Blog to blog - Call for Poems

Dr Coral Hull writes:

Justin Lowe (Australian poet living in The Blue Mountains, NSW) wants a few poems to look at for his new poetry blog.

If you know any poets who might be interested in contributing, feel free to pass the address onto them http://www.bluepepper.blogspot.com

Go-Go's Jigsaw

Young wife at the corner
of years and Robe Street -
go-go dancer free of her cage
who once worked with ...
she'd be lucky to be twenty
and the mini-skirt shows
her gams off well.
Daylight. Workers at work,
schoolkids at school. So
who's this guy in a Merc
who leans out his window
to ask, What time you start,
love? She is caught on
the backfoot of reverie
and blurts out, Nine, nine o'clock.
Okay love, he says, I'll be back.
She stops and stares at his car as it
drives off, image suddenly
interruped by Luna Park eyes
and snarling mouth, a woman yelling,
Get off my corner, bitch! Ya hear?
This is my patch, not yours!
Fuck off, bitch, n' dun come back.
Go-Go squeaks out, What?
The ugly face leans in until the wind
blows her hair against the young wife's face,
Fuck off, ya mole. This is MY corner.
And takes off, walking like
her pants are on fire. Go-Go
stands and breathes deeply,
milk and bread anchors to
normality. She coughs a small cough
and walks on, head down,
to number 47, a flat in the back
where her husband will be stirring
on the mattress on the floor,
waking from nightshift at
the Police Academy where he cleans
black boot polish stains off
shiny wax linoleum floors.
It is like the wrong pieces fell
into her jigsaw - their own place
at last, and now this.



(First draft, written as a snap poem for Poetryetc this day, partially built on memory.)

MPU Poetry Competition Entry Forms

Kindly reader John Parkes at ECU has supplied this address for the Melbourne Poets Union's Poetry Competition: http://home.vicnet.net.au/~mpuinc/entryform.pdf

MPU Competition

Melbourne Poets Union

INTERNATIONAL POETRY COMPETITION 2005

1^st Prize $AUD1000

2^nd Prize $AUD 300

3^rd Prize $AUD 200

Martin Downey Urban Realist Award $AUD 50

Judge: Diane Fahey

POEMS:

° shall be unpublished (including e-zines)

° shall not have won another competition as at 28^th October 2005

° may be on any theme, maximum 50 lines, must be typed

° shall not bear the poet’s name

° must be received by 28^th October 2005

° must be accompanied by cheque/money order made out to Melbourne Poets Union Inc. $6 per poem or $15 for 3 poems (no cash please)

It says ‘Please send entries to …’ so I presume you can get Entry Forms from:

MPU Inc International Poetry Competition

PO Box 266

Flinders Lane 8009

Melbourne

Victoria

Creative Writing Classes - Now Enrolling

I have been teaching Creative Writing evening classes for 16 years now at TAFE Subiaco, which is housed in Perth Modern School. The next series starts on Wednesday 26th October 2006. Classes run 7pm to 9pm and are very relaxed and social. Ads for these courses went in the West Australian last Saturday, so you can enrol now by phoning West Coast College of TAFE in Joondalup 1300 134 881.

An enigmatic portrait of Louis Zukovsky. Photo � Elsa Dorfman 

Zukovsky commentary

For the fans of Louis Zukovsky, and for those who are curious about his work, there is a new site: http://www.ofscollege.edu.sg/z-site/ Very useful. It is still developing, so worth keeping on your 'favourites' list.

Sophie Shits and We Sit on the Green Settee

Our guru crosses her eyes

when she shits, puffs up red

and cries. We run to help.

She has written, All things must pass.

We tie the plastic bag up

and throw it in the bin

to sit at her side and wait.

Another pronouncement is imminent.

She looks off into eternity

and we follow her gaze,

knowing the mantra, It is as it is.

Our guru cries out to

Suffering Humanity.

The head priest folds over

at the staples and her sidekick

spins between washing and cooking

while the recorder priest

ponders the definition of 'All',

looking for boundaries. Guru says,

No boundaries exist. All things

are One. Ah, we nod, three priests

in a row on a green settee, Ah.

Our guru sees our homage,

crosses her eyes and shits again.

Dylan, the Original

http://www.salon.com/premium/downloads/dylan_thomas/index.html

I know he was a ham - but what a rich-voiced ham! I still love it ... Thanks, Salon.com

Ricky Ponting sends Flintoff over the boundary in the first of three ODIs between the ICCXI and Australia. Australia won ... Friday they meet again. 

Poem for Space?

This is one of the poems they are voting on at the British Poetry Society to send into space ... Read about it at http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk/npd/npdpoll.htm

Night Feed
Eavan Boland

This is dawn
Believe me
This is your season, little daughter.
The moment daisies open,
the hour mercurial rainwater
Makes a mirror for sparrows.
It's time we drowned our sorrows.

I tiptoe in.
I lift you up
Wriggling
In your rosy, zipped sleeper.
Yes, this is the hour
For the early bird and me
When finder is keeper.

I crook the bottle.
How you suckle!
This is the best I can be,
Housewife
To this nursery
Where you hold on,
Dear life.

A silt of milk.
The last suck
And now your eyes are open,
Birth-coloured and offended.
Earth wakes.
You go back to sleep.
The feed is ended.

Worms turn.
Stars go in.
Even the moon is losing face.
Poplars stilt for dawn
And we begin
The long fall from grace.
I tuck you in.

Creative Writing Classes

I have been lucky enough to be teaching Creative Writing evening classes for 16 years now at TAFE Subiaco, which is housed in Perth Modern School. The next series starts on Wednesday 26th October 2006. Classes run 7pm to 9pm and are very relaxed and social. Ads for all these courses go in the West Australian this Saturday, so full details how to enrol are there, but if you phone West Coast College of TAFE in Joondalup 1300 134 881 you can enrol any time until then.

Invaluable Fact of the Week:

Fact of the day: There are a reported 60 million bloggers, writing everything from personal diaries to influential political rhetoric. The research firm The Duffusion Group recently predicted there will also be 60 million podcasters in the US by 2010.


Crikey, I feel so common!

Part of the audience at Walking On Water at the Brisbane Hotel on 4th October. The reading happens there on the first Monday of each month (except January) from 7.30 pm.

Bob Rummery performing a song by Cross-cut Wilson, at Walking On Water 4th October 

Juliet Mirellier, fantasy writer, reading at Walking On Water 4th October 

Ray Penny, reading a short story at Walking On Water at the Brisbane Hotel, 4th October. 

Kookaburra at peace. 

a wealth of wondrous works

Go to http://www.ubu.com

A huge array of avant garde (for want of a better word) works, with recently added active archives of experimental film. Great!