Dorothy Parker busy at her desk. A scathing wit and a sad life ... 

for the fun of it

Hogamus higamus,
Men are polygamous.
Higamus hogamus,
Women monogamous.

Dorothy Parker

Margaret Walters CD Power In A Song - details below. 

'Honey - They're playing our song!'

Very soon I am to be a Featured Poet at Poneme poetry list, so I have been hunting around to show the widest possible range of my work - from minimalist poems to a traditional ballad. Australian folksinger extraordinaire Margaret Walters sung the ballad, and John Warner arranged the music. You can hear it here at

http://members.iinet.net.au/~aburke/balladofmanycrows.mp3


Ballad of Many Crows

As I sat out upon a hill
Upon a hill, upon a hill
I looked up at the crows that fill
The leafy trees of Wagga

I saw their eyes like marbles black
Like marbles black, like marbles black
And felt a chill run down my back
Beneath the trees of Wagga

A woman there had told a tale
She told a tale, she told a tale
How the town had felt five years' betrayal
Since crows returned to Wagga

”Our men have heard the crows' sad song
The crows' sad song, the crows' sad song
Until by their own hand they've gone
I curse the crows of Wagga”

Farmers are a steady lot, not given much to fancy
Born to heed the call to be as iron tough as Clancy

Now they hang themselves in their dark loss
In their dark loss, in their dark loss
When the crows' stark song becomes their cross
Among the trees of Wagga

Black-eyed and beaky with a mourning cry
A mourning cry, a mourning cry
Riverina crows trespass and fly
To cast their eye on Wagga.

Now's the time to break the spell
To break the spell, to break the spell
To greet the future and fare well
Among the trees of Wagga

I go inside to write my song
To write my song, to write my song
The crows know naught of right and wrong
In the leafy trees of Wagga

Details of the CD and how to buy it available at
http://www-personal.usyd.edu.au/~mwalters/

Paul Hinchliffe's soft images at Church Gallery 13 July on ... 

Paul Hinchliffe goes to Church

Paul Hinchliffe is the artist exhibiting at the Church Gallery, Stirling Highway, Claremont, from 13 July 2005. His soft image works on paper look delightful ... Take a look at

http://www.churchgallery.com.au/5exhibit_hinchliffe.html

Invitation to join

Poneme is an email list about poetry and poetry-related matters. The focus is Australasian but all are welcome. Members are invited to provoke and engage in discussion on poetry communities and histories, poets, poetics and tangentially related issues.

Please feel free to post your own poetry to the list, and to advise the list of your own and others' publications, readings, events, etc.

Collaborative projects happen on list from time to time; if you'd like to participate, ask for instructions/conditions.

New projects are just about to get underway, so join now - it's Free, of course, and always informative.

Here's the address to go to: http://www.poneme.org

Jen Crawford steers the ship.

Calvin says ...

"The purpose of writing is to inflate weak ideas, obscure pure reasoning, and inhibit clarity. With a little practice, writing can be an intimidating and impenetrable fog!" - Calvin

Thank you to Dominic Fox for this titbit.

See below. 

FAN DONGWANG artist in residence and current exhibitor at The Church Gallery

FAN DONGWANG is featured on the cover of the next issue of the Australian Art Review magazine and is the subject of their feature article. His exhibition continues at The Church Gallery until Sunday 10 July

THE CHURCH GALLERY
264 Stirling Highway
Claremont
Western Australia 6010
Ph 08 9384 1744 Fax 08 9384 1733

info@churchgallery.com.auwww.churchgallery.com.au

Gallery hours: Wednesday to Saturday 10 - 5. Sunday 2 - 5pm. Mondays and Tuesdays by appointment. The gallery is located on the corner of John Street and Stirling Highway. Parking is available on John Street and behind thegallery - except during openings.

Cordite #22 online now

This is a special 'poems from poetry editors' issue, entitled 'Editorial Intervention'. It's good to see what 'they' write themselves, right?

Go to http://www.cordite.org.au/index_22.html and enjoy.

Rain stopped play ...

It's an old cliche in (mainly English) cricket - 'Rain stopped play' ... It happened last night at Egbaston with Australia scoring 262 or so and the Poms at the crease ... Here are the last words of commentary:

it has stopped raining and the covers are being taken off now, play
will restart in 15 minutes

oops! and it starts to rain again! they are bringing the covers
back on it's pouring down steadily now.
we are just 30 minutes away from the cut off time (9:45 local time)
and it's raining steadily

sadly with the rain showing no sings (sic) of easing out the match has
been abandoned here
thanks for being with us, do join us on Thursday for the Australia
v Bangladesh match

Good Night

Snapshots Gallery

Thank you, Randolph Healey, for publishing the Snapshot poems at Wild Honey Press. See them now at - http://www.wildhoneypress.com/snaps_06_05/Poetryetc.htm

NOCTILUCENT CLOUDS: While you're out looking at the planets, be alert also for electric-blue noctilucent clouds. Olaf Squarra of Rostock, Germany, photographed these over the Baltic Sea on June 24th:

An 8-minute movie of the display shows how the clouds ripple and move like waves in the ocean.
Noctilucent clouds (NLCs) are a mystery. They hover near the edge of space, far above ordinary clouds. Some researchers believe they're seeded by space dust. Others say they're a sign of global warming. Whatever they are, they're beautiful, and northern summer is the best time to spot them.  

Great image of Sappho ... 

New Sappho!

From http://ronsilliman.blogspot.com/ -

Sappho, dead 2,600 years, is still coming up with new work.

Many a word said in jest ... 

Hamilton Stone Review

Hamilton Stone Review, Issue 6, Summer 2005, Now Online!

Featuring fiction by Pat MacEnulty, Ramsey Wilkens, and Masha Zager and poetry by Gene Frumkin, Amy King, Kenneth Pobo, Joseph Somoza, David Hopes, Stephen Vincent, Bob Marcacci, Harriet Zinnes, Kerry O'Keefe, Gregory Vincent St. Thomasino, Eileen Tabios, Frederick Pollack, and David Howard.

http://www.hamiltonstone.org/hsr6.html

Submissions to the Hamilton Stone Review

At this time, the Hamilton Stone Review is not open to unsolicited fiction submissions, but will be taking unsolicited poetry submissions until Sept. 15, 2005, for Issue #7, which will be out in October 2005.

Poetry submissions should go directly to Halvard Johnson at

halvard@earthlink.net.

The Joy is in the Detail

Well, if you can't read the detail on the Alice Haines poster following, the debut CD launch is at the Fly By Night Club on 16 July 2005 from 8 pm. $20 entry but there are other bands and a whole night's entertainment, so don't hold back!

Alice Haines CD launch should be a blast.  

Great Leap Forward

The Cold War now is over but the stakes are getting higher
I'm frightened of collateral damage and of friendly fire
And I don't believe we can defeat no axis of evil
By putting smart bombs in the hands of dumb people

These are just some of the lyrics of 'Great Leap Forward' by Billly Bragg. He sang it on Andrew Denton's 'Enough Rope' on ABC TV some time back, but I have just now been reading the interview which concludes with these lyrics.

Here's the address for you to read the complete song and interview:
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/enoughrope/transcripts/s946793.htm

The Write Stuff competition

The WRITE STUFF competition closes on 30 June.

Anne Kellas can email entry forms to people,
From: "Anne Kellas" <anne.kellas@gmail.com>
or you can download them as PDFs or WORD docs from the web site at:
http://www.the-write-stuff.com.au

JUDGE: this year the poetry section is being judged by Stephen Edgar, who kindly agreed to be the judge long before he was announced as the winner of the inaugural Australian Book Review poetry prize. It is wonderful to have his support. The Write Stuff Poetry competition is now totally self-supporting, having started last year with some funding from a private poetry benefactor.

The Write Stuff is a money-losing venture ... All funds raised by the comp. go into the next comp and paying the judge etc.

Regards

Anne Kellas

Ryokan quote

With no-mind, blossoms invite the butterfly;
With no-mind, the butterfly visits the blossoms.
When the flower blooms, the butterfly comes;
When the butterfly comes, the flower blooms.
I do not "know" others, Others do not "know" me.
Not-knowing each other we naturally follow the Way.

Ryokan, Japanese poet. He lived as a Zen Buddhist monk in the Niigata area of Japan from the late 1700s through the early 1800s.

D. T. Suzuki wrote of Ryokan that “when we know one Ryokan, we know hundreds of thousands of Ryokans in Japanese hearts.”

Logo of Cipher Journal, very interesting ezine 

from Cipher Journal

the dao that is talked about is not steadfast
whatever you call it is not its regular name

from The Dao De Jing
by Laozi / translation by Thomas Meyer

This snippet from CipherJournal at http://www.cipherjournal.com Much interesting and good reading in translation and about translation.

What Kind of World-view Do You Have?

Here's one of those fun-but-useless quizzes for you to waste your time with: http://quizfarm.com/test.php?q_id=23320

I'm a Postmodernist -surprise, surprise.

Raven at Stickybeaks Cafe (for Rosalind & Kay)

'Oh, go away!'
raven drops his complaint
to a grieving grizzle -
ah, ah, aaaaaahhh .
long last note after
the death of love.

'He'd be good as sculpture -
see? The shiny metal
of his feathers,
the fleshy bag of his chin.'
What would we make of him
if he was made by us?

Raven perches on
a glazed tree root
carved into a kangaroo
beside the playground.
'He should be in a museum
under glass - not here.'

Real? Art
is distanced from
this day, its chill
and laughing children.
Art? It is real root
and black raven -
Ah, ah, aaaaahhh.

My front yard by the driveway on the last day of autumn 2005.  

The last day of autumn 2005 ... 

Here's William Shakespeare's signature on his last will and testament. How does yours compare?

Which Romantic Poet would you be?

Here's a good game to play ... Who knows how accurate it is! But it is fun. I turned out to be Coleridge - which is true in part.

It's at:http://quizilla.com/users/maud/quizzes/

If it doesn't work, please tell me.

Write Stuff Competition

COMPETITION DETAILS

* The Write Stuff Poetry Competition (judge: Stephen Edgar)
This section is for a poem up to 200 lines in length. First prize: $700; second prize: $200 (Australian dollars) The judge for the poetry competition this year is Stephen Edgar, recipient of the inaugural Australian Book Review poetry prize.

* The Write Stuff Short Story Competition (judge: Giles Hugo)
This section is for a short story of 5,000 to 10,000 words (i.e no fewer than 5,000 and no more than 10,000 words). First prize: $700; second prize: $200 (Australian dollars) The judge. Giles Hugo, is a journalist, writer, co-editor of The Write Stuff.

The deadline for both competitions is 30 June 2005 and entries must be postmarked 30/06/2005 or earlier.

Conditions of entry as well as entry forms are at:
http://www.the-write stuff.com.au/competitions/
and can also be downloaded in WORD or PDF format from the web site.

Results will be announced in August on The Write Stuff web site. All entries are judged anonymously; we do not employ students to screen entries, and our competition processes are modelled on best practice.

Telling them Wedding words

Many times people have asked me for poems to use at a wedding ... Well, here's a new book of contemporary poems for just that purpose: Proposing on the Brooklyn Bridge: Poems About Marriage, Ed. Ginny Lowe Connors.On Amazon you can take a look at the Table of Contents:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0967555469/102-1652112-9399336?v=glance

The book is categorized into seven thematic sections: Beginnings, Ourselves and Others, Together, Apart, Endings, The Shape of a Marriage, and Looking Back. It includes poetry by Richard Wilbur, Jane Hirshfield, Wendell Berry, Sharon Olds, Stephen Dunn, Marge Piercy, and Donald Hall. And notably, as Stanley Kunitz is celebrating his 100th birthday soon, the anthology ends with Kunitz's "Touch Me."

The grave of William Carlos Williams, from the blog of Ron Silliman at http://ronsilliman.blogspot.com/ . A very static image for such a 'lively' poet and writer. It saddens me to see its cold austerity. 

cat snap

Cat
in and
out the door

rolls
on the
sun dappled floor

joy
in her
furry full belly

scratches
my shoe
as I pass ...

John
Lee Hooker
in the corner -

young
cat, old
cat - crosscut culture

'one
more and
one more time

shake
it babe
one more time'

Ghost Tantras by McClure

Ah, I endeavoured to present a couple of Ghost Tantras by Michael McClure for your amazement - but they wouldn't hold format, so here is the site address to go to and enjoy:

http://www.thing.net/~grist/l&d/mcclure/mccluret.htm

Lots more to read also at his Home page. Enjoy.

Oz History

Australian history is almost always picturesque; indeed, it is also so curious and strange, that it is itself the chiefest novelty the country has to offer and so it pushes the other novelties into second and third place. It does not read like history, but like the most beautiful lies; and all of a fresh new sort, no mouldy old stale ones. It is full of surprises and adventures, the incongruities, and contradictions, and incredibilities; but they are all true, they all happened.

Mark Twain, More Tramps Abroad, London, 1897

Stanley Kunitz, 100 not out

Well, I am speaking a little prematurely, but American poet Stanley Kunitz will turn 100 years old July 29 this year. & he's just had a new collection out, The Wild Braid.

Here's what he said in a recent interview: "I know that it's not my choice, so I simply do the best I can with this self, which is quite frail at the moment but is still at my command."

Related links, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050511/ap_en_
ot/books_kunitz_centennial/nc:785 http://www.poetshouse.org/ http://www.poetshouse.org/progcoming.htm#stanley

After Novel Snap

Possibly you've seen them in shopping centres,
talking to themselves, or so you've thought,

but they are novelists
at the end of a long journey
chatting to their characters.

You're right to be sceptical -
after all you can't see who they are talking to -
you'll see them later when you read
the tale or it is turned into a mini series.

By then they may be on the best sellers list
at the bookshop along with a news item
how the novelist, so well-respected and of
good family, was taken away from
a shopping centre recently and incarcerated -
a complete breakdown, talking to everyone
and no one, including watermelons and celery .

Poets on the other hand . they turn up
at the checkout with empty baskets
and are amazed no one can see their items.

Snaps address

Every Wednesday the poets of poetryertc write a 'snapshot' poem - about where they are, what the weather's like, the scene outside the window, the inner scene and how they see it, or whatever. There's a whole bunch of light and tight (& at times, not so light) poems at http://www.geocities.com/poetryetcetera/

Philip Whalen memoir

A delightful drawing and little memoir about one of my favourite USA poets, Philip Whalen - http://www.poltroonpress.com/whalen3.html

Newcastle Poetry Prize

Total prize money $12 000 (Australian). Closing date 29th July 2005. Entry forms and info: http://www.hwcentre.com

You bewdy! The Paris Review interviews online!

https://www.theparisreview.org/literature.php/prmDecade/1970

Go to them! Brilliant line-up ... Thanks, Paris Review.

li'l poem

She changes languages
like blouses
frilly or workplace

the clapping fingers
of her words
catch the sun

so the bucket drums
‘I learnt 6/8
in a pipe band …’

we begin in one tongue
and grow out
arterial from the mother

Writing Tips

Fellow writers - Here's a selection of quotes from How To books that's a useful bunch - http://www.allenandunwin.com/writing/tips.asp

I thought I'd call this colour 'pink'. Only the address has been changed to protect the innocent. 

This is Josie, the shy gentle cat of Lisa Cornes and Steve Checker of Geraldton, WA.  

This is The Leaning Tree - a eucalypt just outside of Greenough, up the Brand Highway on your way to Geraldton in Western Australia. It is a fenced off tourist attraction,m complete with its own parking area off road and a sign saying such wonderful things as 'fragile foliage with strong limbs' ... Many trees in the area have this lean about them, but none are quite this pronounced! 

I of the Storm

out of touch
tout of ouch

out of town
tout of own

rainbow trout
rain blow out

tipple nibble
nibble nipple

oh oh oh that
bird'n'bach rag


Andrew
18 April 2005

Text Message

Dear Colleagues,

The April issue of TEXT, and all back issues, is now freely available at
http://www.griffith.edu.au/school/art/text/

There are articles on poetics, fiction writing, how-to-write books, fictocriticsm and the role of criticism in the teaching of writing, research in the creative arts - and more!

Enjoy and please forward this email to your colleagues.

Assoc Prof. Nigel Krauth
Dr. Tess Brady
Editors, TEXT

Li'l quote I like

Well, a departure for me and this list in as much as the following quote is not about poetry, writing, cricket or films: it is just a good statement I appreciate -

There's a powerful transformative effect when you surround yourself with like-minded people. Peer pressure is a great thing when it helps you accomplish your goals instead of distracting you from them.

Po Bronson
Writer

Barbour/Creeley

Canadian poet Douglas Barbour http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/dbhome.htm always has a little quote as a footer to his emails. Often they are from Canadian poets, which is good for his home team, but right now he has this great quote from Robert Creeley - so I thought I'd share it with you:

Hand and mind
and heart one
ground to walk on,
field to plough.

Robert Creeley

Australians all let us rejoice ...  

Right outside my door ... beautiful b ut spikey ... 

2005 Ashes Tour Australian Squad

Ricky Ponting (capt), Adam Gilchrist (vc), Michael Clarke, Jason Gillespie, Brad Haddin, Matthew Hayden, Brad Hodge,Michael Kasprowicz, Simon Katich, Justin Langer, Brett Lee, Stuart MacGill, Damien Martyn, Glenn McGrath, Shaun Tait, Shane Warne.

World champions Australia versus a rejuvenated English team - This could be an interesting contest.

Wolfe Creek Crater -said to be the second largest meteorite crater in the world. 

Instant Poem - Just Add Water & Serve

Wolfe Creek Crater rises out of the ground
like an overturned frisbee. They say
something landed here with an almighty
thud. The clouds were torn and shredded
like ripped paper - the kind
you make yourself at home. I stand here
on the rim, the red dirt wind
blowing in from history without
a thought. Now there is a parking area.
There are rules about when and where.
Whatever landed here had its own
rules, bullying its way past
laws of gravity and the stratosphere.
First, the act; then - rules. Signs. We
follow. John Sands may make a game
of it, Paul Kelly may write a song. The
Almighty Thud may gain a following
and gain tax exemptions cynics never
achieve. Frisbees that glow in the dark
will be sold wherever two or more
are gathered. A flock? Yes. We follow.

Vale Robert Creeley ... I Knew A Man ... 

Brain implant unlocks power of trapped mind

From the Melbourne Age newspaper ...

By Ian Sample
London
April 1, 2005


A severely paralysed man has become the first person to be fitted with a brain implant that allows him to control objects by thought alone.

Matthew Nagle, 25, was left paralysed from the neck down after a knife attack in 2001. He uses a wheelchair and is unable to breathe without a respirator, and doctors say he has no chance of regaining the use of his limbs.

Mr Nagle has become the first patient in a controversial trial of brain implants that could help disabled people become more independent by tapping into their brainwaves.

During a three-hour operation at the New England Sinai Hospital in Massachusetts, electrodes were attached to the surface of Mr Nagle's brain. They were positioned just above the sensory motor cortex where the neural signals for controlling arm and hand movement are produced. Surgeons completed the operation by fitting a metal socket to Mr Nagle's head so he could be hooked up to a computer.

The scientists, led by Professor John Donoghue, a world expert in neurotechnology at Brown University in Rhode Island, used a computer to decipher the brainwaves picked up by the implant. In early trials, Mr Nagle learned to move a cursor around a computer screen simply by imagining moving his arm.

By using software linked to devices around the room, Mr Nagle has since been able to think his TV on and off, change channel and alter the volume. "Eventually, we want him to be able to use it to control the lights, his phone and other devices," said Professor Donoghue.

In the most recent tests, performed earlier this year, Mr Nagle was able to use thought to open and close an artificial prosthetic hand and move a robotic arm to grab lollies from one person's hand and drop them in another. He has also sharpened his skills at computer games by playing the old arcade game Pong.

Professor Donoghue hopes the implant, called BrainGate, will ultimately allow paraplegics to regain use of their limbs.

"If we can find a way to hook this up to his own muscles, he could open and close his own hands and move his own arms," he said. "We're very encouraged by Matthew, but we're cautious. It's just one person. There's further to go, but we're absolutely on the way."

Vale Robert Creeley 1926-2005

I have no details yet, but I am so saddened by the death of Robert Creeley, great contemporary American poet, who once visited Perth and shared with us his tremendous energy, wisdom and poetry.

My ex-wife cut his hair because he was going on to Singapore next (where they didn't allow hair over your collar), and she jokingly held a cutting up into the air and declared "I'm going to keep this locket next to my heart". Robert Creeley turned and yelled at her, "Don't say that ... I'm no different than anyone of you ... We're all poets here."

Today I will read his poems and remember him.

This arresting snap is posted to advertise the great issue of Cordite magazine, now available at http://www.cordite.org.au/index_21.html 

Sssshhh! the man says. 'Don't play what's there - play what's not there!' Miles Davis 

My son Charlie Burke, Sunsmart WACA Cricket Officer, in Indonesia teaching the local junior team how to catch a cricket ball. There's a right way and a wrong way! 

doodlin'

Is that right? I am doing it correctly, to my knowledge, but if I am not, please correct me gently. I scare easily. It is always my first time here and I hang one foot behind me for a fast escape. You intimidate me. May you always be there and I here. No hugs, no kisses, none of that, thank you. This sheet shall always separate us, and I for one am thankful for that. The confrontation of meaning sifted through your histories is far too complex and intimidating for me. May the sheet be shield and sword alike. My foot itches. The night is black but comfortable, the trees low and the moon high. Let me speak to you now through this sheet, like the little black square in the confessional of my youth with the priest in silhouette behind it. His gentle droning voice was the voice of God, even if I recognised it. Sometimes it would have a French inflection, others a guttural German sound, and then the humble Hungarian. Like bees in the swarm of human speech, we would enter, mumble secretly, leave and kneel to say our Hail Marys and Our Fathers. My father tongue fought with my mother tongue like a snake's tongue in one mouth. I can't stop scratching my heel now. Song is in the stars and the street is cool with rain. My feet feel the earth through generations of business and politics, digging back into the naked world. I must go. May you always be there and I here.

Walking On Water April 2nd

The next WOW (Walking On Water) literary reading and original music night is on at the Brisbane Hotel from 7.30 on Monday April 2nd.

The guest readers are David Michie, novelist and PR writer, and emerging writer Kay Cairns, novelist and poet. The musician is Dave Hults - a contemporary folkie from way back in the Lip Service days (if anybody but myself and Murray Jennings remembers them!).

Here's a little biography of David Michie:

David Michie was born in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and educated in South Africa.
He wrote his first novel at eighteen, a “Boys’ Own” adventure, which he is relieved to say, was never published.
He began a public relations career in Johannesburg and wrote another six novels, all of which were rejected by publishers.
He moved to London and worked as an analyst in public relations, while continuing to write novels.
But the breakthrough came with the publication of his non-fiction expose of spin doctors - ” The Invisible Persuaders – How Britain’s spin doctors manipulate the media”.
Then a corporate PR thriller, “Conflict of Interest” started his run of successful novels.
He lives with his Australian-born wife in Perth for most of the year.

Warm the valves & chill the tinnies ...

Radio National "Big Ideas" 5.00 pm Sundays.

with Peter Thompson Sunday 27 March 2005

Wisdom Interviews: Les Murray

Summary
A controversial figure, Les Murray enjoys a reputation as Australia's greatest living poet. He overcame both a life threatening illness and a severe bout of depression in the 1990s. He takes stock of his tumultuous and passionate life journey.

Famous Reporter site

A little self-promotion, mixed in with general information: http://walleahpress.com.au/FR31Burke.html

From this site you can access many past items and issues from the great Australian literary magazine, Famous Reporter - put together with love and patience by Ralph Wessman.

I must ask Ralph where the name came from ...

Does Adam Gilchrist have to pay for the new window out of his own pocket money? 

The 2005 Bruce Dawe Poetry Prize

Go to this site for all the information on how to enter the Bruce Dawe Poetry Prize for 2005:
http://www.usq.edu.au/faculty/arts/dhis/bdnpp.htm

Easter Reunion

the family reunion is like a
merry-go-round in the park

of regrets, bad choices,
fights and childish feuds

we are gathered here today
to pay our lingering respects

the dying parade for
the living to witness

young'uns now have
young'uns of their own

we own them all in
a whirligig of blood

dance of oxygen
in body and soul

smoke of a candle snuffed
lingering like incense

leaf shadow patterns
fall like memories of

the stations of the cross
anyone got a footy?

A lapse in taste ...

A Comparative Analysis Of World Religious Philosophies

Taoism: Shit happens.
Confucianism: Confucious says: "Shit happens".
Calvinism: Shit happens because you don`t work hard enough.
Buddhism: If shit happens, it isn`t really shit.
Zen: What is the sound of shit happening?
Seventh Day Adventist: No shit on saturday.
Hedonism: There`s nothing like a good shit happening.
Hinduism: This shit happened before.
Mormon: This shit will happen again.
Islam: If this shit happens, it is the will of Allah.
Moonies: Only happy shit really happens.
Stoicism: This shit is good for me.
Protestantism: Let shit happen to someone else.
Catholicism: Shit happens because you deserve it.
Judaism: So why does this shit always happen to us?.
Hare Krishna: Shit happens Shit happens Shit happens Shithappens.
Jehova's Witness: Let us in, and we will tell you why shit happens.
Atheism: Shit happens for no apparent reason.
Agnosticism: Farts happen.
Zarastrianism: Shit happens half the time.
Christian Science: Shit is in your mind.
Wicca: Shit happens if you will it to happen.
Scientology: Feces occur.
Existentialism: Shit is, therefore it happens.
Rastafarism: LET`S SMOKE THIS SHIT!!!

Bits and Pieces

Two separate prose pieces, written in response to that poneme project I referred to earlier, Text 000:

Pain is the pleasure. It is the principle of the sting, the prince of lightness and the prince’s pal. Don’t horse with me, p … But then we could go on, and I do, it wasn’t the same back then, is it now. The stern look afore court, the skills of criticism mixed with the cut and thrust of large family life, remembering forms, glancing passes. Unformed in uniform, the daily parade before the prepubescent eyes of ignorant love, the hasty hands and jumping film stock, lolly kisses and burnt frames. When you’ve got nothing to say, sing it … ‘April love – it slips right through your fingers – so if she’s the one, don’t let her get away’ … It’s a bakelite prediction on the Craven A Top Ten, sister in matador pants, brother in black priest outfit – training for their future, slewed by the past. ‘I’m seeing the real you at last …’


°

I begin again. I take up the clay and start the wheel. My legs are tired from my last try, but now I lose myself again in her shadows. She is whole and she is rounded by my hands, the water running down my arms to drip off my elbows onto the floor, the clay wobbly but in place. It is all that isn’t there that shapes her. I take away the roots of the trees of the forests, I transplant the shade of an old tree in the sunshine. ‘She is good to me / There’s nothing she doesn’t see / She knows where I’d like to be / But it doesn’t matter’. I hold her to make her, I run my hands up and down, I rib her as I rub her, my body the body that builds her body of clay and water and shadow, I breath into the rhythmic rounds of the wheel, a thigh a breast a momentum of Mother Earth …


The quotes are from Pat Boone's 'April Love' (a song of my teenagehood), and two Dylan songs.

Seeking Transcendence: Edvard Munch's 'Summer night-Inger on Shore 1889' now on exhibition at the Art Gallery of Western Australia
 

Seeking Transcendence through Creative Writing

Here is a message on behalf of Jenny de Garis.

You are invited to join Jenny de Garis and other adventurers in the Art Gallery of WA to discover, share and find inspritation in various responses to a Perth International Festival Exhibition called 'Transcendence'.
You are further encouraged to extend your enjoyment by relating actively to the unusual artworks through creative writing.
The group will meet in the foyer of the Art Gallery at 10 am Saturday 2 April 2005. The session will finish at 1 pm. Stools will be provided, but please bring your own clipboard and writing gear.
There is a donation requested for World Vision of $10 to $25. If you're broke or unwaged, just come along.

Please book asap by emailing Jenny de Garis at jjdeg@yahoo.com

If you can't make it to this one, please contact Jenny and tell her you are interested in future workshops of a similar nature.

2004 Tom Collins Poetry Prize

Yippee! My friend Kay Cairns has just won the Fellowship of Australian Writers (WA Inc) Tom Collins Poetry Prize for 2004 with her poem called Exit Wounds - a little favourite of mine ... She has graciously let me display it here:

Exit wounds

I found a used condom in your room today
among the cd cases, the schoolwork,
the socks, the jocks
that should have been in the laundry.

Soft in its rubbery limpidness
it made a statement so stark
it cut through sinewed cords
freeing you from me
and me
from you.

'Do you want to do something with that?'
I smiled, off-hand, matter-of-fact,
while already I mourned
an end
to childhood play
shared laughter
your tiny hand in mine.


Kay Cairns

A googlism poem - for fun!

when in doubt looks ahead hosted by keenspace
when in doubt stumbles into an asset at hand
when in doubt flows over because he holds that liquid
when in doubt asks permission from the creator
when in doubt waits for a song that seems to be made for jumping at concerts
when in doubt is unlit by recommend
when in doubt fits and consults your doctor
when in doubt breeds time to consult
when in doubt is wrapt in the plant operator
when in doubt wants to make a call
when in doubt gets pieces like this from a reliable source
when in doubt follows the directions and application instructions on the product itself
when in doubt is followed by a kite
when in doubt drifts about in tuckerbox.com
when in doubt finds just crap
when in doubt sings your favourite song
when in doubt is wrought by a puppet
when in doubt is phoned by *silence*
when in doubt runs dumb or wise?
when in doubt promises international duplication
when in doubt dissolves all files
when in doubt is shaven clean
when in doubt counts better than dashing into ruin
when in doubt says: play something in the key of f
when in doubt fiddles away the embarrassment of being lost
when in doubt takes a sample and puts it in a clear glass jar
when in doubt is more prudent
when in doubt looks at the correct thing to do
when in doubt is never ringed by regret
when in doubt chatters with post proofs for feedback
when in doubt revives easily
when in doubt is vibrato in the open bar
when in doubt displays the rule of equality
when in doubt is hooded in the park
when in doubt hears nothing

On Becoming a Novelist

– John Gardner On Becoming a Novelist:

If you have taken the time to learn to write beautiful, rock-firm sentences, if you have mastered evocation of the vivid and continuous dream, if you are generous enough in your personal character to treat imaginary characters and readers fairly, if you have held on to your childhood virtues and have not settled for literary standards much lower than those of the fiction you admire, then the novel you write will eventually be, after the necessary labor of repeated revision, a novel to be proud of, one that almost certainly someone, sooner or later, will be glad to publish.

The Quality of Strangeness

To quote John Gardner out of his book On Becoming A Novelist (Harper & Rowe, 1983):

As for the quality of strangeness, it is hard to know what can be said. There can be no great art, according to the poet Coleridge, without a certain strangeness. Most readers will recognise at once that he's right. There come moments in every great novel when we are startled by some development that is at once perfectly fitting and completely unexpected - (...) Strangeness is the one quality in fiction which cannot be faked.

I couldn't have said it better my Self

How well I would write if I were not here! If between the white page and the writing of words and stories that take shape and disappear without anyone's ever writing them there were not interposed that uncomfortable partition which is my person!

Italo Calvino, If on a Winter's Night a Traveler

Time for a Commercial Break

Well, I don't do as many gigs as I once did as a poet around Perth, but two are coming up in the forthcoming week, so I thought I should beat the drum a little.

Friday 4 March on 6EBA-FM, from 4 pm to 5 pm, I am being interviewed by Sharon she said, but her card says Dorothy Psaila-Savona ... Tune into see which is correct! I'll be reading some poems and maybe an extract from my novel.

Monday 7 March 7.30 pm at the 'New' Brisbane Hotel, cnr Beaufort and Brisbane Streets, Northbridge. I will be performing at 'Walking On Water', a spoken word evening which has now been going for some years. Other performers include Bronwyn Thomasen, novelist and editor, and Andy Copeman, musician, songwriter and wit. There will also be loads of room for Open Mike readers ... and Geraldine Mellet will be compereing.

Enough self-promotion, except to say, if you should be looking for a copy of Whispering Gallery (Sunline Press, 2001), then I saw two copies at Oxford Street Books today. (In Oxford Street, Leederville, if you hadn't guessed :-)

Hamilton Stone Review 5 Now Online

Hamilton Stone Review, Issue 5, Winter 2005, Now Online!

Featuring fiction by Sybil Kollar, Sue Mellins, and Lance Olsen,and poetry by Deborah Poe, Alan Brilliant, Susan Donnelly, Paul Murphy, Catherine Daly, Tad Richards, Todd Swift, mIEKALaND, Roy Frisvold, Rochelle Ratner, Hugh Steinberg, WilliamSylvester, Tim Martin, Sybil Kollar, Andrew Lundwall, BertKimmelman, James Cervantes, Skip Fox, Sheila E. Murphy,and César Vallejo (in translations by Rebecca Seiferle).

http://www.hamiltonstone.org/hsr.html

Renga poets

The poets in the Red Poppies renga published in foam:e 2 at http://www.foame.org/ are (in the order of appearance):

Andrew Burke, Jen Crawford, Louise Waller, Lawrence Upton, Kristin Hannaford, Jennifer Compton, Heather Matthew, Jill Jones, Alison Croggon

Thanks to them all for their wit, wisdom and imagination.

New 'foam:e' launched

A new issue of the 'foam:e' ezine has been published at http://www.foame.org/ with work from poets -

David Bircumshaw
Pam Brown
Jill Chan
Jen Crawford
AnnMarie Eldon
Claire Gaskin
Jeff Harrison
Jill Jones
Mark Kanak
Christopher Kelen
Corinne Lee
Cassie Lewis
Lizz Murphy
Sheila E Murphy
Alaric Sumner
Louise Waller
Mark Young
Renga (various authors)

The renga 'Red Poppies' suffered a near-death experience just after its completion, so we are lucky to be able to publish it at all. Take it from me, it's a good read ... even better than its former self, which readers of this blog may well remember. But I was the renga-master so I'm biased :-) Check it out - I'd like to hear your reactions to it individually and as a form.