Evangelyne and other poems - by Helen Hagemann

Helen Hagemann’s writing is a triumphant celebration of the power of poetry to recapture the past and still the present. Whether she is remembering growing up on the Central Coast of NSW, memorializing family and neighbours or observing cormorants, she makes each moment vividly real. These poems have all the dazzle and sting of a summer day at the beach, with the Esky full of rolls and lettuce and the ‘cozzie’ a ‘rainbow’ to put on. Evangelyne & other poems is an exuberant, generous, thoroughly lived-in collection. Its relish for the everyday details of Australian life is a rare delight.

- Jean Kent

Helen Hagemann grew up on the Central Coast of NSW during the fifties & sixties, and lived in Sydney for a short time before settling in Perth.

Her poetry is widely published in literary magazines and anthologies. She has an MA in Writing, and teaches prose at the Fremantle Arts Centre.

The Australian Poetry Centre
invites you to the launch of
the APC New Poets Series 2009

little bit long time
by Ali Cobby Eckermann

Evangelyne & other poems
by Helen Hagemann

Awake During Anaesthetic
by Kimberley Mann

Canyon
by Andrew Slattery
Monday 18 May 2009
7.30pm–9.00pm

Hotel Gearin, 273 Great Western Highway
Katoomba NSW

To be launched by Ron Pretty
with readings by Mark Tredinnick and Romaine Moreton

Entry $5, or free to members of the Australian Poetry Centre

For more information go to: http://www.varuna.com.au

WS Merwin wins 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

From the Citations of this year's awards:

For a distinguished volume of original verse by an American author, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000).

Awarded to “The Shadow of Sirius,” by W. S. Merwin (Copper Canyon Press), a collection of luminous, often tender poems that focus on the profound power of memory.
Finalists

"Also nominated as finalists in this category were: “Watching the Spring Festival,” by Frank Bidart (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), a book of lyric poems that evinces compassion for the human condition as it explores the constraints that limit the possibility of people changing the course of their lives; and “What Love Comes To: New & Selected Poems,” by Ruth Stone (Copper Canyon Press), a collection of poems that give rich drama to ordinary experience, deepening our sense of what it means to be human.

Go to http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/123 for biog and poems.

Miranda at two ... by Thomas Shapcott

This weekend's Australian newspaper includes a marvellous moving poem by Thomas Shapcott, a long time poet, author and friend to Oz literature. I presume copyright laws prevent me from publishing it here, so please hunt it up. It is a sonnet in the Review section, bottom column of page 17, a right hand page.

SAVE THE KIMBERLEY - article by Rod Hartvigsen

Broome was settled in the mid to late 1800’s as a pearling centre after the pirate William Dampier’s log books inspired pearlers to investigate the area. It is fitting that a pirates' log books would start the town of Broome because it continues it’s debonair spirit to this day. Broome is an inspiring town. It attracts people from all walks of life. From your average backpacker in his/her ‘wicked’ van looking for adventure to the most well-healed investor who wishes to make a pearl ear-ring or a 5 star resort. It is the flavour of the town and its cosmopolitan atmosphere that attracts tourists and residents alike.

Broome was the only town in Australia that was exempt from the White Australia Policy that was established in 1901 and continued until 1973. It excluded Japanese and Chinese immigration to Australia. Broome was exempt because of the requirement for Japanese pearl divers. This exception enhanced Broome’s multi cultural population over and above the rest of Australia during those 70 years. Today, the mix of Aboriginal, Japanese, Chinese, Malay, Koepang , Indonesian and Caucasian blood is a thing to be celebrated.

Broome is a town where the Indigenous population has self respect and thus the respect of others. It has its problems but less than many towns. The Indigenous population is strong in culture and it is this strength that has, in the past, stopped many undesirable developments (a large resort on Gantheaume Point as an example).

The current decision by a few to accept money in lieu of use of country I think is due to misrepresentation by the government and a feeling that if they didn’t accept the offer their country would be taken from them anyway. A pressure situation no-one would welcome.

Broome has a flavour that can be tasted in the air, this, mixed with the colours of its red/orange ‘Pindan’ earth against the turquoise waters of the northern Indian ocean, gives it the essence that attract many people. It is also one of the many things that endears it to its faithful residents, who love it with a passion.

Yes, Broome is a service town. It services the pearling industry, it services the Kimberley cattle industry and it services the off-shore oil and gas industry. These services have little impact on it’s beautiful beaches, its five star resorts and its cosmopolitan atmosphere.

Premier Colin Barnett wishes to establish heavy industry only 30 kilometres north of Willie Creek which is situated at the northern end of the world famous Cable Beach. This industry will pollute with atmospheric discharges of CO2 equivalent to putting 2 million cars onto Australian roads. It will emit cancer causing gases such as benzene, cyclohexane, toluene and ethylbenzine. This is assuming that no other industry springs up adjacent to the gas precinct. It is well known that once an energy source such as the gas precinct is established, it will open the way for other industries such as chemical manufacturers, aluminium refineries and fertilizer plants to establish.

Do we want this to happen? Do we want the essence of Broome to move from a service and tourism town to a mining town with pollution, astronomic house rentals, fly-in fly-out workers who give nothing to the town except more drugs, more violence, more demands for brothels and more anti-social behaviour, as has been seen in other towns that have had their social fabric sucked dry by the mining industry (ie. Port Hedland)?

Broome has a healthy, wealthy future with clean beaches, clear skies and fun loving people. This is how we sell the place now. How would we sell it with heavy industry just up the beach?

Seriously question those business people who promote heavy industry and the bolt-on services. Do they have the future of Broome or their own future at heart?
How long will the gas provide employment and income compared to a clean beach, a beautiful sunset or a bush tucka tour?

No, Broome deserves better than this. The people who call Broome home, deserve better than this. This gas precinct is not a fait accompli. We need to stop it from destroying our town.

Article by Rod Hartvigsen, Broome photographer

Friendly Street Poets Inc. Japanese Poetry Competition 2009 -Tanka & Tanka Sequence

Closing Date: Friday 1st. May 2009

Categories: Prizes: 1st 2nd
A - Tanka $100 $50
page of 2 Tanka = 1 entry
B - Tanka Sequence $100 $50
3 - 8 tanka, 1 sequence = 1 entry

Entry Fee: AUS $5.00 per entry
Cheque or money order payable to “Friendly Street Poets”.

Send entries to:
Friendly Street Poets Inc, PO Box 3697, Norwood, 5067.
Please note: entries will only be accepted via this post box.

Tanka:
This is a 5 line poem of 31 syllables or fewer. Tanka is not a haiku with extra lines. 1300 years ago, lyrical tanka celebrated courtly love. Contemporary tanka address human emotions and aspects of life; not all of them incorporate nature. The first line is used in place of a title for reference.

Tanka Sequence:
For the purposes of this competition, the sequence will comprise 3 to 8 tanka on a chosen theme or narrative. Each tanka must be capable of standing alone, and the connection between tanka can be more subtle than the links between verses in Western poetry. Sequences have titles.

Conditions and Guidelines:
1. Entries must be the original work of the entrant, unpublished, not have won a monetary prize, or be under consideration elsewhere.
2. All submissions must be sent to the Friendly Street post box.
3. Entries must be received by the due date, or postmarked by that date.
4. An entry form, or a photocopy of this form, is required.
5. Author’s name is not to appear on the entries, only on this entry form.
6. There is no limit to the number of entries. All entries must be listed on the entry form and the appropriate fee must be enclosed.
7. Two copies of each entry must accompany the form and fee.
8. Please keep a copy of your work as entries will be destroyed after the judging.
9. Authors retain copyright, but Friendly Street Poets Inc. claim the right (if we choose) to publish winning and commended entries on the website and in Friendly Street Publications.
10. Prizes are based on literary merit. Judges’ rulings are final and no correspondence will be entered into. Prizes are in Australian dollars.
11. Notification of winners will be announced at the Friendly Street meeting in June and posted on the website.

Download an entry form at: http://friendlystreetpoets.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/tanka-form.pdf

Anna Maria Weldon at Perth Poetry Club tomorrow 2pm at The Court Hotel

A blossoming poet on the Australian scene, Anna Maria Weldon has had one book The Roof Milkers published by Sunline Press, and also won last year's Creatrix prize. Anna is a fine reader of her own poetry, so don't miss this occasion.

Free entry. Food and drink available. And an open section for other poets in the audience, so pack a pantoum in your pocket >g<

Check out all the news at Perth Poetry Club: http://www.perthpoetryclub.com

dotdotdash = You

What the world needs now is another literary quarterly! So, here it is http://dotdotdash.org/ Deborah Hunn is the editor of this new West Australian quarterly. Full facts and how to submit, including access to the necessary form, at the website above. So, don't delay - submit today!

Famous Seamus has his say on 70th Birthday

An article worth reading about Seamus Heaney and, indeed, the value of poetry in today's world: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-rutten15-2009apr15,1,7872541.column

If I had an explanation, I'd share it with you ...

Please Note ...

I will be away for the next ten days, 13th to 23rd April, so postings to this blog in that time will be erratic.

Coupling - by Millicent Borges Accardi

Coupling

The woman thought she would be good,
making sure he washed,

rescuing black stockings, wood pile
scraps. Finding theatre tickets

and collecting parking stubs.
She thought she would be good

at using his soap. Remembering
not to wear perfume and waking

up to call home. In the hotel,
hiding while the hot water ran,

her heart compact as plywood.
She thought she would be good

at belonging. The bulk of her time
a two-by -four dove-tailed into a corner,

getting the best he had to offer.
She thought she had a talent for being aloof.

On him, she made few demands.
When he was away, she imagined

his heart open, fearless
hands holding a piece of wood steady

while a diamond-point blade cut through.


Millicent Borges Accardi has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the arts (NEA), the California Arts Council, the Barbara Deming Foundation (Money for Women), Jentel, and the Corporation of Yaddo. Her work has appeared in over 50 literary publications including Nimrod, Tampa Review, New Letters and Wallace Stevens Journal as well as a in Boomer Girls (Iowa Press) anthology. She lives in Topanga, CA and telecommutes as a technical writer. She presently has three manuscripts in progress, looking forward to the publication of her first book. This fall, she was an artist in residence at Fundación Valparaíso in Mojacar, Spain.

All this information from http://womensvoicesforchange.org/poetry-friday-millicent-borges-accardi.htm

TODAY 2pm Kevin Gillam @ PERTH POETRY CLUB

Perth Poetry Club's featured guest TODAY will be KEVIN GILLAM (poet, cellist and author of 2 beautiful books, 'other gravities' and 'permitted to fall').

Plus open stage. (They have no mike.)

18 April: ANNAMARIA WELDON.
25 April: ALAN HANCOCK.

2-4pm THIS SATURDAY and EVERY SATURDAY at The Court, 50 Beaufort Street, Perth. MCs Janet Jackson and Helen Child.

Food, drink and the company of poets (if that's desirable)..

University's first Pacific Island PhD in English publishes poetry book

The University of Auckland’s first Pacific Islander to graduate with a PhD in English will this month publish a poetry and CD collection hailed for its confidence and musicality.

Dr Selina Tusitala Marsh’s Fast Talking PI (University of Auckland Press, 2009) reflects the poet’s own focus on issues affecting Pacific communities in New Zealand, and indigenous peoples around the world—including the challenges and triumphs of being afakasi (half-caste).

Dr Tusitala Marsh is of Samoan, Tuvalu, English, and French descent; “Tusitala” means writer of tales in Samoan. The book, Dr Tusitala Marsh’s first published collection of poems, lives up to that name with stories of the poet’s life,family, community, ancestry, and history. Her poetry is sensuous and strong, using lush imagery, clear rhythms and repetitions to power it forward. Although the list poem is a favourite style, she also writes with a Pacific lyricism entirely her own.

Fast Talking PI is structured in three sections, “Tusitala” (personal), “Talkback” (political and historical) and “Fast Talking PIs” (dialogue). In poems such as “Guys Like Gauguin” she writes as a “calabash breaker”, smashing stereotypes and challenging historic injustices; but in other poems she explores the idea of the calabash as the honoured vessel for identity and story. Ultimately, though, Marsh exhorts herself to “be nobody’s darling”; as a writer she is a self-proclaimed “darling in the margins”.

“The title poem of this collection has become my signature trademark. I’ve had fantastic responses to it from within and beyond the Pacific community. Its message, and that of the collection, is that if you can name your identity, you can claim your destiny and become exactly who and how you were meant to be, even in the face of outside limitations and proscriptions. After embracing a ‘calabash breaker’ genealogy, my work here at the Department of English has become a strategic place to empower and inspire others through creative writing. For those contemplating study at University, there are a lot more calabashes to go around,” says Dr Tusitala Marsh.

Acclaimed writer and Professor of English Witi Ihimaera praises Dr Tusitala Marsh as “the sassy hip-hop streetwise Samoan siren of South Pacific poetry and poetics. No, correct that: her poetry and poetics are world class. Her aesthetics and indigenous politics are meld-marvellous and her ideas will blow you away”.

Dr Tusitala Marsh will be reading from Fast Talking PI at Auckland’s annual Pasifika celebrations from 11.30am-12 noon at The University of Auckland stage on Saturday 14 March (Western Springs Park).

Dr Tusitala Marsh lectures on New Zealand and Pasifika literature in the University’s Department of English. She is developing a Pasifika Poetry website in conjunction with the NZ electronic poetry centre and working on a critical anthology of Pacific women poets writing in English. Her poetry has been anthologised already, including in the award-winning Whetu Moana: Contemporary Polynesian Poetry in English.

Video and audio files of Selina Tusitala Marsh reading her poems and the text of some of her poems are available on http://www.nzepc.auckland.ac.nz

Fungus in Bassendean

Kevin Gillam @ PERTH POETRY CLUB this Saturday

Perth Poetry Club's featured guest on Saturday 11 April will be KEVIN GILLAM (poet, cellist and author of 2 beautiful books, 'other gravities' and 'permitted to fall').

Plus open stage. (They have no mike.)

18 April: ANNAMARIA WELDON.
25 April: ALAN HANCOCK.

2-4pm THIS SATURDAY and EVERY SATURDAY at The Court, 50 Beaufort Street, Perth. MCs Janet Jackson and Helen Child.

Food, drink and the company of poets.

A Biting Remark

The covers of this book are too far apart.

Ambrose Bierce


(supplied by Douglas Barbour, Canadian poet)

What a good line-up of poets!

John Ashbery Interview

Meghan O'Rourke interviews JA. Dumb questions, generous answers ...

Polis Is Eyes - Charles Olson

This is one helluva film about Olson: http://www.polisisthis.com./watch-now.html

Happy Hour

They say the rock faces of Tai Bai Mountain
are stained from black ink Li Bai threw away in rage.

Now Bob writes of Mallarme’s first drafts
as a squid squirts black ink in his boat -
‘the darkest hour is right before the dawn’.

Questions of meaning and faith are two squirts
of brain ink drying on the swings
of a disused playground.

Soaring bop from Bird plays behind
bottles of Quink lined up like a cocktail bar
waiting for Happy Hour.

These words do an awkward dance -
I’m thinking this one out
on a laptop where the screen’s image
burns in autumn sunlight.

The Edge of Love - Love Story of Dylan Thomas

Photo: Matthew Rhys and Sienna Miller star in ''The Edge of Love,'' the story of Dylan Thomas during World War II.

from the review by Ty Burr at http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/04/03/lots_of_love_and_a_little_poetry_2_women_and_dylan_thomas/

"The Edge of Love" is a "great poet" movie, the poet in this case being Dylan Thomas, and it's utter bollocks. How can you tell? The raffish, hard-drinkin' Thomas (Matthew Rhys) finally sits down to compose some verse (it's 1941's "Love in the Asylum") and the words stream out of his inner consciousness directly onto the soundtrack, the musical score surging orgasmically, the work issuing forth complete, each dactyl tucked neatly into place.

This is how art always happens in movies, but someday I'd like to see the real hard work of writing poetry: the procrastination, the dumb luck of inspiration, the coffee, the rewrites. The process is anything but pretty; thus the need in the first place.

Read more at the URL above.


Facts: THE EDGE OF LOVE Directed by: John Maybury, Written by: Sharman Macdonald
Starring: Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller, Matthew Rhys, Cillian Murphy

PERTH POETRY CLUB at The Court 2pm Saturday

This week the Special Guest is ALLAN BOYD, infamous anti-poet. Plenty of time for Open Mike readers - Get in early and put your name on the list. This club energetically run by Janet Jackson and Helen Child. Back it with your presence.

Fremantle Press invites new and emerging poets ...

Submit to Shorelines 2

Fremantle Press invites new and emerging poets to submit a collection of their work for consideration for publication in Shorelines 2.

This volume will feature a small group of poets who, at the time of publication (June 2010), will have published no more than one other full length volume of their work.

Submissions should be between 40-70 pages in length and should be sent in hard copy to

The Publisher
Poetry
PO Box 158
North Fremantle WA 6159

Submissions should include a brief covering letter outlining relevant biographical details and an SSAE for the return of the manuscript.

Poets will be selected by an editorial committee comprised of Georgia Richter and Wendy Jenkins of Fremantle Press and guest editor Tracy Ryan.

Shorelines 2 is scheduled for publication in JUNE 2010, as a key feature of Fremantle Press Poetry Month.

CLOSING DATE FOR SUBMISSIONS: June 15 2009

Poet Writer-in-Residence at Fashion shoot

Roddy Lumsden was the lucky writer-in-residence on a fashion shoot with Kate Moss ... Go figure. Maybe this will catch on as a scenario in Oz Lit! Take a look - http://living.scotsman.com/books/Roddy-Lumsden-interview-Poetry-Kate.5067456.jp

LET POETS ENJOY STIMULUS TOO

Jon Corelis put this up at poetryetc ...

Washington (CNS) - In a surprising twist on the administration's economic stimulus plan, a proposal is being floated to include funds for the purchase of poetry in the program.

According to White House congressional liaison aide April Narr, the proposal is still under development, but it is conceived as involving substantial grants to American poetry publications to pass on to their contributing poets in payment for their work. "The working idea," said Narr, "is to consult experts to draw up a list of the hundred best established poetry journals in the country, and give them federal economic stimulus grants so they can pay their poets much more for their work. The target figure is $1,000 per line."

Though some may question the effectiveness of trying to restart the American economy by paying money to poets, Narr maintained that "the whole idea of the economic stimulus plan is to get people to buy things, and why should buying poetry be any different from buying apples or toothpaste?"

Since poets are typically starving artists, Narr continued, they would be likely to spend their increased revenues on basic foodstuffs, such as bread, and usually being bohemian types they would also spend the money on wine and cheese, making this part of the stimulus "potentially of significant benefit to our nation's baking,wine-making, and dairy industries."

Narr admitted, though, that there was some concern that the proposed $1,000 per line payments might result in a proliferation of poems with very short lines.

Asked if she herself is a poetry fan, Narr replied, "Yes, I am a great fan. In school I got to recite The Bells by Edgar Allen Poe in a pageant."

Larf

POETRY – SOME DEFINITIONS

When a definition of poetry is possible, it will signify poetry’s demise. Nevertheless, here are some definitions of poetry by poets:

A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom.
Robert Frost

Poetry is like fish: if it’s fresh, it’s good; if it’s stale, it’s bad; and if you’re not certain, try it on the cat.
Osbert Sitwell

Poetry is what in a poem makes you laugh, cry, prickle, be silent, makes your toenails twinkle, makes you want to do this or that or nothing, makes you know that you are along in the unknown world, that your bliss and suffering is forever shared and forever all your own.
Dylan Thomas

Like a piece of ice on a hot stove the poem must ride on its own melting.
Robert Frost

In a poem the words should be as pleasing to the ear as the meaning is to the mind.
Marianne Moore

In poetry you have a form looking for a subject and subject looking for a form. When they come together successfully you have a poem.
W.H.Auden

A poem should not mean, but be.
Archibald MacLeish

You will not find poetry anywhere unless you bring some of it with you.
Joseph Joubert

Poetry is language surprised in the act of changing into meaning.
Stanley Kunitz

Poetry is emotion put into measure. The emotion must come by nature, but the measure can be acquired by art
Thomas Hardy

Poetry is to prose as dancing is to walking.
John Wain

Poetry provides the one permissible way of saying one thing and meaning another.
Robert Frost

Only emotion endures.
Ezra Pound

Poetry Workshop - Have a look >

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/oct/23/michael-symmons-roberts-self-portrait

Looks like fun!

First Reading @ PERTH POETRY CLUB

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

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

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

Perth Poetry Club opens TODAY at 2pm

Music, Poetry, Bar and Food - FREE ENTRY.

Get yourself to The Court today.

Perth Poetry Club opens This Saturday at 2pm, 28 March 2009

Please support the beginning of this new poetry outlet in Perth. It should be a good venue and a strong entertainment element with Janet Jackson and Helen Child at the controls! Poetry, music and a bar - all with FREE entry. Bring your family and friends.

Book Launch: Glen Phillips' Singing Granites & Shanghai Suite

Monday evening saw the launch of two books by the widely published poet, Glen Phillips. Planet Bookshop was the venue and its warehouse-style design always lends an earthy edge to such functions. From their cement floors with scattered rugs to the grandiose chandelier on the ceiling, the place seems just right for literary chat, far from the sterility of the book-chain outlets.

To launch Singing Granites, wheat belt born and bred poet John Kinsella did a clear job of defining the dissimilarities yet the vibrant connections between Glen Phillips and granites in the Australian landscape with Ann Born, English poet and her granites in the Devon landscape. Glen and John have worked together on various projects, and both have an affinity with the wheat belt area of Western Australia, so John's speech was both intimate with Glen's life and work, and illustrative of the literary themes of the book.

For all Glen's years as a teacher of literature and creative writing for students in Western Australia, his connections with China have grown a pace since he retired a couple of years back. He spends his time nowadays between The International Centre for Landscape and Language at Edith Cowan University and a Shanghai university. His second book launched on Monday evening was Shanghai Suite and Other Poems, a delightful little book published by the International Centre for Landscape and Language.

Professor Andrew Taylor, himself an internationally known Australian poet, launched this book by alluding to Glen's energy after his retirement - the fact that he could have simply rested after a life of teaching and creating opportunities for other writers in WA via writing centres, etc. But no, as Andrew pointed out, Glen has virtually started a new career by lecturing on Australian literature at the Shanghai University of Science and Technology. Andrew Taylor commented on the slightly different stylistic slant these poems have compared to the first book: they are certainly not copies of any Chinese style but they have an oblique imagery in them that seems to have come from the Chinese experience of the author.

The evening itself was a warm, wonderful night of friendship and literary gossip (none of which I am telling here!) I was lucky enough to introduce Jenny Davis, actor and theatre director, to a number of poets and friends, and it just went to show me the lack of connectivity between the various art forms in Perth. Jenny was there because she was playing host to Jennifer Compton, visiting Australian poet and playwright, whose latest play The Big Picture is on at the Subiaco Theatre Centre, staged by the Perth Theatre Company and Agelink, and directed by Jenny Davis.

I forgot my camera on the night, so the photos which accompany this small sketch have been generously donated by Sue Coughlan, poet, screenwriter and ex-convener and founder of The Poets'Corner.

HOT NEWS: Save The Kimberley Concert FRIDAY

John Butler and the Pigram Brothers will headline a free concert on Broome oval on Friday evening aimed at highlighting the cultural significance of Prices Point as the push to develop it as a gas processing hub continues.
The Walmadany Concert for Heritage - Walmadany being the Indigenous name for Prices Point - will also feature Midnight Oil's Rob Hirst and Goanna's Shane Howard. The concert will also host the reformation of legendary Broome group Scrap Metal.

Sonia Sanchez wins Creeley Award

African-American poetess ['poet' in Australian English] Sonia Sanchez, who infuses her verse with musical beats and performed at the inauguration, will receive the ninth annual Robert Creeley Award in the late poet's hometown of Acton.

"I'm greatly honored to receive this award, especially as it's given in memory of our dear brother Robert (Creeley)," said Sanchez from her home in Philadelphia where she serves as poet-in-residence at Temple University. "Creeley's idea of the poem as an act of responsibility moves me deeply."

more http://www.milforddailynews.com/books/x441466989/Philadelphia-poet-Sonia-Sanchez-to-be-honored-with-Robert-Creeley-Award-in-Acton

Free Poems - to Read around the world and to Hear in Berkeley

Knopf publishing house is continuing its annual tradition of sending out a free poem a day throughout Poetry Month [April] to anyone who cares to sign up on its Web site: http://www.randomhouse.com/knopf/poetry/index.pperl

And over on the UC Berkeley campus, Pulitzer Prize-winning Berkeley poet and faculty member Robert Hass is hosting an out-of-the ordinary Lunch Poems event. The ongoing series presents poets in free readings at the Morrison Library the first Thursday of every month; the April 2 session at 12:10 p.m. in 101 Doe Library, however, will feature five women writers from Korea, all of whom will read their poetry in both English and their native tongue: Jeongrye Choi, Young Mi Choi, Hyesoon Kim, Hee-duk Ra and Chung-hee Moon. For more information, call 510-642-3671 [USA].

Shakespeare and Co in Paris

A view from inside the bookstore Shakespeare and Co in Paris [founded by Sylvia Beach many decades ago]. Photo by Toshio Kishiyama Flickr.com

Perth Poetry Club opens 28 March 2009

In case you can't read the small print, I'll be the inaugural guest poet to launch the Perth Poetry Club, an initiative bravely taken on by local poets Helen Child and Janet Jackson. This is scheduled to be a Weekly event - ain't that great. So, get behind it. Stick posters up. Tell friends and colleagues. Lasso friends and relatives. Tell them lies if you have to, but get bums on seats. It's FREE, although donations will not be refused.

Glen Phillips' book launches - Next Monday

Dirty, poorly dressed

On the dogs’ path, my soul came upon
my heart. Shattered, but alive,
dirty, poorly dressed, and filled with love.
On the dogs’ path, there where no one wants to go.
A path that only poets travel
when they have nothing left to do.
But I still had so many things to do!
And nevertheless, there I was: sentencing myself to death
by red ants and also
by black ants, traveling through the empty villages:
fear that grew
until it touched the stars.
A Chilean educated in Mexico can withstand everything,
I thought, but it wasn’t true.
At night, my heart cried. The river of being, chanted
some feverish lips I later discovered to be my own,
the river of being, the river of being, the ecstasy
that folds itself into the bank of these abandoned villages.
Mathematicians and theologians, diviners
and bandits emerged
like aquatic realities in the midst of a metallic reality.
Only fever and poetry provoke visions.
Only love and memory.
Not these paths or these plains.
Not these labyrinths.
Until at last my soul came upon my heart.
It was sick, it’s true, but it was alive.

Roberto Bolaño Ávalos
(April 28, 1953 — July 15, 2003)

ALLEN GINSBERG - MIND WRITING SLOGANS

Photo: Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, and Phillip Whalen, Naropa 1975.Photo by Rachel Homer

"First Thought is Best in Art, Second in Other Matters."
— William Blake

I Background (Situation, Or Primary Perception)

1. "First Thought, Best Thought" — Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
2. "Take a friendly attitude toward your thoughts." — Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
3. "The Mind must be loose." — John Adams
4. "One perception must immediately and directly lead to a further perception." — Charles Olson, "Projective Verse"
5. "My writing is a picture of the mind moving." — Philip Whalen
6. Surprise Mind — Allen Ginsberg
7. "The old pond, a frog jumps in, Kerplunk!" — Basho
8. "Magic is the total delight (appreciation) of chance." — Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
9. "Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself. I am large. I contain multitudes." –– Walt Whitman
10. "...What quality went to form a man of achievement, especially in literature? ... Negative capability, that is, when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact & reason." — John Keats
11. "Form is never more than an extension ofcontent. — Robert Creeley to Charles Olson
12. "Form follows function." — Frank Lloyd Wright*
13. Ordinary Mind includes eternal perceptions. — A. G.
14. "Nothing is better for being Eternal
15. Nor so white as the white that dies of a day." — Louis Zukofsky
Notice what you notice. — A. G.
16. Catch yourself thinking. — A. G.
17. Observe what’s vivid. — A. G.
18. Vividness is self-selecting. — A. G.
19. "Spots of Time" — William Wordsworth
20. If we don’t show anyone we’re free to write anything. –– A. G.
21. "My mind is open to itself." — Gelek Rinpoche
22. "Each on his bed spoke to himself alone, making no sound." — Charles Reznikoff


II Path (Method, Or Recognition)

23. "No ideas but in things." "... No ideas but in the Facts." — William Carlos Williams
24. "Close to the nose." — W. C. Williams
25. "Sight is where the eye hits." — Louis Zukofsky
26. "Clamp the mind down on objects." — W C. Williams
27. "Direct treatment of the thing ... (or object)." — Ezra Pound, 1912
28. "Presentation, not reference." — Ezra Pound
29. "Give me a for instance." — Vernacular
30. "Show not tell." — Vernacular
31. "The natural object is always the adequate symbol." — Ezra Pound
32. "Things are symbols of themselves." — Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
33. "Labor well the minute particulars, take care of the little ones.
He who would do good for another must do it in minute particulars.
General Good is the plea of the Scoundrel Hypocrite and Flatterer
34. For Art & Science cannot exist but in minutely organized particulars." — William Blake "And being old she put a skin / on everything she said." — W. B. Yeats
35. "Don’t think of words when you stop but to see the picture better." — Jack Kerouac
36. "Details are the Life of Prose." — Jack Kerouac
37. Intense fragments of spoken idiom best. — A. G.
38. "Economy of Words" — Ezra Pound
39. "Tailoring" — Gregory Corso
40. Maximum information, minimum number of syllables. –– A. G.
41. Syntax condensed, sound is solid. — A. G.
42. Savor vowels, appreciate consonants. — A. G.
43. "Compose in the sequence of musical phrase, not in sequence of a metronome." — Ezra Pound
44. "... awareness ... of the tone leading of the vowels." — Ezra Pound
45. "... an attempt to approximate classical quantitative meters . . . — Ezra Pound
46. "Lower limit speech, upper limit song" — Louis Zukofsky
47. "Phanopoeia, Melopoeia, Logopoeia." — Ezra Pound
48. "Sight. Sound & Intellect." — Louis Zukofsky
49. "Only emotion objectified endures." — Louis Zukofsky


III Fruition (Result, Or Appreciation)

50. Spiritus = Breathing = Inspiration = Unobstructed Breath
51. "Alone with the Alone" — Plotinus
52. Sunyata (Sanskrit) = Ku (Japanese) = Emptiness
53. "What’s the sound of one hand clapping?" — Zen Koan
54. "What’s the face you had before you were born?" — Zen Koan
55. Vipassana (Pali) = Clear Seeing
56. "Stop the world" — Carlos Castafleda
57. "The purpose of art is to stop time." — Bob Dylan
58. "the unspeakable visions of the individual — J. K.
59. "I am going to try speaking some reckless words, and I want you to try to listen recklessly." — Chuang Tzu (Tr. Burton Watson)
60. "Candor" —Whitman
61. "One touch of nature makes the whole world kin." — W. Shakespeare
62. "Contact" — A Magazine, Nathaniel West & W. C. Williams, Eds.
63. "God appears & God is Light
To those poor souls who dwell in Night.
But does a Human Form Display
64. To those who Dwell in Realms of Day." — W. Blake
"Subject is known by what she sees." -A. G.
65. Others can measure their visions by what we see. –– A. G.
66. Candor ends paranoia. — A. G.
67. "Willingness to be Fool." — Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
68. "Day & Night / you’re all right." — Gregory Corso
69. Tyger: "Humility is Beatness." — Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche & A. G.
70. Lion: "Surprise Mind" — Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche &A.G.
71. Garuda: "Crazy Wisdom Outrageousness" — Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
72. Dragon: "Unborn Inscrutability" — Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
73. "To be men not destroyers" — Ezra Pound
74. Speech synchronizes mind & body — Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
75. "The Emperor unites Heaven & Earth" — Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
76. "Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world" — Shelley
77. "Make it new" — Ezra Pound
78. "When the music changes, the walls of the city shake" — Plato
79. "Every third thought shall be my grave — W Shakespeare, The Tempest
80. "That in black ink my love may still shine bright." –– W. Shakespeare, Sonnets
81. "Only emotion endures" — Ezra Pound
82. "Well while I’m here I’ll
do the work —
and what’s the Work?
To ease the pain of living.
Everything else, drunken
83. dumbshow." — A. G. "... Kindness, sweetest of the small notes in the world’s ache, most modest & gentle of the elements entered man before history and became his daily connection, let no man tell you otherwise." — Carl Rakosi
84. "To diminish the mass of human and sentient sufferings." — Gelek Rinpoche

Naropa Institute, July 1992
New York, March 5, 1993
New York, June 27, 1993

* Quoting his mentor; Louis Sullivan.

Allen Ginsberg "Mind Writing Slogans" copyright © 1992, 1993 by Allen Ginsberg, in What Book: Buddha Poems From Beat To Hiphop, Gary Gach, ed., copyright © 1998 by Gary Gach. Parallax Press.

For more go to http://www.elephantjournal.com/

Interesting, metaphorically speaking ...

Take a butcher's at this art'n'tickle - http://www.insidebayarea.com/crime/ci_11863259?source=rss

PLAN TO BE PUBLISHED — POETRY WORKSHOP WITH LES WICKS

14 and 28 March, 10am - 4pm

Bring multiple copies of 3 poems, writing materials and lunch. Morning & afternoon tea are provided.

Exceptional, supporting yet challenging, showing (and earning) respect, a privilege to attend this leader’s workshop; serendipity but fabulous; contributed very generously ­ great value for money;I got more from two days with Les’ workshop than I did over a postgraduate year at university

One of the best-known poetry workshop templates in Australia. OK, you write and are starting to think it may be better if your work gets out there into a wider world, on to the next level. This is for you, all styles, all ages. Les' workshops are known for their constructive and friendly orientation. This workshop will have an emphasis on the nuts and bolts of establishing a poetry audience. A key component of the two days will be traditional workshopping where 3 of each participant's poems are discussed (don't worry, it's not intimidating, we just work together to make a good thing a little better). But this won't be all that's covered. Participants will benefit greatly from applying insider's hints on how the poetry scene works. Poems are examined with a view to finding outlets that fit your style .... all in addition to intensive editorial feedback. Other topics include running your own projects, taking up opportunities offered by the internet and, of course, getting your book published. Everyone who so wishes will have their poems published in an established internet magazine. Experience has shown this approach is highly effective… combining practical information with an artistic dialogue among peers over a solid block of time.

LES WICKS is widely published both in Australia and overseas, an accessible poet with 8 collections to his name. He's been involved in dozens of editing projects over his 30 years as a writer and has done his popular workshops from Hobart to Byron Bay to Broken Hill..

Tom Collins House, Swanbourne

Enquiries, bookings ring 9384 4771. FAWWA Members: $75; non-members: $85.

admin@fawwa.org.au

Website: website@fawwa.org.au

Les Wicks

leswicks@hotmail.com



8th book of poetry "The Ambrosiacs"

is now available from the author

http://leswicks.tripod.com/lw.htm

or via Island Press

http://islandpress.tripod.com/ISLAND..htm

Rafferty's Rules

Whilst researching for something 'completely different', I found this at http://www.thrillingdetective.com/trivia/triv207.html and thought I'd share it with you. Reason? Who needs a reason?

Rafferty's Rules

Sometimes it seemed W. GlennDuncan's Texas P.I. Rafferty had a rule for everything, but the fact remains that most of them were a hoot. And, of course, a further irony is that "Rafferty's Rules" is in fact an Australian football term for "no rules at all."

So, without any further adieu, here are Rafferty's Rules, as compiled from the six books (the book they appeared in originally is listed in brackets, if I happened to have noted it at the time), all numbered for your convenience. Or at least that was the game plan. Unfortunately, numbers apparently aren't Rafferty's strong suit -- he skips some numbers and sometimes assigns the same number to two or more different rules (he's particularly fond of #34, it seems). But hey, he's a P.I., not an accountant. And he's a damn good P.I.

2. Be lucky. (Wrong Place, Wrong Time)
3. If you're going to be stupid, see rule number two. (Wrong Place, Wrong Time)
3. When all else fails, sit on your duff and await good news... (there were evidently two number threes).
5. If a client can afford it, he -- or she -- pays top dollar.
6. Don't forget the money.
7. Anxious clients who smile too much are usually trouble.
8. The client has to say out loud what he wants me to do. (Rafferty's Rules)
8. When in doubt, raise hell and see who complains about the noise. (Last Seen Alive)
9. Dull won't balance the checkbook.
11. Don't worry about what's right, worry about what's possible.
11. To feel really dumb, be a smart ass once too often. (Wrong Place, Wrong Time)
12. Selling people is antisocial.
13. Get the money up front.
16. When you can't tell the bad guys from the good guys, it's time to get the hell out. (Wrong Place, Wrong Time)
17. Never take a client at face value.
18. Ribs should be eaten naked.
21. Grow up and grow old.
22. Don't skulk. You can get away with anything if you act like you're supposed to be doing it.
23. You show me a man who always "fights fair" and I'll show you a man who loses too often.
27. In one way or another, every client lies. (Even Rafferty isn't sure if this is #27 or not.)
28. Hot coffee and nudity don't mix. If you spill, it hurts.
33. Always obey your friend, the police man.
34. Sometimes good luck accomplishes more than hard work. (Rafferty's Rules)
34. When in doubt, dodge. (Wrong Place, Wrong Time)
34. Clients always hold back something back. (Last Seen Alive)
35. If a client appears to be telling you everything, see rule #34. (Last Seen Alive)
39. Smiting the wicked sounds biblical, but mostly it's good clean fun.
41. When someone mentions how good something "could" be, they're really telling me how lousy that something is.
47. Wear steel-toed boots when kicking people on their bony parts.

South Africa v Australia, 2nd Test, Durban, 3rd day

New Australian opening Test batsman, Philip Hughes, scores his second century in this ongoing Test against South Africa. The players there and their media gave Hughes a tough time of it during his first Test, so now they must eat their words as a side salad to a generous helping of humble pie >g<

The 2009 NZPS International Poetry Competition

The 2009 New Zealand Poetry Society International Poetry Competition closes on 31 May and all entries must be received by that date.

Please read the competition rules carefully before submitting your entry. All rules must be complied with in order for your entry to be considered, and disqualified entries will not have fees refunded. If your entry arrives after 31 May it will be considered for inclusion in our annual anthology, but will not be read by the judges, and entry fees will not be refunded.

The competition rules can be read and downloaded below, and entry forms can also be downloaded. The forms are in pdf format, and if you have any problem opening or downloading them, please contact the Competition Secretary at competition@poetrysociety.org.nz to have them sent to you as Word documents.

You can also receive paper copies of the rules and entry forms by sending a stamped self-addressed envelope to:

The Competition Secretary
PO Box 5283
Wellington 6145

The 2009 judges are:

Michael Harlow - Open Section

Sue Wootton - Open Junior Section

Tony Chad - Haiku Section

Linzy Forbes - Haiku Junior Section

We look forward to receiving your entries, and wish you luck in the competition.

We gratefully acknowledge the generous support of our sponsors, Community Post.

Competition Rules - Open and Junior Open Section:

(Haiku and Junior Haiku rules are available by clicking on the link below.)

• All entries are to be the original work of the entrant, and may not have been previously published, broadcast on radio or TV, or awarded any prize or payment.

• We do not classify poems appearing on author blogs or personal websites, or posted by the author to newsgroups or online workshops, as previously published. We do classify poems appearing in online or print magazines as previously published. If you are unsure about the publication standing of a particular poem, please query before submitting.

• The author’s name must be recorded only on the entry form. Submissions bearing a name or any other form of identification on the poem page will be disqualified and entry fees will not be returned.

• Entries must be in English and typed or very clearly handwritten on one side only of the page, one poem per page.

• Number of entries is unlimited. Poems may be up to 40 lines.

• Please enclose two copies of each poem, each on a separate sheet of paper.

• Entries will not be returned but will be destroyed, so please keep a copy.

• Poems must not be submitted elsewhere before 31 August 2009, by which time entrants will be notified if their poems have won or been accepted for publication in our anthology.

• Entry constitutes acceptance of all terms herein.

Open Section Prizes: 1st prize NZ$500, 2nd prize NZ$200, 3rd prize NZ$100.

Entry fee is NZ$5 per poem; NZ$4 per poem for NZPS members.

Open Junior Section Prizes (Open only to entrants who are 17 years of age or younger on 31 May 2008.) First Prize: NZ$200. Primary/Intermediate: 1st runner-up: NZ$100, 2nd runner-up NZ$50; Secondary: 1st runner-up NZ$150, 2nd runner-up NZ$100.


Entry fee is NZ$2 per poem. Please do not send coins; you can send 4 x 50c stamps per poem.

Overseas entries are welcomed in both sections.

Fees may be paid by cheque, in cash at your own risk, or by IRC (worth NZ$2 each, available from post offices). Overseas entrants may pay the NZ$ equivalent in their own currency (see www.xe.com for exchange rate). Please do not send coins of any currency. No change or overpayments of less than $5 will be refunded.

Results will be published in our bimonthly magazine, posted on our website, emailed by request, or enclose a stamped, self-addressed envelope (SSAE) with your entry.

Publication: All poems entered must be made available for publication in an anthology to be published by the NZPS in November 2009. Entrants will be notified by 31 August 2009 if their poems have won or been accepted for publication. NZPS has the right of first publication of all poems accepted for the anthology.

Promotion: Winners consent to the use of their poems for promotional purposes by the NZPS including but not limited to our website, brochure, and magazine.

Copyright in individual poems will remain with the poet, but copyright in any book produced by The New Zealand Poetry Society Inc will remain with the NZPS.

All entry forms and rules & conditions available through: http://www.poetrysociety.org.nz/about2009competition

Entries MUST BE RECEIVED by: 31 May 2009

foam:e #6 online now

Two of my poems appear at http://www.foame.org/Issue6/poems/burke.html Please visit and then read on - a wide collection of Australian poets in foam:e's clear and attractive format.

It's not new, but it's fun ... Fibonacci poetry

Fibonacci poetry is a literary form based on the Fibonacci number sequence. The sequence begins like this: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21. In order to find the next number in the sequence, you add the two preceding numbers. The sum of these two is the next number, which then is added to the one before it to get to the next number, and so on. This is how it works:

1 + 0 = 1
1 + 1 = 2
2 + 1 = 3
3 + 2 = 5
5 + 3 = 8
8 + 5 = 13
13 + 8 = 21
etc.

The Fibonacci sequence appears often in nature as the underlying form of growing patterns. For example, conch shells and sunflowers follow the pattern as they grow in a spiral formation that increases as it moves outward.

More to be learnt at http://poetry.about.com/od/poeticforms/a/fibonaccipoems.htm?nl=1

as the dove flies

dove on
the grey roof's
pinnacle

before palm fronds
waving in a white cloud

turns as if
the breeze has pushed
her crest

flies solo
to the setting sun

John Kinsella, Meg McKinlay & David Brooks @ Perth Writers Festival

As a young man, I was passionate about poetry - the history of it (or them - researching poets one by one), the reading of it, the writing of it, the sharing of it ... but life and making a living etc etc and so forth have taken the edge off, and the constant and widespread applause for the other writing forms, from novels to screenplays, has all gone a long way toward taking more glitter off. But then I hear a couple of good readings, I talk poetry and poetics with other poets, I see an audience thrilled and moved by poems spoken in a public place, and I am hooked again.

This year's Perth Writers Festival has played host to a few of my favourite Australian poets, people I'm proud to call friends: Robert Adamson, David Brooks and John Kinsella. A new face to me was Mark Tredinnick, and a quiet man in the crowd was Philip Mead. No women, you cry? Well, Meg McKinlay read and Tracy Ryan was also involved, but as a novelist.

In today's session, Kinsella, McKinlay and Brooks read, chaired by another poet, Dennis Haskell.

John read from his version of Divine Comedy: Journeys through a Regional Geography. His voice suffered from the flu he was carrying, but his stage presence was enough to win the audience. Here's a taste, a Sub-Paradiso poem, Mushrooms:

It has rained enough for mushrooms to emerge,
to crack open the still crusty soil and platform their heads,
gazebos of dark and gilled orchestras

Ah, nowhere near enough, but get the book and enjoy it yourself - Divine Comedy, UQP 2008. You can also read more samples at http://poems.com/poem.php?date=14138

From 410 pages of John to Meg McKinlay's 52 page chapbook, Cleanskin, the baton change over was amazing and amusing. Meg's easy confident manner and humble performance won the crowd over in a different way than John - it was a wonderful example of the many sides of poetry. Her witty intros also helped knit the poems into a delightful sequence. Here are the final lines of In China, a poem about expecting to find and finding at least one poem in a two week visit to that exotic civilisation:

Is this what it takes, to find
the poems of away -
a first sight of home?
And so I begin.

After Meg, the dramatic sight of David Brooks: shaved head, moustache and brush beard, dressed in black. David's approach was more the classic stance of the contemporary poet, if that's not too much of a clash: he spoke clearly and elegantly to the microphone, and drew the audience in with a performance that was intimate in such a public room. His poems were all love poems from his new collection The Balcony, UQP 2008. (It was medium range length at 120 pages, btw, if you were counting.) I have met his wife, Teja, and can vouch for this accurate picture of her:

She's still at the age
where she thinks that she's immortal,
smokes too much,
drives too fast,
has the patience
of spilt quicksilver ...

Love in many disguises, or should I say, many guises, came through this poetry reading today, and served to extend the enormous poetry rush I had yesterday from Robert Adamson's reading (mainly from The Golden Bird: New and Selected Poems, Black Inc. 2008)

Such a pair of days gives me the push to write more, to read more, to eulogise more - but first, I must walk the dog. While I walk, you find a poem you like and read it aloud, letting the wind carry it to others to share your joy.

Perth Writers Festival 2009 @ UWA Crawley Campus

Barry Maitland, David Brooks and Michael Meehan discussing 'Peeling back the Layers' at the first morning session. Then two pictures of the crowd, small to start with, on a Sunday morn. The panel discussing poetry (top photo) were Joanna Featherstone, Robert Adamson and Mike Tredinnick.

One more day to go, including sessions with James McBride and Sebastian Barry. One of particular interest to me is Lyrical Voices, with readings by David Brooks, John Kinsella and Meg McKinlay. 11am in the Dolphin Theatre.