The Old and the New

They are building big new lecture buildings and campus accommodation, but in the meantime classic Chinese scenes are disappearing. The old and the new were never more on display today than with a young music student playing saxophone runs among the trees next to an old pagoda, with an old man fishing in the polluted waters of this local waterway. Climb a tall bank of stairs beside the water and you see the facade of a once-beautiful old building, now weed-filled, with its forecourt used as a place to hang out washing. Next to this old facade, a weather-beaten man lives in a humpy lean-to affair built of old rubble and plywood and tin sheets. I look into these old eyes of China and wonder what they have seen - what does he make of today's world after the incredible sweeping changes of China's modern political and social history. But where are the young going - with their love of USAmerican culture and commerce, and the effects of globalisation yet to be felt on China's economy. As Mort Sahl so rightly said, The Future lies ahead ... And I can't see back and I can't see forward for them or with them. I am simply full of questions.

Thought for the Day

Where philosophy stops, poetry is impelled to begin. He was
a man, far away from home, biting his nails at destiny.

Susan Howe

Thank you, Doug Barbour, for quoting this.

Everyday shots on Shanxi NU Campus

Ah, beautiful pines are around the campus and remind me of old calligraphy-type scrolls I have seen. And by the roadside in Linfen I have seen many bicycle mechanics, and bicyclists mending their punctures and chains, etc, but this is the first umbrella mechanic I've seen. Everyone stands about giving him advice and watching him work. They sell fruit and vegies wherever there's a space. Like here, inside the uni before the west gate, beside old living quarters.

Notebook Poems

Teaching now
Rows of blank faces
I can’t read
Staring at me
Who they can’t read.

A Shakespeare sonnet,
A Bob Dylan song,
A Van Morrison complaint –
A quote about communication
From Seneca. Am I
Playing with irony
Unwittingly?

Chalk dust in my throat
Coaldust in my eyes
Hot chillies in my mouth
The lanes full of
Stick brooms and steaming vats
And fish who jump
From their troughs …
Every step a surprise,
Each sense assaulted.

I teach them to say G’Day –
Something Australian
To combat the USA influence.
Eling has taught himself English
By watching American movies.
Denver named himself after
John, surprised it’s a town.
Here we are in China
Bamboo Curtain down
But still ghostly felt.

Girls give themselves
English names of
Abstract ambition –
Harmony, Enjoy,
Even my favourite –
Sugarfree 

5/09/2006

Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let down your plastic bucket …

Next door,
Three floors up
And kind-hearted,
My American mates
Have devised a pulley system:
They feed a tough string line
Out their balcony window
And lower a bucket.
Last night it was
Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell;
The night before
Two candles and lighters,
A torch because
The power had gone out;
The night before the night before
A block of Mainland cheese,
Gold in these parts.
No need for electrickery:
Just drop down
And haul up.

Necessity gives birth again.


6/09/2006

Flying Pigeon,
Forever Gold …
Racehorses? No –
Bicycles in China,
Made of low quality
Chinese steel so
Pretty soon they rust
But scoot through
The frenetic traffic
Well enough.
There’s one called
Alice, another Sally.

By the roadside
Bike mechanics
Work among
Small ballbearings,
Broken spokes,
Bent forks and
Punctured tubes.
It reminds me
Of my youth
As they check the valve
In a basin of water
And rasp the tube’s
Surface to patch it.
We had a clamp and
Some kind of burning system
On our back verandah.
Here they work
On the ragged stone pavement,
Among spilt noodles
And cigarette butts.
One old spark plug
From a motor scooter
Lies on the pavement,
And a young boy,
Opportunist at five,
Picks it up and scurries away.
Maybe Dad will be pleased.

Here on the corner
Where we walk
A three-wheeler
With metal flat-bed on the back
Is turned upside down.
They operate on its axle,
Sticking things together again.
It’s Humpty Dumpty
Engineering, and he’s ready to go
In ten minutes or so –
But just now
He sells melons to
Passers-by.
If it’s daylight
It’s business hours
For the poor
Melon sellers
Of Linfen.

6/09/2006

Shutterbug exhibition

You are invited to attend the launch of
surface to air
Friday 16th September at 6pm,
Free Range Gallery,
Hay Street, Subiaco.

Images on Campus

Shanxi Normal University has wonderful cultural contrasts and images on its campus. One tree-lined avenue is called Paragon Road which leads down to Bachelor Road: bachelors I know but their aren't too many 'paragons' around :-)
A row of majestic sculptures stand each side of a short walkway into the main teaching building - Darwin, Newton, Galileo and others (I'll check their names and report later) - but my personal favourite scultpture is this wonderful image of Einstein. Such character! The others all look posed, but this one is active.

Three Sonnets

I don't know why it is but thoughts of the past and home always come to me in stark relief when I travel away. In this instance, the theme of water connected dry Toodyay where a friend and I existed on rainwater for awhile to Perth where water restrictions are now year-round and Linfen which is having an unusually wet time of it lately, and which simply gets muddier and messier with the rain. Why the sonnet form - possibly because it was a consciously planned project from the start, and also because Tom Shapcott has used the form with such success in writing of the five senses and his hands, etc.

Here are the poems, still in draft form:

Late Summer, Outside Toodyay
(Western Australia)

He walks down their block to dump the litter.
White quartz glistens in the sunshine
Like luxurious jewellery strewn among
Dry sticks and curling leaves. Black bush ants
Climb in raggedy line, driven by desire.
He pisses on a struggling eucalypt, thinking,
My body of water is the most moisture
From here to the Kalgoorlie pipeline.

Before the rain arrives—‘If it bloody comes,’
As she says—he climbed the ladder to clean out
The gutters where the rain will flow
To fill the water-tank which today echoes.
In late summer, they shower with buckets
Beneath them to save water for the carrots.

26/08/2006



Water Restrictions, Suburban Perth
(Western Australia)

He puts The West inside, comes outside and uncoils
the hose. It’s not their day to use the retic.
6.30 and already it’s a scorcher. First, he waters
The roses. She loves the roses and he smiles
At twin buds atop the pink one. Then,
The grass. All the way to the curb because
They claim the verge as part of their lawn.
More water, though, and more mowing.
The grass struggles in patches and he waters them
Extra. That bloke behind often misses
the drive and flattens it to death. Bastard.
He’s off in his dream-world again when he
Hears his name and sees her at the door.
She raises her nightie slowly and smiles.

26/08/2006




More Rain Today
Late Summer, Linfen

More rain today than fell last year. Pollution
coats the buildings as rain falls perpendicular.
Linfen’s drainage system overflows
and baby-faced police huddle in muddy vans
but the townsfolk welcome the wash:
a little soap in the alleys’ armpits,
sunny deodorant with dawn perhaps.
Inside, street vendors huddle, stretching
yesterday’s Yuans like old inner tube.
The gatekeeper pulls a grey sheet over
his knobbly knees on his roadside cot.
Beyond Linfen city, farmers wave as
roads run with mud and crops drink deep.
Tomorrow shines like sunflowers in their eyes.


28/8/2006 & 30/8/2006

Jill Jones Translation blog

Sitting here in China, I'm contemplating some 'translations' with the help of an American young bloke who is studying Mandarin here. In my quest for some grounding, some starting point, I found Jill Jones was already doing much the same thing at http://itudes.blogspot.com/

Take a look. And wish me luck :-)

Wanted: Women Visual Poets

I post this on from Sheila Murphy:

Good morning, all! K.S. (Kathy) Ernst and I have conferred about upcoming projects regarding the presentation of female visual poets. We are looking to build a database of contact information for women on several continents, so that we may look at what is possible relative to exhibitions (likely, a traveling exhibition initially) and books that would go with same.

Specific calls for work will follow, but for now we want to accumulate a "who's who" compendium.

I would appreciate your circulating widely a call for the following information and sending the information to me backchannel at:

sheila dot murphy at gmail dot com

We mainly want:

Name
Mailing Address
Email Address

Any further information about media in which the visual poet works, great, too.

If everyone can respond with known individuals, including yourselves, it will be appreciated.

The goal is to obtain as comprehensive a list of (1) living women visual poets who have done visual poetry in the latter half of hte 20th Century and (2) women who are actively working in visual poetry now. Definition of visual poetry is deliberately open.

Thanks! Sheila Murphy

Chinese Folk Music

Apropos of absolutely nothing, I was watching CCNTV9, the English channel on Chinese television, this morning over breakfast. They had a delightful cultural program on, showcasing folk music from various minority groups. A charming young girl, in small pigtails and what I took to be a school uniform, sang a lyrical tune, and the English translation appeared at screen's base:

See the bright moon
shining on Grandpa's manure basket

Everyday has its little joys, and that was one of mine.

'Death on All Fronts' Anthology

from Big Bridge & Halvard Johnson of the NewPoetry list:

“Friends and neighbors--
“For a mini-anthology of poems inspired by/responding to/related to Allen Ginsberg’s poem ‘Death on All Fronts’ and/or the various wars/insurgencies/etc. going on in the world today, please send 1-6 poems to me at halvard@earthlink.net with the words ‘Big Bridge’ followed by your own name in the subject line. Unidentified submissions may be lost or discarded--advertently or inadvertently. The poems submitted may be either previously published or unpublished and brand-new. We cannot, though, seek or pay for reprint permissions from publishers. This mini-anthology (approximately 30 poems) will appear in the January issue of Big Bridge, and submissions of work will be accepted until the end of November.”

DEATH ON ALL FRONTS

“The Planet is Finished”
A new moon looks down on our sick sweet planet
Orion’s chased the Immovable Bear halfway across the sky
from winter to winter. I wake, earlier in bed, fly corpses
cover gas lit sheets, my head aches, left temple
brain fibre throbbing for Death I created on all Fronts.
Poisoned rats in the Chickenhouse and myriad lice
Sprayed with white arsenics filtering to the brook, City Cockroaches
stomped on Country kitchen floors. No babies for me.
Cut earth boy & girl hordes by half & breathe free
say Revolutionary expert Computers:
Half the blue globe’s germ population’s more than enough
keep the cloudy lung from stinking pneumonia.
I called in the Exterminator Who soaked the Wall floor
with bed-bug death-oil. Who’ll soak my brain with death-oil?
I wake before dawn dreading my wooden possessions,
my gnostic books, my loud mouth, old loves silent, charms
turned to image money, my body sexless fat, Father dying,
Earth Cities poisoned at war, my art hopeless --
Mind fragmented--and still abstract--Pain in
left temple living death


-- Sept. 26, 1969

--Allen Ginsberg
(from The Fall of America: poems of these states, 1965-1971,
[San Francisco: City Lights, 1972])

Free Poetry eBooks

Some goodies here, including one of my favourites - Spike Milligan.

http://www.poemhunter.com/eBooks/

Bad Boys make Good Copy

When poets fall out, in our times, only lawyers could profit. And maybe publishers ... Go see the reaction of one Queensland academic to John Kinsella's latest prose book at http://www.smh.com.au/news/book-reviews/fast-loose-beginnings-a-memoir-of-intoxications/2006/08/21/1156012451866.html

Lunchtime Recital in Linfen

today
bill evans
plays angular chords
to a background
of fireworks

years after death
ruined
his knuckles and sent
his bones
to chalk

no matter -
all matter
‘all things must pass’
his hammers
still lyric

Notes from a Diary

When I posted the haiku the other day, it was the result of this entry in my continuing diary. I'll post more as I can, conditions permitting:

6.30am. The overture to daylife in Linfen is played with household hammers on major building projects. Cicadas sing gently in madrigal phrases. The irregular rhythm of the builders’ hammers gradually joins the first honking vehicles of the morning, various toots on a full range of flutes. The street vendors put out their vegetables and fruits and squat beside. A few have weighing machines for basic conversion of goods to cash. There seems no hurry here, no anger, no overt competition, no conflict between the workers and the bosses. The town grows daily, and the shops change hands overnight. One man is gone from the streetscape. I heard tell that he wrote an anti-government message in his shop window and was not there the next day. A new shop has opened there now, selling fashion for young ladies.
By 8am the town is a bustle, going about its business. A pale grey smog hangs in the air which a light morning breeze seems incapable of shifting. Three mature citizens sweep away the remnants of last night’s fireworks with straw brooms. They dye the gutter waters pink.

haiku

at night, fireworks.
at dawn, torn red paper shells
dye the gutters pink.

Fireworks Night

It’s another cause for celebration:
The surrender of the Japanese
At the end of World War II.

Fireworks light the sky above Linfen
And Chinese singers sing proudly
Amplified down Gulou Road East.

It’s as bright as a battlefield, loud as a war.
The old people can’t hear a thing
And are in bed early.

Linfen, Shanxi Province - City of contrasts

Shanxi Normal University

'Normal' in this context simply means it was once a teachers' college. This building is where I shall be teaching ... Semester starts in September.

Linfen flat

Beijing Gallery

Here is an address to see some pics of my time so far in Beijing - not all are interesting to everybody, but hopefully some will be interesting to some.

Copy and paste this link: http://www.kodakgallery.com.au/pickup.jsp?PID=b1061c9721eedbd2e581bab)

Robert Hass Article

Just something to keep you entertained from Robert Hass, a great American poet.

'One of the poets central to the history of lyric poetry in the European tradition is Quintus Horatius Flaccus, whom we know as Horace. He was born when Rome was emerging as a world power. He fought, as a young man in those turbulent years, in the wars that followed the assassination of Julius Caesar, and wrote most of his poems in the age of Augustus.

With Catullus and Virgil and Ovid, he's one of the four great lyric poets of ancient Rome. For English poets from Shakespeare's time to the end of the 19th century, he was the man. Horace spent most of his life in retirement on a modest farm in the country outside Rome. He wrote immensely civilized, poised, exquisitely polished, and apparently casual poems about the countryside and the Roman seasons, about not living in the Augustan equivalents of the corridors of power and the feeding frenzies of the media and the fevers of the deal. His values were the gentleman farmer's ideals. Balance was what he admired, independence, privacy, friendship, a sensible prosperity, good wine, the fruits of the season.

These are reasons to read him, but the deepest reason is pleasure.'

Read the rest at http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/haas/poetschoice.htm

In Beiijing

Hot and humid, but exciting ... The traffic is crazier than at home, but I'll just have to get used to that - as a pedestrian even. Trying to sort through money, phones, transport, etc. - New country, new processes.

Susiedriving this morning spoke of the 'language of driving' - the car in front is communicating one thing while we are communicating another thing to the vehicle behind us. Etcetera. Just like a paragraph where sentence is constructed on clauses and phrases, punctauted by stops and starts ... We drive with Burroughs cut-up method in Beiijing :-)

Next week, Linfen.

Lee Marvin Readings in Adelaide

Readers & writers: the August readings!


THE
LEE MARVIN READINGS

Mondays: at Gallery de la Catessen

9 Anster St., Adelaide
(off Waymouth at the King William end, near FAD nightclub)

7.30 for 8 PM start

Price $5


6th Reading August 7th
o LEE MARVIN IN A LONELY PLACE

Cath Kenneally
ADEEB KAMAL AD-DEEN Iraq
Rachel Manning
Kate Deller-Evans
Ros Prosser

# # #

7th Reading August 14
o LEE MARVIN IN A MELLOW MOOD

Stephen Lawrence
Jason Sweeney
RACHEL HENNESSY
CAROL LEFEVRE
Linda Marie Walker


# # #

8th Reading August 21
o LEE MARVIN IN A GADDADAVIDA

Moya Costello
Simon Robb
Gail Walker
STEPHEN WHITTINGTON:
John Cage's Overpopulation & Art (1992)
KEN BOLTON: THE CIRCUS


# # #

9th Reading August 28
o LEE MARVIN IN A PURPLE HAZE

RAY LIVERSIDGE (Vic)
Pru La Motte
Cath Kenneally
Francesca Da Rimini
KEN BOLTON: THE CIRCUS

Dress to Express

Great range of t-shirts with literary and other heroes at http://www.reckonwordwide.com/litart.html

Choosing is the hard part.

Chinese silence?

I am in shock. On Wednesday I leave to spend a year in the Peoples Republic of China - I look forwared to it in nearly all respects, except that I hear you can't broadcast a blog from there! I hope this is not so - after all, they now have Google access there, so why block blogs?

I hope it is not so when I get there, but if it is, then I shall be silent here for a year - with a possible month of communications in January for my holidays from teaching when I shall travel.

Standby for more information in coming days.

A Quotable Quote

"The best way to find out about poetry, is to read the poem."
Louis Zukovsky

'The Paris Review' newsletter

THE PARIS REVIEW is pleased to announce that their summer issue, no. 177, is available now—and it's creating quite a stir. You'll see why when you check out what's inside:



* An encounter with a Serbian hit man
* A dispatch from Uganda's front lines
* Peter Carey on the dangers and pleasure of writing novels
* James Tate on finding the ultimate in poetry
* Woody Guthrie’s Coney Island sketchbooks
* Photographic flotsam from New Orleans
* New fiction by Rose Tremain and Daniel Kehlmann
* New poems by Chris Forhan, Debora Greger, and James Tate


Read James Tate on the art of poetry: “The thing that was magic about it was that once you put down one word, you could cross it out. . . . I put down mountain, then I'd go, no—valley. That's better.”

Visit www.theparisreview.org

Word of the Day

Dictonary.com 'Word of the Day' is a great little (free) service. If you don't already get a Word each day, sign up now.

SUBSCRIBING:
Send a blank message to:
join-wordoftheday@lists.lexico.com

Poetry Podcasting

Hear ye! Hear ye! Well, I haven't myself, but thought you may like to: http://www.poetrypodcasting.org/

Black Stockings

They say memory is triggered by smell
but just now Rod Stewart sang
The Way You Look Tonight

and I remember how Kay looked
after school in her college uniform
pleated skirt and white blouse

jiving to a new Elvis 45rpm
after practicing The Way You Look
on her mother’s fine piano

black-stockinged legs still
high-kicking in my pulse,
sexagenarian on heat

'Tinfish' & blue swayed shoes

http://www.tinfishpress.com/

Tinfish always has interesting content (I haven't seen them all, but the ones I've seen) but the philosophy behind the covers is a constant delight to me. They are done by a group of artists in Hawaii and are made from recycled items - cereal boxes, tarpaper, maps, etc. Each one is a work of art in itself.

They always remind me of an occasion when I was being a pretentious producer of a 'young poets' reading' for the Festival of Perth many decades ago. I suggested they (the y'poets) bring something that influenced them to our next rehearsal - meaning a text by another poet. Greg Osborn, very young at the time but wittier than old-man Andrew, brought along the Coco-Pops packet he had eaten breakfast from that morning :-)

Greg died in a carcrash down south aged forty. A great waste. In memoriam I post a poem by Greg, first published in Sandgropers, published 1973, edited by Dorothy Hewett.

blue swayed shoes

stoned to de bones
got no blues
stoned to de bones
got no blues
got no blues
got no shoes

got a smilin head
that can amuse
me n you
if we move
me n you in a trippin groove
buzzin here
buzzin dere
buzzin into de crazy air
tryn to fuse
tryn to fuse
wid a pair
o blue swayed shoes

stoned to de bones
got no blues
stoned to de bones
got some shoes

cos i
found some dere
up in de air
in de blue hue dere
a pair
a pair
a freakin pair
o dem blue swayed shoes

an i
thenk y sky
for bein dere
up in de air
when i was dere
an when i wasn't


Greg Osborn

haiku

swollen with child
she holds hard the sapling
held hard by its roots

The Great Egret

I must get a camera with a proper zoom on it! We have a beautiful neighbour, the Great Egret, who poses quietly but a long way off. Again, as with the Sacred Ibis, I have to go to another site to show you a photo. http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Great_Egret.html

'The Times They Are A-Changin' Musical

THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN' - a new Broadway musical
conceived, directed and choreographed by Tharp and
set to the music and lyrics of Dylan.

NOW THROUGH JULY 29TH, GET TICKETS BEFORE THE GENERAL PUBLIC WHEN YOU BUY WITH YOUR AMERICAN EXPRESS CARD.

Call 212-307-4100 or visit ticketmaster.com.

Previews begin September 25th on Broadway.

'The bird with the burned arse'

Threskiornis aethiopica, commonly known as 'the Sacred Ibis' are seen in our neighbourhood wetlands as we walk morning or evening near our home in Bassendean, a suburb of Perth in Western Australia. They are also known as inh adn alhungand in Olkola, which means "the bird with the burned ass" because of the black feathers in its tail. I couldn't get close enough to get a decent shot, so I shall borrow one from http://www.geocities.com/athens/delphi/2970/ibis.htm

Homage to McManus

(for Patrick, suggested by Roger)

gmail's made
his poems
thin again
that were
once so
ramblin' fat
now he
notices
the cat
at her snore-
gas-bored
as he
holds hands
over his
mornin' cuppa
she has three
bowls to
his one
oh the
power of love

and now
the post
before
toast -
how strange
the modern
whirled

Writers Rates

It's always a difficult thing when some organisation - often strapped for cash - asks a writer how much for a visit or a workshop or editing or somesuch task. Poets especially are too often taken for granted and asked to appear for very low fees or to publish a poem in an anthology or in a small circulation magazine for nothing or very little.

The Australian Society of Authors is a very professional organisation which helps published authors and those working to be published. They have posted their suggested list of chrages and fees for such functions at http://www.asauthors.org/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=ASP0016/ccms.r?PageID=6054

Thank you, ASA.

Juniper Exhibition @ Gomboc Gallery

FLOOD CREEK
Mixed media
on Belgian linen
122 x 122 cm






Birdsong -
a new exhibition by
ROBERT JUNIPER
at Gomboc Gallery
50 James Road, MIDDLE SWAN
Telephone: + 61 8 9274 3996
Facsimile: +61 8 9274 2665
rm@gomboc-gallery.com.au

Gallery Hours: Wednesday to Sunday
10.00am to 5.00pm

See great examples from the exhibition at http://www.gomboc-gallery.com.au/exhibitions/current_exhibition.htm

Happy Birthday, Marcel Proust!

'Love is space and time measured by the heart'. Marcel Proust - born July 10th 1871.

More information at http://www.library.uiuc.edu/kolbp/proust.html

Just back from the dentist ...

Calling for Essays on 'Poets and Philosophers'

This is a last-minute call for essays for a feature tentatively titled
"Poets and Philosophers" which will appear in Fulcrum 5.

The issue is almost ready to go to press, which means we would need to
see the work near-immediately.

Please query by email first if you have something you think may fit.

Best,

Philip Nikolayev & Katia Kapovich, eds.
FULCRUM: AN ANNUAL OF
POETRY AND AESTHETICS
334 Harvard Street, Suite D-2
Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
phone 617-864-7874
e-mail editor@fulcrumpoetry.com

Anna Akhmatova - on stage!

Prickly Pear Ensemble

presents


THE SHIPS PASS QUIETLY

by John Aitken

A powerful play about a great poet struggling against censorship and oppression,

The Ships Pass Quietly presents the life of Anna Akhmatova as well as her work against a backdrop of music by Dmitri Shostakovich
and the atmosphere of old Leningrad.

Image by Crispin Chan

Condemned as “half nun, half harlot” by Russian revolutionaries, the turbulent life of the celebrated poet Anna Akhmatova comes under scrutiny in Western Australian playwright, John Aitken’s new play, The Ships Pass Quietly presented at The Blue Room from July 19.

Akhmatova was one of the greatest Russian lyric poets of the Twentieth Century, but after the revolution she fell out of favour. Her husband was shot and later her son was imprisoned to secure her silence. Her poetry was seen as so subversive that friends would have to memorise her words in the dead of night. Then Akhmatova would burn the evidence.

The Ships Pass Quietly presents the life of Anna Akhmatova as well as her work, against the backdrop of old Leningrad, two world wars and the music of her friend, Dimitri Shostakovich, whose 100th anniversary is celebrated this year. An interesting historical footnote suggests that the world of music owes a great debt to Akhmatova who during the Second World War smuggled the manuscript of Shostakovich’s great 7th Symphony (the Leningrad) in her suitcase.

Performed by Vivienne Glance as Anna Akhmatova,
with Irene Jarzabek, Craig Fong and Ethan Tomas.

Directed by John Aitken.

Preview – Wed 19th July – tickets: $10
Opening Night – Thurs 20th July – then Tues to Sat until August 5thAll performances at 8.00 pm

Tickets - $20 / $15 concessions
Cheap Tuesdays – all tickets $10

Bookings: 9227 7005 or www.pacs.org.au
The Blue Room Theatre
53 James Street, Northbridge.

Eunoia - notice something about that word?

I like games in language - when they lead to something. Here's a brilliant book of gamed writerature by Christian Bok entitled Eunioa: the smallest word in English with all the vowels present. He made a project from it. Take a look at http://www.chbooks.com/archives/online_books/eunoia/text.html

Next stop - Linfen

From August, my wife and I will be travelling to Linfen in China to visit her daughter, son-in-law and grand-daughter. This is a satellite photo of the 'village' (600 000 people!.

'Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.'

I've loved that sentence for some time. It's a hard relationship to be in love with language - she keeps changing and wearing different masks to the ball.
The following schematic is easily followed and is courtesy of Wikepedia, as is the following text:

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

Approximate X-Bar representation of "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously." See Phrase structure rules."Colorless green ideas sleep furiously" is a sentence composed by Noam Chomsky in 1957 as an example of a sentence whose grammar is correct but whose meaning is nonsensical. It was used to show inadequacy of the then-popular probabilistic models of grammar, and the need for more structured models.

The full passage says:

(1) Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
(2) Furiously sleep ideas green colorless.
It is fair to assume that neither sentence (1) nor (2) (nor indeed any part of these sentences) had ever occurred in an English discourse. Hence, in any statistical model for grammaticalness, these sentences will be ruled out on identical grounds as equally `remote' from English. Yet (1), though nonsensical, is grammatical, while (2) is not.

Poet's Interview to View

Mairead Byrne has a keen sense of humour :-) Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVuwscleO7I

Walking On Water - July Session

Poetry Performance Prose
MONDAY 3 JULY


This month we have a bush poet, a specialist in desire and a guitar
impresario.

Our new first-floor city venue was a great success last month. The next WOW
is on this coming Monday.


Guest performers:

Kel Watkins
Kel reports in from the wheatbelt town of Elsewhere, where the weather is
always fine. His blend of tall stories, stretched truths, outlandish
imagery (dogs rounding up crops of wheat???) have been enjoyed by folk for
over 25 years. His yarns are tailor-made for mature audiences who just love
a good laugh.


Christina Houen
Christina¹s fascination with desire has been the inspiration for her Masters
degree in Creative Arts, her PhD studies and all her other writing. In 2003,
she won the Hal Porter prize for autobiography. Christina will be sharing
some of her prose work with us.


Roy Abbott
Roy is a skilled solo guitarist and played with the Mucky Duck Bush Band for
25 years. He is currently pursuing a solo career and will be singing songs
from his upcoming CD, "Pushing the Pedals."


Open Stage
You know the drill - stick your name on the list and take the stage for a
maximum of five minutes. Poetry, prose and music all welcome.

Where
104B The laneway, Off Murray Street in Perth City.
We're an 8-minute walk from the city rail station, or you can get parking
down on Wellington Street.


Other stuff
Please bring your own drinks. Nibbles are also welcome for sharing. We
supply tea and coffee. Entrance is $5 wages, $3 unwaged.



Any more details, email jane corneshttp://www.iinet.net.au/~jcornes

PoetrySz - demystifying mental illness

Issue 20 of PoetrySz: demystifying mental illness is
now online at http://poetrysz.blogspot.com . It
features work by Japanese cyberpunk writer Kenji
Siratori, Australian poet Christopher Kelen, English
poet Christopher Barnes, and New Zealand expat
singer-songwriter/poet Ben Kemp. Submissions for subsequent issues are welcome. Send
4-6 poems, along with a short bio, in the body of your
email to poetrysz@yahoo.com .

The Emigrant Irish, by Eavan Boland

Like oil lamps, we put them out the back —
of our houses, of our minds. We had lights
better than, newer than and then
a time came, this time and now
we need them. Their dread, makeshift example:
they would have thrived on our necessities.
What they survived we could not even live.
By their lights now it is time to
imagine how they stood there, what they stood with,
that their possessions may become our power:
Cardboard. Iron. Their hardships parceled in them.
Patience. Fortitude. Long-suffering
in the bruise-coloured dusk of the New World.
And all the old songs. And nothing to lose.


Eavan Boland is Irish, and the Bella Mabury and Eloise Mabury Knapp Professor in Humanities at Stanford University where she directs the creative writing program. She has published nine volumes of poetry.

Just a thought

"Leisure is necessary to any form of civilization
higher than that of ants, apes, Kipling and his
cousin Stan Baldwin."
--Ezra Pound

How To Read Poetry To An Audience

This site has some practical tips on how to read poetry to an audience. It is mainly aimed at poets reading their own material, but I am certain performers, actors and teachers could also benefit from this text: http://poetry.about.com/od/livepoetry/ht/howgivereading.htm

Horatio!

My sister, Frankie Macmillan, has lived out of Australia most of her adult life, and now lives in Berkshire, with four dogs and this wonderful bird, Horatio.
This splendid character lives in a large silver cage in her spacious kitchen. He talks, dances and hangs upside down from his roof at the slightest provocation.

A Great Romantic Shot

My son Charlie and his bride Becky
shot at Auckland Castle
in May 2006
by Alan Mason

Lee Marvin Readings in Adelaide

3rd Reading June 19
o LEE MARVIN SHOOTS HIS FOOT

Nicholas Jose
MIKE LADD
Teri Hoskin
Andrea Jorss
MOYA COSTELLO

THE LEE MARVIN READINGS

Mondays
at Gallery de la Catessen

9 Anster St., Adelaide
(off Waymouth at the King William end, near FAD nightclub)

7.30 for 8 PM start

Price $5

All aboard 'The Drunken Boat'!

The Spring/Summer issue of The Drunken Boat is now
online at http://www.thedrunkenboat.com including:

An interview with Australian poet, Jill Jones,
including her sonnet series "Traverse" and a
collaborative project with the photographer Annette
Willis "Breath, the hours."

A feature of modern Chinese poetry, edited by Inara
Cedrins with an introduction by Michael Day, a
chapbook of newly translated poems by Xi Chuan and an
essay on Xi Chuan's poetry by Maghiel van Crevel, and
a chapbook of poems in the manner of Men Jaio by
Christopher Kelen, as well as work from :

Zhai Yongming
Chen Dongdong
Yu Jian
Duoduo
Sun Wenbo
Ouyang Jianghe
Wang Xiaoni
Yin Lichuan
Yang Qian
Li Sen
Li Nan
Han Dong
Wang Jiaxin

In Tibet

Woeser
Meizhuo

Minorities in China

Yidam Tsering
Baitao
Shama
Luruo Diji
Jimu Langge

Chinese poets abroad

Bei Dao
Ha Jin
Xue Di
Stephen Shu-Ning Liu
Arthur Sze
Timothy Liu

in Taiwan

Chen Kehua
Chen Li
Hsia Yü
Hung Hung

in Macao

Christopher Kelen
Papa Osmubal
Yao Feng
Jenny Oliveros Lao
Agnes Lam Iok Fong
Agnes Vong Lai Ieng

in Hong Kong

P.K. Leung
Louise Shew Wan Ho
Alan Jefferies
Timothy Kaiser

in Singapore

Felix Cheong Seng Fei
Gilbert Koh
Yong Shu Hoong
Alvin Pang
Robert Yeo
Eddie Tay
Toh Hsien Min
Cyril Wong
Arthur Yap

Translated by Michael Day, Maghiel van Crevel, d
dayton, Huichun (Amy) Liang, Steven Schroeder, Yangdon
Dhondup, Simon Patton, Alison Mara Friedman, Wang Hao,
Andrea Lingenfelter, Tsui-hua Huang, Mike O'Conner,
Inara Cedrins, and Christine Tsui-hua Huang.

Poems from Greece by Adrianne Kalfopoulou, a chapbook
"Anachronistic Night's Dream" by Gail Wronsky with her
essay
"One Woman's Jonesing for Wonder," Poems by Dzvinia
Orlowsky
with an introduction, Poems from _The Artist as Alice:
From a Photographer's Life_ with an introduction "On
Writing The Artist as Alice: From a Photographer's
Life"

Best,

Rebecca Seiferle
www.thedrunkenboat.com
tdbeditor@yahoo.com

John Olsen's painting

John Olsen's 'Self-Portrait on an Afternoon Walk - from
http://www.timolsengallery.com/about_us/html/

Sharon Brogan and I trading Snaps

Sharon Brogan wrote the following poem as a 'snap' for poetryetc last Wednesday:


I am stubborn, sulky
and sullen, caught
in a thorned net
of dreams --

too many children
in need of rescue,
too many villians
smug, and famously

unpunished. I am
a glass jar, filled
with judgement
and despair --

even as a rainbow
circles the sun;
even as the aspen
sings and shimmers

in the wind. I refuse
to take pleasure.
I will not listen.
I will not see.


--
~ Sharon Bragon =^..^=

http://www.sbpoet.com
http://sb.chatango.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sbmontana/


To which I replied:


I am open to
suggestion, free
in a life of
comfort and choices,

my children so
secure and active,
villains locked away
in the jug, silenced

forever. I am
a strong breeze, filling
sails of laughter
and life --

a rainbow around
the sun, a white gum
by the river
as it shimmers

in response. I delight
in taking pleasure.
I hear the city
whispering and see
the ocean lapping.

Cy Twombly 'Wilder Shores of Love'

I found this great painting by Cy Twombly as the result of some research I was doing into Ken Bolton's new book, 'At The Flash & At The Baci' (Wakefield Press, 2006). Ken is attached in some way with the Experimental Art Foundation in Adelaide, and is very knowledgeable about art - for he is an art historian, I believe.

This painting accessed from http://artchive.com/artchive/T/twombly/twombly_wilder.jpg.html

Fuel Prices

Words on the Move

Peter Howard is an English poet I've known via email and the Net for sometime. Over at Frank's Place (an internet site full of contemporary poetry by various bods) I came across this 'active' poem by Peter - see what you think: http://frankshome.org/likesmoke.html

a list of lively links

* Sleepingfish http://sleepingfish.net/0875/Olson_Starlings.htm

* Sentence: A Journal of Prose Poetics http://www.firewheel-editions.org/sentence/current.htm

* The Absinthe Literary Review http://www.absinthe-literary-review.com/archives/olson.htm

* Bewildering Stories http://www.bewilderingstories.com/issue138/new_neighbors.html

* First Intensity http://homepage.mac.com/firstintensity/

* Knock http://www.knockjournal.org/issues/index.html

* New American Writing http://www.newamericanwriting.com/20/

* The Raven Chronicles http://www.ravenchronicles.org/

* Wandering Hermit http://www.wanderinghermit.com/

* Bird Dog http://www.birddogmagazine.com/issue1.htm

* Call: Review http://www.callreview.net/currentissue.html


I managed to uplift most of this list from an email I received promoting the new book by John Olson, entitled The Night I Dropped Shakespeare on the Cat : http://calamaripress.com/Olson_Shakespeare_Cat.htm

One-Way Traffic - by Miles Burke

This photo by my son Miles. Some days it just feels like that.

A Parody

From the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal, John F. Bramfeld's prayer parody (January 12, 1995):

Oh great, but not necessarily superior, being who dwells beyond this plane of existence and who is accessible only through prayer, meditation or crystals, we salute you without thereby acknowledging that you are entitled to greater respect than that accorded any other endangered species.

We hope to pass through your place of existence at some point on our psychic journey to the same exalted status as marine mammals or even snail darters.

Moreover, to the extent your design for the universe coincides with the U.S. Constitution and includes low-cost access to cable, we ask you to provide us our minimum daily requirement of essential vitamins and nutrients consistent with FDA guidelines, and when judging us be duly mindful of our status as victim, which provides full justification for what might appear on superficial examination to be felonious. In the same vein, we will endeavor to excuse and forgive those who have transgressed against us, with the possible exception of our parents, teachers, policemen and clergy about whom we have just resurrected disturbing memories. We ask all of this in the name of your prophet ___________. (Here on alternating weeks substitute names drawn from the consensus of the class. Some suggestions for early in the year: L. Ron Hubbard, Ayatollah Khomeini, Patricia Ireland, Mike Wallace.)

Ruby Street

Ruby Street

Poetry For Sale

The following pamphlets are now available from the Phantom Rooster Press:

Patrick McManus: CEMENT AND WATER (illustrated by Judy Prince)

Judy Prince: POEMS (illustrated by the author)

£3 (including UK p&P)

Overseas orders, please contact the publisher to arrange terms.

robin.hamilton2@btinternet.com

Cheques to:

Robin Hamilton,
69 Rydal Ave.,
Loughborough,
LE11 3RU


PS: For those in the know, there are a number of Vile Boris poems included, plus one by Judy to the famous feline. Drawings are delightful, too.

More photos of Live Poets

Robin Hamilton, Andrew Burke, Patrick McManus


Roger Day, who organised us all to be a part of May's CB1 reading in Cambridge. (With Helen in the background.)


Robin Hamilton, poet and publisher (& bon vivant)

P'etcers in Cambridge

Myself (standing) Patrick McManus, Janet, and Robin Hamilton at CB1 23 May 2006
















Robin Hamilton (in the denim jacket), (maybe) Roger Day (in the darkness), myself, Patrick and Janet at CB1 same night

Introducing ...

Introducing my new daughter-in-law, Becky (Rebecca) who married my son Charlie at Auckland Castle, County Durham, on Saturday 21 May 2006.

'The Work of the Wind' by S.J.Litherland

Jackie and Joanna at The Shakespeare

Jackie Litherland and Joanna Boulter at The Shakespeare in Durham before Colpitts Poetry Society reading in May. Jackie went on to launch her new book The Work Of The Wind, published by Flambard Press Poetry, at Colpitts on Friday, 26 May. For more info, look up http://www.flambardpress.co.uk and http://www.inpressbooks.co.uk

Poetry Reading in Durham at Colpitts

On Friday, 12 May 2006, Paul Summers and I read at Colpitts Poetry Society, Allington House, 4 North Bailey, Durham. He is the fellow in the middle, with his girlfriend and a German friend. The program described his poetry as 'perfect pieces of sea glass, polished, sparkling, illuminating the ordinary'.

It was a great night, with Paul and I doing twenty minute performances separated by a very social interval. The only weird thing was the way they turned out the lights when I started to read! I had to lean over and read standing up sideways and holding my manuscript and books under a table lamp :-) Paul is a wanderer as performer, and found being anchored to the lamp rather difficult ... He's a Northumbian 'lad' with a cheeky and cheery persona which comes through in his poetry and his performance.

I really enjoyed Colpitts and am sad to hear their funding has been withdrawn - after a healthy stint of 31 years as a poetry venue in Durham.

S.J.Litherland, known to friends as Jackie, read from her new collection The Work of the Wind (Flambard 2006) on Friday 26 May, 2006. But by that stage I was half way home to Perth by Qantas, so I can only recommend the book - if you can lay your hands on it. Maybe Google can help ...

WOW Readings Monday

Jane Cornes has kept alive the Walking On Water literary readings - and this week it opens at a new venue. Not only is it difficult to find such a venue in Perth, but when you find it it can be hard to find such a venue in Perth !!


I'll let Jane's latest email tell you the story:

Hope to see you there. Don¹t forget: Monday 5 June, 7.30 sharp. $5 waged/ $3
unwaged; open readings; three nice invited guests (poet piano accordionist
ross bolleter/musician simon nield/novelist felicity young).
Also we'll supply tea and coffee but feel free to bring drinks.
Chrs
J[ane]

Ahhh, the mud map refuses to be exposed in this medium. I'll hunt up a description ...

Here it is, courtesy of Jane Cornes:

WOW AT THE LANEWAY, PERTH CITY, MONDAY 4 JUNE 2006, 7.30-10pm

OPEN READINGS

PLUSThree fantastic performers:

Ross Bolleter
Ross is perhaps best known for his work with ruined pianos, which he rescues
and then plays. Tonight, however, he'll be sharing some of his poetry and
playing the piano accordion. Very exciting.

Simon Nield
Simon is one of my [JC's] favourite guitarists. He is a well-travelled performer
and an accomplished songwriter. Simon will share some of his original music
with us.

Our emerging writer is Felicity Young, a fine local writer who will read
from work in progress.

WOW's NEW HOME is in the city, near the corner of Murray and Pier streets.

It's an easy place to find but a difficult one to explain, so bear with me.

From the corner of Pier and Murray, walk towards the city on Murray. To your
right, opposite Miss Maud's, there's a laneway on which runs down to
Wellington Street.

There's a florist on one corner of the laneway and the Pier Street carpark
on the other. Just down the laneway a little is the Ambar nightclub. Walk
down past the nightclub until you come to the blue building on the left, no.
104B.

WOW is on the first floor, in a custom-built theatre with black curtains.
All very gothic and lovely.

Coffee and tea provided, but please feel free to bring nibbles and drinks
(and something to drink from).

We'll start at 7.30 sharp, with the usual open readers first.

Looking forward to seeing you there.




jane cornes
http://www.iinet.net.au/~jcornes

Stanley Kunitz

Stanley Kunitz (1905 - 2006) RIP

Stanley Kunitz died on Sunday, aged one hundred. I won't give you all the life story and the eulogies from the major papers - you can easily google them - but here are some quotes from Stanley Kunitz in a Paris Review interview to celebrate the life of a great modern poet:

“A poem has secrets that the poet knows nothing of.”

“From the beginning I was a subjective poet in contradiction to the dogma propounded by Eliot and his disciples that objectivity, impersonality, was the goal of art.”

“I want the energy to be concentrated in my nouns and verbs...”

“The poem in the head is always perfect. Resistance starts when you try to convert it to language.”

“Unless craft is second nature, it means nothing. Craft can point the way... but it's not to be confused with an art of transformation, the magical performance.”

“Bob Dylan couldn't have existed if Dylan Thomas hadn't existed before him.”

“Often a poem is a dream, but I don't necessarily say it is.”

“I've tried to squeeze the water out of my poems.”

“I like to use a word in a poem with its whole history dragging like a chain behind it. And then we go over the sound.”

Historic Durham Cathedral

This photo from the continuous webfeed from the Physics Dept of Durham University of the historic Durham Cathedral - recently voted the 'most popular building in Britain'. The locals brag about it daily! (Today's actual image is grey and overcast, so I went to the archives for a more interesting shot :-)

Durham County Cricket Club

Reading tomorrow night in Durham City

Colpitts Poetry Society invites you along to hear Australian poet Andrew Burke read at Alington House, 4 North Bailey, Durham City, May 12 at 8pm.

Andrew's attractive book Whispering Gallery will be available for purchase.

Peter Minter's new book through SALT

Great cover. 'Blue Grass' ... I haven't seen the book yet myself but I guarantee it won't be anything short of interesting :-)

Angel Of The North - on the road to Newcastle

I'd like to see this one fly!

Angel Of The North

I'm on the road - and seeing giant angels! I wonder did Jack K see Angels too - or boddhisatvas? This giant sculpture is on the way to Newcastle from where I am staying in Durham.Some of the locals are divided in their appreciation of the Angel - but I thought it looked quite majestic up close.

Congratulations, Jill Jones (& Cordite message)

The May issue:
JILL JONES
http://australia.poetryinternational.org/cwolk/view/27990


Congratulations, Jill!


Also...


Cordite Poetry Review seeks submissions of poetry for its 24th issue, on the theme of COMMON WEALTH. Please note the following:

1. Send email submissions only to cordite@cordite.org.au with "Common Wealth" in the subject line;
2. Please send up to five unpublished poems;
3. Include a biography;

Read our submission guidelines for further details:

http://www.cordite.org.au/submit.html

SUBMISSIONS FOR THIS ISSUE CLOSE ON MAY 31 2006.

Cordite's guest poetry editor for this issue is Claire Gaskin.

Thanks to the funding of the Australia Council for the Arts, we are able to offer the following rates of payment for Australian contributors:

POEMS: $60
REVIEWS: $50
FEATURE ARTICLES: $100
AUDIO: $30

Poneme Questions & Answer Poems

Over at the poetry email-list, Poneme, we have been playing with Question and Answer poems. Here's one from Kristin Hannaford, Heather Matthew and Tim Thorne: (Ahh, see below: this one is Kristin and Heather's whereas the next version was Tim 'cutting in' like at the old school dance ...)
Wintering



who came between?



in the end your offer was nothing, really

it was the idea of you I liked



are we repeating?



a sense that this gesture is always the same

look at our hands

if we wait here long enough it will happen again

how could they find it?



I didn’t understand it then either


do we doubt that which we see?



skin deep, a mirage

glass always a distortion

your voice accusing stop assuming

will there be a crisis?



only if we run out wine


if there is will I be safe?



you are laughing now

above the quiet drift of our lives



crystals are forming in the honey


when will the hours fade?



a turning in the outsideness of weather

vegetables thickening root


is this truly the time of yellow?

the wattle is flowering


Join us at http://lists.receptacle.org/mailman/listinfo/poneme

NEWS FLASH!

Andrew I just looked at your blog....

the one you have put up is Heather Matthew's question's Kristin Hannaford's answers But I am flattered you like it!

This one - see below - is Tim Thorne's answers and Heather Matthew's questions. Two different poems...... same questions Ahhhh. I hear the penny dropping on the tiles...... Cheers Kristin

who came between?
deep green shades of the other people.
are we repeating?
only the unimportant things.
how could they find it?
in a dry place - sand, hand or heart.
do we doubt that which we see?
no, but we used to.
will there be a crisis?
a crisis of plums at their height.
if there is will I be safe?
with fruit you will always be safe.
when will the hours fade?
in the imperceptible gap before the skin bends.
is this truly the time of yellow?
yes, but keep it a secret.