Thinking - poem

cabbage moths -
stark white against
grey clouds - cavort
in a brisk afternoon breeze

they take turns
noun and verb
turn in my head
verb and noun

Wittgenstein holds
the lollipop at
the crossing of two
schools of thought

Today's Larf

Candice Ward, poet and friend - RIP

Friend, poet and academic - plus music nut - Candice Ward died suddenly this week. I know no other details as yet. I am very sad, having spent many years in email conversation with her on poetryetc and editing an online anthology together. The way I can acknowledge her best is to quote a poem from her Wild Honey Press chapbook, The Moon Sees The One - full details at http://www.wildhoneypress.com/BOOKS/TMSTO.htm

The Moon Sees the One

I see the Moon
And the Moon sees me
And the Moon sees the one
I long to see
(children's song)

You'll find your ignorance is blissful
Every goddamn time
(Tom Waits,"Heart Attack & Vine")


the moon sees to night at the end
of its rope, beached to blot
by remote the one way back

a baker's blank so white, so late
as the face on magritte's mother
undercover still a looker (me

with my aptitude for pathos-
of-distance learning): listen,
duckling, it goes for the throat

thrush or strep, whistle-stopped
as the little red train makes
tracks, makes history of us

putting a saint in it and pulling
away, while overhead the night
gowns for cover (her face)

all wet but none the wiser than
what is /is/ left of memory: your
darrow songs, my debs rebellion

for in your father's house
of cheats are too many
dimensions---and the moon

looks on, indifferent to
its own mystery, to
the children gazing back

from an orphan age
already history

Candice Ward

About.com: Poetry Journals - from Parnassus to Poetry

About.com:Poetry has a very interesting article up at the moment - links to major poetry magazines, with a description of each. I've been there for some time, so I thought you might like to share this pleasure: simply click on http://poetry.about.com/od/periodicals/Poetry_Journals_Reviews.htm

Friendly Street Poets | FSP Tuesday 2nd November Poetry & Poppies

Friendly Street Poets | FSP Tuesday 2nd November Poetry & Poppies

Thank you for the photograph from the artist Davena Hooson.

The only poem I can even remotely claim as a Remembrance Poem is this one, written some years ago from my humble Daglish flat opposite a spacious park.

On the Third Day

In the first days of winter
mushrooms pop-up like
childhood toys in
the manicured park:

white domes with no
‘use by’ on them, no bar-codes
for value judgement. In the wetness
and warmth they grow as dogs
trot by with their gossiping owners.

A tiny Vietnamese lady crosses the street
wearing a brilliant yellow anorak,
bucket and trowel in hand. I watch.
She knows the ways of survival,
she harvests every last dome.

Passing schoolchildren point
and laugh, but she hears kookaburras
high in the gums. Winter’s false start
brings her back for three mornings. I wait
and harvest her across busy lanes of traffic.

PARIS REVIEW Interviews - FREE Online

The Paris Review has been running their wonderful authors interviews for decades - and now they've put them all online FREE. What a great resource for readers and writers! I won't try to list them - all your favourites and others are there at http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/
That's Ray Bradbury in the pics above.

Monet's garden at Giverny

... but I have completely forgotten who took the photo! Please remind me and I'll attribute it.

Shadow at Home

In late afternoon, the tall pencil pine
would cast its long shadow over
the lower grass level. At times,
like a wanderer trying to find
rainbow’s end and finding it,
I would walk in the shadow
to its tip and sit
a foot in front and face it
as it slowly drew over me
—sitting still,
owning my own shadow.

Celan in Mapesbury Road

This should be available for one last day at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00vcpb7/Paul_Celan_in_Mapesbury_Road/

Jerome Rothenberg's book is back to view - FREE

Due to a technical hitch, this site was inoperable before. Now it is available at http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/the-jigoku-zoshi-hells-a-book-of-variations/13227501

Perth Poetry Club today - a slam dunking success

On the bill today at the Perth Poetry Club at The Moon Cafe in Northbridge, was KEN HUDSON and BELOWSKY - two performance poets of very different backgrounds. Ken Hundson has been a published poet for many decades in Australia, a true voice of the younger brigade in the 6os and 70s before his other career took him away from writing, and a new interest in songwriting diverted his talents. Belowsky has been around the Western World, sharing the stage as a poet with many 'big' names on the poetry reading circuit. He is a card all right, a trickster. an unashamedly loud and 'in your face' poet with a mix of vernaculars to spit out the particulars of worldwide events and celebrity characters - a famous NYC gangster and Muhammad Ali for starters. He kept us up to date with his advertising voice-over career, telling the tale of his part in an ad campaign for a new chilled drink about to be launched in our local media. (After many decades in adland myself, I was eager for the poetry part of his act.)

Here's a smattering of photos from the afternoon. Ken H is in the black&white shirt, and Belowsky is the spirited bald man. Neil Pattinson, compere and poet, is the man with the clipboard in hand, and Ron Greenwood kept the audience entertained until the sound operator arrived.

Hear 5 Poems by James Wright

YouTube - 5 Poems by James Wright

Read The Paris Review Interview with James Wright here: http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/3839/the-art-of-poetry-no-19-james-wright

Hard Times Require Furious Dancing - Alice Walker

Preface

I am the youngest of eight siblings. Five of us have died. I share losses, health concerns, and other challenges common to the human condition, especially in these times of war, poverty, environmental devastation, and greed that are quite beyond the most creative imagination. Sometimes it all feels a bit too much to bear. Once a person of periodic deep depressions, a sign of mental suffering in my family that affected each sibling differently, I have matured into someone I never dreamed I would become: an unbridled optimist who sees the glass as always full of something. It may be half full of water, precious in itself, but in the other half there’s a rainbow that could exist only in the vacant space.
I have learned to dance.

Alice Walker

Poet, novelist, and activist Alice Walker discusses her new poetry collection "Hard Times Require Furious Dancing" and shares her thoughts on writing. Host Michel Martin speaks with the Pulitzer Prize-winning author.

Listen or read it here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130699176

Nomen Omen

Andrew, is that you?

We must redefine
manly
away from muscle

Andrew, that is you:
cryptic.

Force of will,
optimism and
determinism break

from isms.

They chop you up to Drew
but it is Wrote –

And why?

SATURDAY Perth Poetry Club & News

Perth Poetry Club brings you two awesome performance poets this
Saturday October 23rd at The Moon, 323 William Street, Northbridge.
BELOWSKY and KEN HUDSON will be strutting their stuff between 2 and 4
pm – don’t miss it. All welcome – and if you’d like to participate,
bring something to read on open mike.

Also happening in Perth Poetry:

• Sunday 14 Nov 2-5pm: Poetry workshops in Mt Lawley with Janet
Jackson. More info at www.proximitypoetry.com
• Sunday 31 October 10.00 am ($15 each): Spring in the Valley brunch
and poetry with Neil Pattinson – part proceeds to the Starlight
Foundation. Ring Neil - 0422148956 or Julie- 0435902488 or Al-
0409116525 for more information
• Australian Poetry Slam WA Heats Thursday nights 21 Oct - 18 Nov, 7pm
at The Bakery, James St, Northbridge

Underground Writers | Perth Literary Street 'Zine

Underground Writers | Perth Literary Street 'Zine: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Underground is where the roots of a literature are born. A little sun in the form of attention is healthy; a little rain in the form of support adds to its vitality ... Read on and submit if you like what you see.

Crap passing off as Poetry

Jean Genet said Charles Bukowski was the best poet in America. That doesn't say much for the rest of them! I just picked up 'Come On In!' New Poems (Canongate, 2008) by Buk, from the Bassendean library, a collection of poems unpublished at the time of his death. & they should have stayed that way. They are threadbare of any literary value and are just plain bloody awful. I've liked the occasional Buk poem before, and enjoyed the quick sprint through a couple of his easy-to-read novels, but this stuff shows no technique and little thought worth reading. So it is simply there as profit-making product. I see the shelves at my favourite bookshop, Planet Books in Mt Lawley, are full of Buk's books. Maybe the profit from the sale of that shit pays for the slow movers - like Herbert and Lorca, etc. Buk sells well, which goes to prove our education system teachers people to read but not enough to discriminate.
The wild man image still works in rock'n'roll (and has taken many lives) but the wild (wo)man poet image is passe at best.

Perth Poetry Club may have to call the riot police for this one!

Perth Poetry Club brings you not one, but TWO of Perth's most entertaining poets this Saturday, October 23rd. BELOWSKY and KEN HUDSON will be at The Moon, 323 William Street, Northbridge, from 2-4 pm

If you don't want to miss an exciting afternoon, be there! Plus open mike - all welcome.

'instant' poem for Frank

years dissolved in the air
we breathe in/ex
spiration

black and what ghosts
of yesteryear
appear

merely boys gone
to seed / gone
to ground

our expectations
whittled away
by time

as the river flows
on into the sea
blessing

of the feet / and of
our hands in
pockets

like grandson clocks
little hands at ease
winding down

The Jigoku Zoshi Hells: A Book of Variations by Jerome Rothenberg in Poetry

The Jigoku Zoshi Hells: A Book of Variations by Jerome Rothenberg in Poetry

The ever-surprising Jerome Rothenberg - priceless and FREE to Download.

Issa Haiku

joining in
we curl to sleep too...
reclining Buddha


-Issa, 1820

http://cat.xula.edu/issa/

The 2010 Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize for New and Emerging Poets

Sponsored by the Malcolm Robertson Foundation.

The 2010 Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize for New and Emerging Poets is now open...
First Prize: The major prize has increased to $5000,
Runners up: two runner-up prizes of $1000.
Submissions due: The closing date is Monday 15 November 2010.

Entry: A$11.00 (or $5.50 for subscribers) administration fee must accompany each entry.
Each entry may contain up to three unpublished poems.
Each entry must contain two copies of each poem.
You can enter as many times as you like.

The winners will be announced in March 2011.
http://web.overland.org.au/poetry-prize/

Judge: The judge of the 2010 Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize for New and Emerging Poets is Peter Minter.



VU–Footscray Park Campus
PO Box 14428
MELBOURNE VIC 8001
t: 03 9919 4163
f: 03 9687 7614
e: overland@vu.edu.au | w: www.overland.org.au
http://web.overland.org.au/poetry-prize/

Entry Form and Guidelines: 2010-OVERLANDJudithWrightPoetry-Prize-Entry-Form-and-Conditions.pdf

The new ebook from Argotist Ebooks is “Margin L” by Vernon Frazer.

The roots of Vernon Frazer's textual poetry lie as much in the free jazz of John Coltrane, Cecil Taylor and their successors as they do in language-centered poetry, Surrealism, Dada and abstract expressionism. In “Margin L”, Frazer's words and concepts play over the page until they create a sense that something has happened during each poem’s movement. The poems, however, leave their interpretation of what precisely has happened up to the reader.


Available as a free ebook here:


http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/margin-l/13042003

CREATRIX 11 Next deadline - 10th November for the December issue

POETRY SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

We accept a maximum of three poems per poet, open theme, up to 60 lines, though shorter poems are preferred.

Submissions are by email only to salandpet@bigpond.com sent in the body of the email or as an attachment. Please submit your poems single-spaced, preferably in one document, either in .rtf or .doc file, with the words "online submission and your surname ” in the subject line.

Selectors, editors and administrators for poetry, are Peter Jeffery, Anne Dyson, Sally Clarke, Chris Palazzolo, Veronica Lake, and Jeremy Balius.

We are looking for good quality, well-crafted poetry; there is no guarantee all submitted poems will be accepted.

We accept prize-winning or previously published work, with appropriate acknowledgements.

At this stage, publication is for WA Poets Inc members only.

Currently, we cannot pay contributors, but your poetry will be showcased.

Copyright of material in Creatrix remains with individual contributors and cannot be reproduced or transmitted in any form without written permission from the authors.

The selectors, editors and administrators for Haiku are Maureen Sexton and Rose Van Son.


To avoid disappointment, please follow the submission guidelines.


Haiku Submission Guidelines

* Please send between 2 and 10 haiku for each issue submission.
* Email your submission to haikumariwarabiny@gmail.com with ‘haiku submission and your surname ’ in the subject line, with all haiku in the body of the email only (ie no attachments).
* At this stage, publication is for WA Poets Inc member poets only. You don't have to live in WA to become a member.
* Brevity is the key element in haiku. Around 12 syllables or less is ideal, but we will accept up to 17 syllables.
* In 1, 2, 3 or possibly 4 lines. Three lines is the most common setting out in English language haiku.
* That preferably does not use poetic tools, such as simile, metaphor, rhyming, punctuation (except perhaps a dash to mark a grammatical break), capital letters (except Proper nouns), titles, personification, abstract images and language.
* Haiku capture a moment in time, therefore need to be written in present tense.
* That preferably infers an awe or a reverence of nature and uses a nature reference, however, we will also accept modern haiku that doesn’t necessarily refer to nature.
* That relates to the senses.
* Juxtaposition of two images is preferable, but we will accept single image haiku as well.
* We are looking for the 'aha' factor.
* We will also accept senryu, which is similar to haiku, but emphasises humour and human foibles instead of seasons.




--
WA Poets Inc
wapoets@gmail.com
www.wapoets.net.au
PO Box 684
Inglewood WA 6932

New and FREE to View - "Mainly Black" from Halvard Johnson

*Mainly Black *

by

HALVARD JOHNSON

from Vida Loca Books

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1i_JGJ_FqQldEnUq7cwjV8giYykz_tsGbTkC2EkAP3IM/edit?hl=en

Poets Have Chanted Mortality by John Crowe Ransom

It had better been hidden
But the Poets inform:
We are chattel and liege
Of an undying Worm.

Were you, Will, disheartened,
When all Stratford’s gentry
Left their Queen and took service
In his low-lying country?

How many white cities
And grey fleets on the storm
Have proud-builded, hard-battled,
For this undying Worm?

Was a sweet chaste lady
Would none of her lover.
Nay, here comes the Lewd One,
Creeps under her cover!

Have ye said there’s no deathless
Of face, fashion, form,
Forgetting to honor
The extent of the Worm?

O ye laughers and light-lipped,
Ye faithless, infirm,
I can tell you who’s constant,
’Tis the Eminent Worm.

Ye shall trip on no limits,
Neither time ye your term,
In the realms of His Absloute
Highness the Worm.



from The Fugitive, 1922

Some poetry websites

I have been encouraging poets down south to investigate various 'schools' of poets.. Here's a short incomplete list I put up for them today:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_poets
http://english.utah.edu/eclipse/projects/SAMPLER/
http://ronsilliman.blogspot.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Formalism
http://www.usm.maine.edu/~afinch/
http://measure.evansville.edu/Measure/Home.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_School
http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePoet.do?poetId=91#
http://www.frankohara.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_Generation
http://www.wussu.com/poems/agh.htm
http://www.enotes.com/poetry-criticism/howl-allen-ginsberg

http://australia.poetryinternationalweb.org/piw_cms/cms/cms_module/index.php?obj_id=660

Caroline Caddy & Faye Zwicky read their poems on River Road CDs

Fay Zwicky's The Witnesses covers five decades of her poetry, whereas Caroline Caddy's The Tibetan Cabinet merely covers three decades. Ah, the riches here are many, so I am going to treat my little group at ECU South West campus with some tracks from these great River Road CDs next week. I know they will enjoy the wit and style of these two master Australian poets.

Of course River Road Press has many other fine Australian poets to offer on CD, so check out their site at http://www.riverroadpress.net

An Imagined Conversation

‘Everyone is speeding!’ she said, disgust in her voice.
We were driving on the new Forrest Highway from Bunbury to Perth.
‘Yes, everyone is driving over the speed limit. So what does that tell you?’ I asked.
‘They’re all fools – and that includes you, you’re over the limit.’
‘I’m driving with the flow.’
‘You’re following the pack.’
‘If we’re all driving over the limit, that suggests to me that the limit is too low.’
‘You would say that, wouldn’t you – rationalize your way out of anything.’
‘Ha ha, wish I could, that’d be good.’
Silence. Just Neil Young again and the surround sound of traffic on the move, over the limit down the smooth highway.

Charlie and Singapore snakes

My son Charlie is in Singapore at present, learning to be a snake charmer - or something.

Shadow at Home

In late afternoon, the tall pencil pine
would cast its long shadow over
the lower grass level. At times,
like a wanderer trying to find
rainbow’s end and finding it,
I would walk in the shadow
to its tip and sit
a foot in front and face it
as it slowly drew over me
—sitting still,
owning my own shadow.

Paul Kelly in-store at Planet Books 7pm Thursday

A reminder, in case you haven’t seen the posters & ads, Paul Kelly will be in-store at Planet Books, corner of Beaufort and Walcott Streets, Mt Lawley, Thursday night to sign his memoir, How to Make Gravy.

Mr Kelly will talk about the book and, with a bit of luck, will sing a couple of songs for us.

The event will kick off at 7pm.

Don’t be late as it will be standing room only.

On the Road (Bunbury to Perth)

Driving in the fast flowing traffic - trucks, utes, semis, motorbikes, sedans, hatchbacks, 4 wheel drives packed to the limit with holiday gear - I slipped into the stream of a ute packed with plumbing gear, and a dark brown Pointer strapped on a short lead near the cabin. Neil Young was plaintively singing about Cinnamon Girl and Southern Man, and my wife beside me was cursing the compiler of today's Cryptic Crossword. The dog ahead became my entertaining focus as it stood up to look over the cabin, ears pushed back by the 125kph wind, stood up there for some minutes then stood down and faced over the side of the ute. His mouth opened and closed as the wind flipped his ears about his head, opened and closed vigorously, barking into the rushing wind a rebellious bark we couldn't hear in our small cocoon. I rejoiced in his routine, standing up into the wind, then telling the world his opinion of a day's journey like this. If we'd stuck our heads out the window, our ears would have been pinned back too. For comfort's sake, I could've done with a shake of the tail too but the bucket seat and seat belt kept me safely pinned behind the wheel, steering down the highway, in the slipstream of the plumber's ute and the spittle of a windblown Pointer.
"What'll we call him?" my wife asked when I drew her attention to him.
"Neal Cassady," I suggested. "A car thief with the uncanny knack of charming strangers."

I am off down south for four days, so there may not be much change here in that time. I will endeavour to publish interesting photos and snippets but it all depends on access to Internet, etc. You no doubt know the drill.

255k iPhone Apps, Only One For Writing Poetry – Meet The New Poet’s Pad | Apple News, iPhone App Reviews, Apple Press Releases, iOS4 iPad Rumors, iMac Applications

255k iPhone Apps, Only One For Writing Poetry – Meet The New Poet’s Pad | Apple News, iPhone App Reviews, Apple Press Releases, iOS4 iPad Rumors, iMac Applications

Get a load of this:
Emotion Based Idea Generator – Eliminate Writer’s Block:
Unique to Poet’s Pad(TM) for iPhone is its emotion based idea generator. Writers can randomly generate words and phrases that reflect their mood by tapping on a category such as ‘Love’, ‘Hate’, ‘Desire’, ‘Hope’, ‘Fear’ etc. The words and phrases that are generated can then be posted on sticky notes for later use or inspiration.

(Whatever next!)

Flarf

Flarf

I asked a man what Flarf is and he showed me this. Now I know ...