00 AUD

            

The Tom Collins Poetry Prize is an annual competition inaugurated by FAWWA in 1975 in memory of Australian author Joseph Furphy (1843 - 1912) who wrote under the name Tom Collins. It is one of Australia’s most prestigious poetry prizes, with first place being awarded a $1,000 prize.

This year the entry fee is $20 for up to three poems. So why not enter two or three poems instead of one – the total fee you’ll pay is $20!

The prizegiving will be at Voicebox in Fremantle in February 2017.

Entries close 15 January 2017, so get writing and enter now!

Terms and conditions:
Opening date: 22 November 2016
Closing date:  15 January 2017 (midnight AWST)
Line limit for each poem: 60 lines
Prizes: First $1,000; Second $200; Third $100. 4 x Highly Commended will receive certificates.
Entry Fee: $20 (maximum of three poems per poet)

1. Entrants must currently reside in Australia.
2. All work must be works of fiction and previously unpublished, including e-publishing. Work broadcast on radio, television or film, or performed as plays, are classified as published. Any story that has been awarded or commended in any previous competition is not eligible to enter.
3. Any poem that is under consideration in another competition is ineligible.
4. The Fellowship of Australian Writers Western Australia (FAWWA) reserves the right to publish the winning, second place and highly commended entries in its publications (including web site).
5. Non-award winning poems will be responsibly destroyed after the competition. Ensure you keep a copy.
6. The real name of the poet must not appear on the poem submission. All entries will be judged blind through the Submittable portal (identifying information will not be made available to the judge).
7. Entries must be submitted via Submittable. Poems can be uploaded in .docx, .doc, .pdf and .rtf format (sensible font, font size and spacing to be used).  Each poem should be uploaded as a separate file. Entries submitted via regular mail or email are ineligible and will be responsibly destroyed.
8. Maximum of three poems per author.
9. Entry fee of $20 will be collected via online payment on Submittable. No other form of payment is acceptable. No refunds will be given. Payments submitted outside of Submittable or in relation to ineligible entries will not be returned.
10. The judge’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. 
11. Shortlisted writers will be notified via email and the winner announced at the prizegiving at Voicebox in February 2017. Results will be published on the FAWWA website www.fawwa.org.
12. FAWWA Committee members are not eligible to enter.

For any general queries contact FAWWA at fellowshipaustralianwriterswa@gmail.com

 

The VERSO Book Awards

Announcing the Inaugural 

 

The Verso Book Awards 2017

 

the book as a work of art  

 

at Kinross House, 603 Toorak Rd, Toorak, Melbourne, VIC 3142

1 to 16 July 2017 – and part of  Melbourne Rare Book Week

 

The Verso Book Awards are administered by the publisher of Verso Magazine and are devoted to The Book as a Work of Art in Australia and New Zealand. The Awards are open to all citizens and residents over the age of eighteen in both countries.

 

The Verso Book Awards carries a first prize of AUD $2500, with two second prizes, each receiving AUD $1000. The winners will be the subject of a special essay in Verso Magazine. All exhibitors will be featured in a full-colour catalog of the exhibition.

For full terms and conditions and Entry Forms, reply to this email.

Best wishes

Alan Loney, publisher

verso

http://versomagazine.com.au

http://electioeditions.blogspot.com.au

EROS

                                    

The sense of the world is short,— Long and various the report,—               To love and be beloved; Men and gods have not outlearned it; And, how oft soe’er they’ve turned it,              ’Tis not to be improved.   - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Have fun! Make your own John-Cage type Poems

Have you visited ModPo's own "Mesostic Poem Generator"? Make your own quasi-unintentional poem. Try on some semi-unoriginality! Post to the Facebook group or to the forums!

haiku

about the nape of
garden Buddha's sunburnt head
white daisies

(after Issa)

Ron Pretty Poetry Prize NOW OPEN

 

Submissions for the 2016 Ron Pretty Poetry Prize are now open!

First Prize: $5000
Second Prize: $1500
Third Prize: $750

Judge: Ron Pretty
Opening Date: 15 July 2016
Closing Date: 22 November 2016

Enter Here .http://fiveislandspress.com/ron-pretty-poetry-prize

Rimbaud still gets mail!

 

Although Rimbaud’s writing career lasted only five years, his influence stretches across the arts, from Picasso to Bob Dylan, who, when introduced to his writing, said that ‘the bells went off’.

Mr Tambourine Man alludes to Le Bateau Ivre (Drunken Boat), often considered Rimbaud’s best work. 

Rimbaud stopped writing at 21, eventually becoming a trader in Ethiopia, but still people come to pay homage. We were, in a way, also doing that.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-3908196/The-poet-gets-fan-mail-125-years-death-voyage-elegant-French-shrine-Arthur-Rimbaud.html#ixzz4PH2UkMdr
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Tribute to Jim Hall and Bill Evans at The Gods

SPRING IN THE VALLEY - SUNDAY 10AM

Spring in the Valley Brunch

10am start, 30^th October

 

An invitation to

Viable Human Mob

SPRiNG in Valley – BRUNCH

 

the FiNALE

tHaT'z iT!!!

 

To all who are keen to come along & have a Heepy, Great Time.

the Artist's, the Poet's, the Art's Appreciator's, the Audience...

those who are Hungry & those who would just like something OK to Eat...

if your keen for a pretty decent Conversation, With "Not-Bad" People,

this is the place to Be...

 

to all Who Like Coin Filled & Cashed Up Pockets,

& then Like to empty them By Giving to Awesome Causes,

this is a Must...

 

to the Helper's, past & present

THANKS...

 

To all who have been before,

"Trust You Had a Good Time"

 

SPRiNG in Valley - BRUNCH,,, in it'z 11th & Finale Year.

 

Still only $15 (proceeds to Starlight Children’s Foundation)

For information : Neil 0422148956 or Helen 0431035540 for info

 

IMPOSSIBLE PRELUDES Launch This FRIDAY

Sydney Launch

Date/Time:  Friday 28 October, 6 pm for a 6.30 pm start

Venue: Gleebooks Upstairs, 49 Glebe Point Road.

To be launched by David Brooks.

RSVP Gleebooks, please click here.

 

Perth Launch

Date/Time: Thursday 10 November, 6 pm

Venue: Centre for Stories, 100 Aberdeen Street, Northbridge, 6003.

To be launched by Dennis Haskell.

'Impossible Preludes is the book of a master poet contemplating older age and the world as it is now; what is lost, what is being lost, and how to accommodate these things in one’s life. The classic markers of Taylor’s poetry are all fully evident in this work: lucidity, wit, glimpses into the natural and made world and the bringing together of these in sensitive but robust dialogue, literary allusion, and an easeful, confident control of the line. This generous book opens a new phase in Taylor’s poetics: the wistful, contemplative and celebratory, quite often against the odds.’ John Kinsella

Please join us at one of these launches and spread the word amongst your networks. Click here to purchase your copy of Impossible Preludes. 

Tough Tenors at The Gods

Ron Pretty Poetry Prize 2016 Extended

 

Many thanks to all the poets who have entered to date.

Over the past two months, the Five Islands Press website and Ron Pretty Poetry Prize entry page have been down at least twice. This is fixed now. But the Press wants to offer poets more time to enter the prize.
...

We are extending the prize until 22 November 2016.

With this new deadline, the long list will now be announced on 21 January 2017
The short list will be announced on 31 January 2017
The prize winner will be announced at an event on 3 March 2017

First Prize: $5000
Second Prize: $1500
Third Prize: $750
Judge: Ron Pretty

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 $25 for the first poem and $10 for subsequent poems. There are no limits on entries.

Online submissions only. Enter at: http://fiveislandspress.com/ron-pretty-poetry-prize

'IMPOSSIBLE PRELUDES' by Andrew Taylor

Sydney Launch

Date/Time:  Friday 28 October, 6 pm for a 6.30 pm start

Venue: Gleebooks Upstairs, 49 Glebe Point Road.

To be launched by David Brooks.

RSVP Gleebooks, please click here.

Perth Launch

Date/Time: Thursday 10 November, 6 pm

Venue: Centre for Stories, 100 Aberdeen Street, Northbridge, 6003.

To be launched by Dennis Haskell.

'Impossible Preludes is the book of a master poet contemplating older age and the world as it is now; what is lost, what is being lost, and how to accommodate these things in one’s life. The classic markers of Taylor’s poetry are all fully evident in this work: lucidity, wit, glimpses into the natural and made world and the bringing together of these in sensitive but robust dialogue, literary allusion, and an easeful, confident control of the line. This generous book opens a new phase in Taylor’s poetics: the wistful, contemplative and celebratory, quite often against the odds.’ John Kinsella

Please join us at one of these launches and spread the word amongst your networks. Click here to purchase your copy of Impossible Preludes. 

2016 Prime Minister's Literary Awards

Prime Minister's Literary Awards

8 hrs ·

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Arts Minister Senator Mitch Fifield have announced the shortlists for the 2016 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards!

Thirty books have been recognised across the six award categories.
Check out the website for the full list of shortlisted authors, books and judges’ comments https://www.arts.gov.au/pm-literary-awards .

Poetry

• Net Needle by Robert Adamson (Black Inc.)
• Cocky's Joy by Michael Farrell (Giramondo)
• The Hazards by Sarah Holland-Batt (University of Queensland Press)
• Waiting for the Past by Les Murray AO (Black Inc.)
• The Ladder by Simon West (Puncher & Wattmann)

TIM WINTON'S The Boy Behind the Curtain

 

The Boy Behind the Curtain is a beautiful object, with clear space around many of its chapters, as if you might want to pause, or ease them apart to hand on to your friends. And it opens up space around Winton’s other works, not in terms of delineating direct lines from him to his characters or his plots, but via the living and mutable concordance that shimmers between a writer’s life, their passions and their interests, and the stories they go on to make. He “rose to adulthood on a tide of story,” as he writes in Twice on Sundays, and he made it his business to write. About working for places like Ningaloo. About people like Oriel Lamb in Cloudstreet, or Ort Flack in That Eye, The Sky. About strange apparitions in Ireland. About all of this and more.

Read more at http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/boy-behind-the-curtain-tim-winton-explores-his-place-in-the-world/news-story/6440478755cb9526ffc529cd38882e7a

Poem by CARL SANDBURG

Lost

 

Carl Sandburg

                                     

Desolate and lone All night long on the lake Where fog trails and mist creeps, The whistle of a boat Calls and cries unendingly, Like some lost child In tears and trouble Hunting the harbor’s breast And the harbor’s eyes.

American Life in Poetry: Column 603 - by TED KOOSER

The workings of memory are something that every writer thinks a lot about, and in this poem Peter Everwine, a California poet we've featured before, looks very closely into those workings. His most recent book is Listening Long and Late, from the University of Pittsburgh Press. This poem is from Five Points, a distinguished quarterly journal.


A Small Story

When Mrs. McCausland comes to mind
she slips through a small gap in oblivion
and walks down her front steps, in her hand
a small red velvet pillow she tucks
under the head of Old Jim Schreiber,
who is lying dead-drunk against the curb
of busy Market Street. Then she turns,
labors up the steps and is gone . . .

A small story. Or rather, the memory
of a story I heard as a boy. The witnesses
are not to be found, the steps lead nowhere,
the pillow has collapsed into a thread of dust . . .
Do the dead come back only to remind us
they, too, were once among the living,
and that the story we make of our lives
is a mystery of luminous, but uncertain moments,
a shuffle of images we carry toward sleep—
Mrs. McCausland with her velvet pillow,
Old Jim at peace—a story, like a small
clearing in the woods at night, seen
from the windows of a passing train.

We do not accept unsolicited submissions. American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.Poem copyright ©2015 by Peter Everwine, “A Small Story,” from Five Points, (Vol. 17, no. 1, 2015). Poem reprinted by permission of Peter Everwine and the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2016 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.

KSP ANTHOLOGY LAUNCH

Tim Winton at GLEEBOOKS

October Gleaner 

Tim Winton graces the cover of our October Gleaner to celebrate the release of his powerful new memoir, 'The Boy Behind the Curtain".   If you aren't a member of the Gleeclub, or can't get into the shop to pick up a copy, you can browse the magazine and order all the titles online here.

 Tim's conversation with the wonderful Suzanne Leal this Sunday is completely booked out, but the book itself is now in stock at the special price of $39.99 (reduced from $45). 

Max Richards RIP

Dog refuses to leave side of dying Kiwi poet

Stuff.co.nz

 

A New Zealand-born poet and academic has died after being hit by a car while crossing the road in his new hometown of Seattle, Washington.

Seattle community rally around Max Richards' family after death - New Zealand Herald

NZ poet dies after being hit by car in US - Radio New Zealand

Trump Does Shakespeare

Jayne sent this link to Trump rewriting Shakespeare. Enjoy!

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/donald-trump-performs-shakespeares-soliloquies

Poetry News from HARRIET the Poetry Blog

National Book Awards Longlist for Poetry Announced

By Harriet Staff


Today, the New Yorker takes a look at the longlist in the poetry category for the National Book Awards. The list is a mix of established poets and emerging poets, with Donika Kelly and Solmaz Sharif’s first books appearing in 2016. Now for that list:

Daniel Borzutzky, The Performance of Becoming Human (Brooklyn Arts Press)
Rita Dove, Collected Poems 1974 – 2004 (W. W. Norton & Company)
Peter Gizzi, Archeophonics (Wesleyan University Press)
Donald Hall, The Selected Poems of Donald Hall (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Jay Hopler, The Abridged History of Rainfall (McSweeney’s)
Donika Kelly, Bestiary (Graywolf Press)
Jane Mead, World of Made and Unmade (Alice James Books)
Solmaz Sharif, Look (Graywolf Press)
Monica Youn, Blackacre (Graywolf Press)
Kevin Young, Blue Laws (Alfred A. Knopf)

POETRY COMPETITIONS

Ron Pretty Poetry Prize    Submissions for the 2016 Ron Pretty Poetry Prize are now open! First Prize: $5000 Second Prize: $1500 Third Prize: $750 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 $25 for the first poem and $10 for subsequent poems. There are no limits on entries. Online submissions only. Judge: Ron Pretty Opening Date: 15 July 2016 Closing Date: 22 November 2016 The long list will now be announced on 21 January 2017 The short list will be announced on 31 January 2017 The prize winner will be announced at an event on 3 March 2017 Enquiries should be directed to: submissions@fiveislandspress.com. Read more: http://fiveislandspress.com/ron-pretty-poetry-prize

 

Sonnet Writing Competition now open!

This year is the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's death, and like other Shakespeare lovers worldwide, the Shakespeare Club of Western Australia plans a celebration of the bard's life.

 

We are going to commemorate with a sonnet-writing competition for adults and secondary school students, open to would-be writers and experienced poets alike.

 Adult Category: The Competition is open to any Australian Resident (excepting members of the Shakespeare Club of WA): 1^st Prize: $300; 2^nd Prize: $200; 3^rd Prize: $100
Entrants will be invited to attend the Awards Ceremony in Perth.

Competition Rules

1.   Sonnet entries must be accompanied by an Entry Form and must be submitted by post to Shakespeare Club of WA, PO Box 100, Mt Hawthorn, WA 6915. 
2.    In the Student Category there is an entry fee of $5 per sonnet entry. In the Adult Category the entry fee is $10 per sonnet entry. Payment may be made by cheque, Money Order or by Bank Transfer. Entries received without payment will be excluded from the Competition. Entry fees are not refundable.
3.    Entrants may submit more than one but no more than three sonnet entries. Each entry must be on a separate sheet of paper and must not include any information that might identify the entrant.
 4.    Deadline: All entries must be received by September 23, 2016. r Entries received after that date will not be accepted.
5.    The identity of entrants will not be known by the Panel of Judges. The decision of the Panel of Judges will be final. The n the Prizes are awarded.
6.   The Composition Guidelines form part of the Competition Rules. By entering the Competition, entrants agree to the Competition Rules.
7.   The Shakespeare Club of Western Australia reserves the right to publish any entry. Winners will be announced online at: www.perthshakespeareclub.blogspot.com.au.Prizewinners agree to allow their names to be published; at the Awards Ceremony photographs may be taken for publication.

 

 

Australian S/Story Festival - in Northbridge, WA

CLICK HERE TO BUY YOUR TICKETS The three-day festival will offer over twenty-five paid and free events, showcasing not only the traditional written form but also storytelling in the oral and recorded forms.  A total of thirty local and national writers, will be participating in the event, along with Parashar Kulkarni, who recently became the first Indian writer to win the prestigious Commonwealth Short Story Prize for his story, ‘Cow and Company.' Key events include, 'In Conversation' sessions with prominent writers such as Ryan O’Neill (VIC), Ellen van Neerven (QLD), Cate Kennedy (VIC), Paddy O’Reilly (VIC), Fiona McFarlane (NSW) and Isabelle Li (NSW), publishing advice with three independent publishing houses, the launch of Westerly: New Creative issue, a collaboration between local storytellers and raconteurs - Barefaced Stories, Magnolias Late Night Live and Ships In The Night, a celebration of five years of the Margaret River Short Story Competition and a street reading walk of Northbridge. Host organisation, Centre for Stories in Northbridge will be the Festival's main venue, with activities also scheduled at the State Library and Northbridge Piazza which will showcase an Indigenous Yarning Session, featuring prominent personalities from Warakurna, a remote community of Western Australia situated 330km from Uluru. Cate Kennedy, one of Australia’s most celebrated short story writers, will give the opening address. Professor Kim Scott, twice winner of the Miles Franklin Award will deliver the closing address. Australian Short Story Festival Patron highly acclaimed author, Gail Jones, has described the event as “an audacious, intelligent and very welcome initiative at a time when the short story as a form is enormously popular with both emerging and established writers”. The Australian Short Festival has received funding from the Department of Culture and Arts, Copyright Agency and the City of Perth.

Issa Haiku

she keeps the nest
nice and neat...
widow bird

Issa 1821

.小奇麗にしてくらす也やもめ鳥
kogirei [ni] shite kurasu nari yamome tori


Though Issa is known for humor in haiku, this one tugs at the heart strings ... hard.

http://haikuguy.com/

Leunig larf

Sonnet Competition now open

From the Shakespeare Club of Western Australia:

SONNET COMPETITION

 

This year is the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's death, and like other Shakespeare lovers worldwide, the Shakespeare Club of Western Australia plans a celebration of the bard's life.

 

We are going to commemorate with a sonnet-writing competition for adults and secondary school students, open to would-be writers and experienced poets alike.

 

Competition Rules: Click here! 

 

Adult Entry Form:  Click here!

 

Student Entry Form: Click here!

Sonnet competition again

Our sonnet competition has received some very good entries - but not enough of them! While we are delighted with the standard of the entries, we do hope more people can be encouraged to send in their sonnets.

Originally, we barred members of the Club from entering, but entry numbers to date suggest that perhaps most of the people who write sonnets are already members of The Shakespeare Club of Western Australia! Therefore, the Committee has decided to open the competition to members of the Club. Members are advised that they must not enter under their own names, but use a nom-de-plume, so that the judging can take place on a level playing field.

So come on, members! Pay homage to our beloved bard by putting pen to paper. Or, rather, fingers to keyboard!

From the Captain of the Modern Poetics course (FREE)

My profuse apologies. I promise to be a better proofreader! The problem with open enrollment has NOW been fixed.—Al Dear andrew burke: For a day or so, those who tried to enroll in ModPo a few days after the start of the course were told that enrollments were closed. This was an error in the system. It's now been fixed. ModPo is always open! Anyone can enroll in ModPo any time. Tell your friends. Tell your family. Share ModPo with loved ones, colleagues, neighbors! Give them this URL: https://www.coursera.org/learn/modpo Al

Go to course

A small poem in Honour of Merv Lilley's passing at 96

IN MEMORY OF MERV

Merv’s riding down

for his cremation. He wouldn’t

miss it for all the sugar cane

in Queensland. All the family

will be there and people

he only half recognises. Will

the undertaker ladies have

a hitching rail and safe storage

for his saddle-bags? They’re new,

you know. They were on

Merv’s last shopping list: 'I need

pack saddle with a couple of splitbags –

also a .22 rifle to shoot whatever...'

All the cane fires of Queensland

couldn’t burn Merv’s rage out

but now all his energy goes

up in smoke in one last blaze.

Don’t call the wallopers or

the fireys. Merv’s just going out

in one last blaze of glory.

spring haiku

after spring rains
duck on the rising river
dines alone

Photo of self and Millie

Self and Millie, my best friend.

Leunig's Hymn to Spring

Dog Wisdom

Issa Spring Haiku

even the turtle
wants feathers...
the geese depart

- Issa 1820

.すつぽんも羽ほしげ也帰る雁
suppon mo hane hoshige nari kae[ru] kari

Shinji Ogawa points out that kaeru in this context can be translated as "return" or "leave." Since this is a spring haiku, the wild geese are leaving Japan (i.e., returning to northern lands).

http://haikuguy.com/issa/