This photo of Robert Creeley's gravestone, off Ron Silliman's blog. In recent days, I've been playing Creeley reading his poems to Steve Swallow's music. It always saddens me to hear a voice of one once so alive who is now dead, but it is better I suppose than the silence of a gravestone.

Oh No

If you wander far enough
you will come to it
and when you get there
they will give you a place to sit

for yourself only, in a nice chair,
and all your friends will be there
with smiles on their faces
and they will likewise all have places.



Track One on So There, Robert Creeley (poet) and Steve Swallow (composer), with The Cikada Quartet, and Steve Kuhn on piano. Recorded August 25, 2001 at The Make Believe Ballroom, West Shokan, New York. Released by XtraWATT/12 (ECM Records GmbH). More at http://www.ecmrecords.com

You can hear pieces of tracks off this CD at http://www.legalsounds.com/download-mp3/steve-swallow-with-robert-creeley/so-there/sufi-sam-christian/song_807457

New $5,000 poetry prize - the Blake Poetry Prize

From http://www.nswwriterscentre.org.au

The Blake Poetry Prize 2008

$5,000 prize for new national poetry competition on the theme of 'Bliss, blasphemy and belief'

The NSW Writers' Centre is delighted to announce that it is joining the Blake Society, Leichhardt Municipal Council and Wet Ink magazine in sponsoring a new national poetry prize to be known as the Blake Poetry Prize, which calls for entries on the theme of 'Bliss, blasphemy and belief'.

The Chairwoman of the NSW Writers¹ Centre, Máire Sheehan,said: 'The aim of the competition is to give Australian poets another opportunity to achieve national recognition and a financial reward for their efforts.'

This new competition was made possible by the generosity of Leichhardt Municipal Council, which has a strong commitment to supporting the arts, and especially writing through the NSW Writers' Centre.

"This grant of $5,000 continues our longstanding commitment to the NSW Writers' Centre and the development of arts through the written and spoken word," Mayor of Leichhardt Council Cr Alice Murphy said.

The NSW Writers' Centre is pleased to develop this partnership with the Blake Society which awards the annual Blake Prize for Religious Art. Blake Chairman, the Reverend Rod Pattenden, said: 'This exciting new initiative links visual art and literature, and offers new possibilities for poets to explore the nature of spirituality in the twenty-first century.'

Australia's newest literary magazine Wet Ink will join the partnership by providing the judges for the competition and publishing the winner and commended entries in Wet Ink, which is distributed nationally and internationally. Co-managing Editor of Wet Ink, Dominique Wilson, said: 'We are very excited to be part of this important new prize. Wet Ink is dedicated to promoting new writers, and this prize enables us to further support emerging poets through recognising their talents and exposing their work to a broad audience, both within Australia and overseas.'

Download an entry form and conditions at the NSW Writers Centre link above.

Entries close Friday 27 June 2008
Entry fee: $15

Autumn in Perth

Poets Corner @ Pages Cafe 17 May

Note from Frances: If you haven't experienced Poets Corner @ Pages Cafe yet our next event takes place on 17th May 2007 with special guests Andrew Burke, Murry Jennings and Annamaria Weldon.

Open Mic will be at 4pm, as usual: readers welcome to register with me, Frances Macaulay Forde on the day.

Note from Andrew: It starts at 2pm, and Pages Cafe is on the ground floor of the State Library in Perth's cultural centre. Easy to get to by train; heaps of parking; walk there if you have to >g<

Gary Snyder wins Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize

CHICAGO, April 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --- Poet Gary Snyder is the winner of the 2008 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. Established in 1986 and presented annually by the Poetry Foundation, the award is one of the most prestigious given to American poets, and at $100,000 it is one of the nation's largest literary awards. Christian Wiman, editor of Poetry magazine and chair of the selection committee, made the announcement today. The prize will be presented at an evening ceremony at the Arts Club of Chicago on Thursday, May 29.

In announcing the award, Wiman said: "Gary Snyder is in essence a contemporary devotional poet, though he is not devoted to any one god or way of being so much as to Being itself. His poetry is a testament to the sacredness of the natural world and our relation to it, and a prophecy of what we stand to lose if we forget that relation."

Help the Homeless

http://www.housesforthehomeless.com.au - with every click on this site, realestate.com.au will donate $1 to Mission Australia.

There are countless people out there who don't have a roof over their head, including families with little kids shivering through our winter nights. So, click away.

Intra View

We keep waiting for something to go wrong
with the seasons. I don't think writers
should tell people what to believe
or how to behave. But something has already
gone wrong with the genres. So I let lots
of fragmentary, sometimes contradictory opinions
- as though they came from a large cast
of different characters - into the poems.
They have all bled into one another. That's
what life is like, after all. Decorum is
no longer observed. Just listen, next time
you take a bus into town. Millions
of different voices, each as important
as your own solitary whining. Isolation
and decline, fatal flaws
and falls, the throes of heroes.


(This text compiled by interweaving a paragraph from The Information by Martin Amis with the paragraph from an interview with John Tranter which I published on Tuesday. All literature is a game, of some seriousness or not.)

Creatrix - WA Poets Inc poetry online e-journal

Creatrix is the new name for our poetry online e-journal, previously known as Fresh Works, which is resuming after a short recess.

Creatrix will be published online in March, June, September and December each year.

To be considered for the June 2008 edition, your poems are to be received by Friday 23rd May 2008. All submissions to be sent by email.

We accept poetry up to 60 lines, or shorter poems preferred, open theme (no more than three poems per poet per issue). There is no guarantee your poem/s will be chosen.

At this stage, publication is for WA Poets Inc member poets only (NB FREE membership). Currently we cannot pay contributors, but your poetry will be showcased. We will accept prize winning or previously published work, with acknowledgements. Send poems as attachments either in .rtf or word .doc files.

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

The editing team for Creatrix will be Peter Jeffery, Andrew Burke and Maureen Sexton. The next edition will be edited by Maureen Sexton.

Email to The Editor with the words "online submission" in the subject line. The email address is: wapoets@yahoo.com.au.

ECU LUNCHLINES

Friday 2 May 2008

you are invited to hear

ANDREW BURKE

read poems and talk
about his recent experiences
teaching and living in
China and The Kimberley

12.30pm
Building 17 Room 219
EDITH COWAN UNIVERSITY
Mount Lawley campus

'That's what life is like' John Tranter

A quote from John Tranter during an interview with Cordite magazine http://www.cordite.org.au/:

I don't think writers should tell people what to believe or how to behave. So I let lots of fragmentary, sometimes contradictory opinions - as though they came from a large cast of different characters - into the poems. That's what life is like, after all. Just listen, next time you take a bus into town. Millions of different voices, each as important as your own solitary whining.

JOHN TRANTER http://johntranter.com/00/index.html is Editor of the exciting poetry-focused magazine, Jacket.http://jacketmagazine.com/00/home.shtml

Exciting New Anthology of Aboriginal Literature

From the publishers, Allen & Unwin:

An authoritative survey of Australian Aboriginal writing over two centuries, across a wide range of fiction and non-fiction genres. Including some of the most distinctive writing produced in Australia, it offers rich insights into Aboriginal culture and experience.

Description

A groundbreaking collection of work from some of the great Australian Aboriginal writers, the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Aboriginal Literature offers a rich panorama of over 200 years of Aboriginal culture, history and life.

From Bennelong's 1796 letter to contemporary creative writers, Anita Heiss and Peter Minter have selected work that represents the range and depth of Aboriginal writing in English. The anthology includes journalism, petitions and political letters from both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as major works that reflect the blossoming of Aboriginal poetry, prose and drama from the mid-twentieth century onwards. Literature has been used as a powerful political tool by Aboriginal people in a political system which renders them largely voiceless. These works chronicle the ongoing suffering of dispossession, but also the resilience of Aboriginal people across the country, and the hope and joy in their lives.

With some of the best, most distinctive writing produced in Australia, this anthology is invaluable for anyone interested in Aboriginal writing and culture.

This volume is extremely significant from an Indigenous cultural perspective, containing many works that afford the reader a treasured insight into the Indigenous cultural world of Australia. - From the foreword by Mick Dodson

The Macquarie PEN Anthology of Aboriginal Literature is published as part of the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature project.

Prank at the Melbourne Olympic Torch Relay

Route of the 1956 Olympic torch relay, from Cairns to Melbourne. In 1956 runners bore the Olympic flame across Australia, on a path from Cairns to Melbourne, where the summer games were to be held. But before the flame even got as far as Sydney, it had to endure a series of setbacks. Torrential rains soaked it. Burning heat almost overwhelmed the runners. The flame even went out a few times. Then in Sydney itself it encountered a situation unique in Olympic history.

Cross-country champion Harry Dillon was scheduled to bear the flame into Sydney, where he would present it to the mayor, Pat Hills. After making a short speech, Hills would pass the flame along to another runner, Bert Button.

Thirty-thousand people lined the streets of Sydney waiting for Dillon to arrive. Reporters stood ready with their cameras to record the historic occasion. Finally the runner appeared, bearing the flame aloft, and everyone began cheering. As the crowd pressed forward a police escort surrounded the runner in order to keep order.

With this escort around him, the runner made his way through the streets all the way to the Sydney Town Hall. He bounded up the steps and handed the torch to the waiting mayor who graciously accepted it and turned to begin his prepared speech.

Then someone whispered in the mayor’s ear, “That’s not the torch.” Suddenly the mayor realized what he was holding. Held proudly in his hand was not the majestic Olympic flame. Instead he was gripping a wooden chair leg topped by a plum pudding can inside of which a pair of kerosene-soaked underwear was burning with a greasy flame. The mayor looked around for the runner, but the man had already disappeared, melting away into the surrounding crowd.

The Pranksters
The identity of the rogue runner was only publicly revealed years later. It was Barry Larkin, a veterinary science student at Sydney University’s St. Johns College. He had dreamed up the prank in collusion with eight otherstudents.

Their intention was to poke fun at the torch relay because they felt it was being treated with too much reverence considering the tradition’s dubious past. It traced its origins back to the 1936 Berlin games organized by the Nazis.

Originally, Larkin was not supposed to have been the bearer of the flaming underwear. One of the other students had dressed up in white shorts and a white top, like a runner, but he panicked at the last minute and dropped the torch. Larkin, wearing a tie, picked it up and started running.

The official flame-bearer had been delayed outside of Sydney, so the crowd assumed Larkin was the real thing. Soon a police escort joined him. Larkin later recalled in an interview what the experience felt like: “The noise was quite staggering. There were flashes of photography. I felt very strange because I knew I was carrying a fake torch. The only thing I could think about was what do I do when I got there. I was helped by Pat Hills. I just turned around and walked back down the steps, through the crowd and onto a tram and back to college.”

Reaction
The mayor took the prank in good humor, but the crowd, once it realized what had happened, began to grow unruly. When the real runner arrived a few minutes later, the crowd was milling around excitedly in the street, as if stirred up by the mischief. In the crush of people, women began screaming for the safety of their children. Hills called out for calm. A police convoy had to clear a path for the flame-bearer to get through.

When the torch was passed to the next runner, Bert Button, an army truck had to clear a path to allow him to continue with the relay.

Back at his college, Larkin was given a hero’s reception. When he walked into the hall for breakfast the next morning, his fellow students gave him a standing ovation. Even the rector of the college walked up to him and said, “Well done, son.”

The fake torch was taken to a Town Hall reception, and ended up in the possession of John Lawler, a man who had been travelling with the relay in a car. He stored it for years beneath his bed, until eventually it got thrown out while tidying.


(Thanks to Brian for this item. Don't know where he got it from, sorry.)

The Olympic Walls of China

With the Olympics looming, China is pushing architecture to its limits for a giant coming-out party.

See for yourself with this series of photographs generously offered by National Geographic:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/05/china/architecture/girard-photography?email=Focus_04252008

Thanks to Mary Lyden for drawing my attention to this site.

Praise as good as Cash for Brain

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Paying people a compliment appears to activate the same reward center in the brain as paying them cash, Japanese researchers said on Wednesday.

They said the study offers scientific support for the long-held assumption that people get a psychological boost from having a good reputation.

"We found that these seemingly different kinds of rewards -- a good reputation versus money -- are biologically coded by the same neural structure, the striatum," said Dr. Norihiro Sadato of the Japanese National Institute for Physiological Sciences in Okazaki, Japan.

(...)

So, praise someone today! It'll do them the world of good ...

A Melbourne Dawn

Photo by my cousin Mary Lyden. May the sun shine on you too. (That's my 2020 contribution ...)

Snap: Wednesday Workshop at Tom Collins House

daylight rushes in
pushes me out of bed

i listen to Van the Man
as i drive through traffic
lumpy at the intersections

to park on crushed leaves
by the old writer's cottage

what Furphy found barely a home
we maintain as monument
only an ocean in the backyard
and no chickens pecking
in the shade of melon hill

'what's wrong with this picture?
I'm living in a different time ...
Baby, don't you understand,
I left all that jive behind ...'

here i am telling all i know
just pay at the door
some poets worth their salt
retain a duty to be poor

Write for HarperCollins - but for nothing ...

This is the deal, and I'm not too sure I support the idea. I leave it up to you - Here's their pitch on their website http://www.harpercollins.com/Members/FirstLook/index.aspx

Join the HarperCollins First Look program to preview books in literary fiction, general fiction, suspense, biography, cookbooks, and other genres, for readers who make a difference – like you!

Each month, Advance Reading Editions (AREs) of great books by fabulous authors are offered that you will have the opportunity to review. Reviewers are selected at random, but you must register to be eligible. In joining the program you may select your favorite genres and we will let you know when a book in your preferred category is offered.

COTTONMOUTH Correspondence

I am passing this on for the organisers:

Cottonmouth is a new spoken word narrative art project coming out of Perth, Western Australia. In an attempt to break out from the isolation of this far flung city, Cottonmouth has adopted a very unique format - it is part performance night, part publicaiton, part podcast. This means that Cottonmouth has, at its heart, a national perspective. Therefore, it is looking for national content for its zine, COTTTONMOUTH. This zine is now open for submissions. There are a few simple guidelines:

- submit two poems of no more than 60 lines each.

- submit four smaller poems if they are no more than 15 lines each.

- submit ficition or non fiction of no more than 1200 words max.

- submit up to four illustrations in black and white, 300dpi and suitable for publication.

- ALL WORK must be accompanied with a 50 word bio. please remember to include weblinks in your bios if you wish to draw readers attention to your work online.

- each piece submitted must be in a separate attachment.

- bio can appear in body of email but must also appear as separate attachment also.

- rtfs, word documents and jpegs are preferred form of attachment.

- please include postal address if you wish to receive a copy of the zine and you're unable to attend COTTONMOUTH, which occurs on the second thursday of every month at the rosemount hotel's bar 459 on the corner of fitzgerald and angove streets in north perth.

- please email all work to info@cottonmouth.org.au and remember that this is a monthly publication, so work may appear in one or two issues depending.

Thank you for your time. For more information please visit www.cottonmouth.org.au and check out readings from previous nights, videos of performers and the unique body of work that is our Pegline Project.

Short lists announced for $50,000 Griffin Poetry Prizes

The Canadian Press
Published Saturday April 12th, 2008

TORONTO - Simon Fraser University professor emeritus Robin Blaser, considered to be one of North America's most outstanding poets of the postwar period, is in the running for the Griffin Poetry Prize.

Now in its eighth year, the prize awards $50,000 to the best book of Canadian poetry and $50,000 to the best book of international poetry published in English the preceding year.

Blaser made the Canadian short list, announced this week in Toronto, for The Holy Forest: Collected Poems of Robin Blaser (University of California Press).

Montreal writer Robert Majzels and Calgary-born poet Erin Moure made the list for their English translation of Notebook of Roses and Civilization (Coach House Books). The book is by Montreal poet and novelist Nicole Brossard.

Rounding out the Canadian short list is Toronto author David McFadden for Why Are You So Sad? Selected Poems of David W. McFadden (Insomniac Press/4 a.m. Books).

Four books are on the international shortlist: Notes From the Air: Selected Later Poems from John Ashbery (HarperCollins Publishers/Ecco); Elaine Equi's Ripple Effect: New and Selected Poems (Coffee House Press); The Complete Poetry: A Bilingual Edition, by Clayton Eshleman, translated from the Spanish, written by Cesar Vallejo (University of California Press); and Selected Poems 1969-2005 from David Harsent (Faber and Faber).

from The London Review of Books ...

The Land East of the Asterisk by
Wendy Doniger reviewing
Indo-European Poetry and Myth by M.L. West

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v30/n07/doni01_.html

2008 Pulitzer Prize 'Special Citation': Bob Dylan

Go to http://www.pulitzer.org/year/2008/special-citation/bio/ if you want all the information, but, personally, I just went to the CD player and let him loose for a while. 'If dogs run free, then why don't we?'

Interesting review of John Kinsella's book of poems, Shades of the Sublime And Beautiful (Picador). Is it his latest? I don't know.

Go to http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/poetry/0,,2271115,00.html

From the Washington Post's Poet's Choice column

photo © Star Black









In "Proofs and Theories", [Louise Gluck's] book of essays on poetry, she explains, "I do not think that more information always makes a richer poem. I am attracted to ellipsis, to the unsaid, to suggestion. ... "

Me too.

Quote for Someday

Tradition and progress are the two great enemies of the human race.
- Paul Valery


Thanks to David Bircumchaw for this one.

Measure for Measure - How-to-Write-a-Song Blog

The New York Times has created a blog with successfull contemporary songwriters passing on hints about how to write songs. Now, that's a great idea. Us humble wordsmiths out here in hicksville would love to have some idea how to write a chartbuster, right! So here's your chance to hear the tricks that work straight from the probably-often-hoarse mouth: http://measureformeasure.blogs.nytimes.com/?ex=1222574400&en=d07a298be1751724&ei=5087?excamp=NYT-E-I-NYT-E-AT-0402-L10&WT.mc_ev=click&WT.mc_id=+NYT-E-I-NYT-E-AT-0402-L10

Two notable contributors ...

Rosanne Cash is a Grammy award-winning artist who has released 14 albums, most recently "Black Cadillac" (2006), and 11 No. 1 singles. She is also the author of a short-story collection, "Bodies of Water" and a children's book, "Penelope Jane: A Fairy's Tale." Her essays and fiction have appeared in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and other publications. She is currently working on a new recording and a book of non-fiction to be published by Viking this year. Ms. Cash's collaborator here is Joe Henry, whose 10th album, "Civilians," was released last year. Her Web site is http://www.rosannecash.com.

Suzanne Vega, (photo above) a singer and songwriter whose success in the 1980s helped establish the acoustic folk-pop movement, has released eight albums, including the platinum-selling "Solitude Standing" (1987) with the hit single, "Luka," and the 2007 recording, "Beauty and Crime" on Blue Note Records. She is also the author of a book of poetry and was a host of the public radio series "American Mavericks." Her Web site is http://www.suzannevega.com.

James Fei - not for the faint hearted!

Challenging music at http://www.jamesfei.com/

Les Murray at Andrew and Beate Taylor's house

Les Murray was visiting Perth last Friday to launch Indigo 2, a vibrant new literary magazine, edited by Donna Ward. On Saturday, Andrew and Beate Taylor had us over for lunch. The photos above show Jeanette Burke and Les Murray, Les Murray and Andrew Lansdown, myself and Donna, Beate and beautiful tart, Andrew Taylor and myself.

Friendly Street Poets Inc. Japanese Poetry Competition

Friendly Street Poets Inc are running a Japanese Poetry Contest. The haiku section is restricted to residents of South Australia, but the haibun and haiku sequence sections are open to all.

Closing date is May 6th 2008.

For further details and an entry form visit http://friendlystreetpoets.org.au

Alice Notley wins Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize

The Nation has reported the annual prize for best poetry book in USA has gone to Alice Notley for her book Grave of Light: New and Selected Poems 1970-2005. The article finishes on this note:

[Alice Notley] is a moving speaker; her voice is the voice of the text as a breath of fresh air, awash with movement, the currents of keeping going. Connection of bits of data is not direct. But it is present, like the white stones of Hansel and Gretel gleaming in the forest dark. She's centered by a voice heard and overheard, an inner counsel she always follows, "don't think/you're a poet write a poem for chrissakes."


It is a fine article, available at http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080407/ponsot

Tibetan Author under House Arrest in Beijing

Saturday, 22 March , 2008, 11:15

Beijing: Tibetan author Tsering Woeser and her Chinese husband and fellow author, Wang Lixiong, have been placed under house arrest in Beijing since the outbreak of anti-Chinese protests in Tibet.

"Whatever movements we plan to make, we must first ask for approval," Wang told the US-sponsored Radio Free Asia. "Only when it's approved by higher-ups can we make a move under surveillance."

He had previously been a focus for Chinese authorities, but now the focus has shifted to his wife, who declined to be interviewed for fear of repercussions.

Tsering Woeser, 40, has written 10 books, including two on China's Cultural Revolution. Most of her work has been banned inside China. Her blog was blocked by authorities last year after she published a photo of the Dalai Lama.

The couple regularly makes contributions to Radio Free Asia's Chinese programme.

Les Murray in conversation with Frank Sheehan

at the launch of

indigo journal volume 2

Friday 28 March at 7:30pm

Christchurch Chapel

Queenslea Dr, Claremont



****************************************************

Readings From Indigo

@ Walking on Water



Monday evening 7th April 7:30pm.

104b The Laneway, Perth City.

(Near the corner of Murray and Pier streets
laneway is almost opposite Miss Maud's)



***************************************************************

indigo movie night

The Painted Veil—Sneak Preview!!

Sunday 20 April 6:15pm

Windsor Cinema Nedlands

Tickets $15

Ring Rosie 9335 3736 or email dwcontac@bigpond.net.au

To be sure of a seat send cheque/postal order by last post 16 April
made out to Out of the Asylum Writers’ Group.
Mark the envelope:
The Painted Veil,
PO Box 142,
Fremantle 6959.

Include SSAE so they can send your tickets.


More information at www.indigojournal.org.au

Bob Marcacci and Sheila Murphy reviewed

Interesting poetry review site over at Galatea Resurrects has two reviews of friends of mine:
http://galatearesurrection9.blogspot.com/2008/03/imagining-baby-by-bob-marcacci.html

and

http://galatearesurrection9.blogspot.com/2008/03/skinny-buddha-by-sheila-e-murphy.html

Enjoy.

Arthur C. Clarke - His future is now.

Photo: Arthur C. Clarke at age 84, reading in his home in Colombo, Sri Lanka (Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi/Reuters)


Arthur C. Clarke, author of science fiction novels such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, has died at age 90.

An assistant announced the author's death on Tuesday in Sri Lanka. The British-born Clarke had been living in Colombo for many years.

He was the author of more than 100 books but Hollywood adaptations of his books 2001: A Space Odyssey and 2010 made him into a household name.

Along with Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlen and Frank Herbert, Clarke is regarded as one of science-fiction's most important figures.

Liar

Swept overboard, unconscious in the breakers,
strangled with seaweed, may you wake up in a gelid
surf, your teeth, already cracked into the shingle
now set rattling by the wind, while facedown,
helpless as a poison cur, on all fours, you puke
brine reeking of dead fish. May those you meet,
barbarians as ugly as their souls are hateful,
treat you to the moldy wooden bread of slaves.
And may you, with your split teeth sunk in that,
smile, then, the way you did when speaking as my friend.

Archilochos



This poem can be found in Dances for Flute and Thunder: From the Ancient Greek, translated by Brooks Haxton. Viking. Copyright 1999 by Brooks Haxton.

Easter is a-comin' in / Merrily sing chick-chick

Happy St Patrick's Day to all!

The Rocky Road to Dublin

In the merry month of May, From my home I started,
Left the girls of Tuam, Nearly broken hearted,
Saluted father dear, Kissed my darlin' mother,
Drank a pint of beer, My grief and tears to smother,
Then off to reap the corn, And leave where I was born,
I cut a stout blackthorn, To banish ghost and goblin,
In a brand new pair of brogues, I rattled o'er the bogs,
And frightened all the dogs,On the rocky road to Dublin.

One, two, three, four five,
Hunt the hare and turn her
Down the rocky road
And all the ways to Dublin,
Whack-fol-lol-de-ra.

In Mullingar that night, I rested limbs so weary,
Started by daylight, Next mornin' light and airy,
Took a drop of the pure, To keep my heart from sinkin',
That's an Irishman's cure, Whene'er he's on for drinking.
To see the lasses smile, Laughing all the while,
At my curious style, 'Twould set your heart a-bubblin'.
They ax'd if I was hired, The wages I required,
Till I was almost tired, Of the rocky road to Dublin.

In Dublin next arrived, I thought it such a pity,
To be so soon deprived, A view of that fine city.
Then I took a stroll, All among the quality,
My bundle it was stole, In a neat locality;
Something crossed my mind, Then I looked behind;
No bundle could I find, Upon my stick a wobblin'.
Enquirin' for the rogue, They said my Connacht brogue,
Wasn't much in vogue, On the rocky road to Dublin.

From there I got away, My spirits never failin'
Landed on the quay As the ship was sailin';
Captain at me roared, Said that no room had he,
When I jumped aboard, A cabin found for Paddy,
Down among the pigs I played some funny rigs,
Danced some hearty jigs, The water round me bubblin',
When off Holyhead, I wished myself was dead,
Or better far instead, On the rocky road to Dublin.

The boys of Liverpool, When we safely landed,
Called myself a fool; I could no longer stand it;
Blood began to boil, Temper I was losin',
Poor ould Erin's isle They began abusin',
"Hurrah my soul," sez I, My shillelagh I let fly;
Some Galway boys were by, Saw I was a hobble in,
Then with a loud hurray, They joined in the affray.
We quickly cleared the way, For the rocky road to Dublin.


Thank you to Max Richards for the lyrics and the site address.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxBKgOyMzSc

The Wife of Bath and Other Gems

The Telegraph newspaper, in United Kingdom, has a week-long series on classic English poets: Chaucer, Milton, Shelley and Rosetti. A worthy quartet indeed. If you would like to see what it says, go to http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/03/10/bopoetschaucer110.xml

Quote of the Day (It ain't necessarily so ...)

In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite.
- Paul Dirac

Thanks, Del.

Another great site for the story below re: Whalen and Rexroth

Thank you to the Bureau of Public Secrets for this site: http://www.bopsecrets.org/rexroth/essays/whalen.htm

Kenneth Rexroth, Michael McClure, Robert Duncan, Philip Whalen, Dave Haselwood and James Broughton, 1957 in Palo Alto - from http://www.poetrysociety.org/journal/articles/poetsonpoets_02fl.html

A Vision of the Bodhisattvas
(occasional drifts in formatting, for which I apologise but can't correct)

They pass before me one by one riding on animals
"What are you waiting for," they want to know

Z—, young as he is (& mad into the bargain) tells me
"Some day you'll drop everything & become a rishi, you know."

I know
The forest is there, I've lived in it
more certainly than this town? Irrelevant—

What am I waiting for?
A change in customs that will take 1000 years to come about?
Who's to make the change but me?

"Returning again and again," Amida says

Why's that dream so necessary? walking out of whatever house
alone
Nothing but the clothes on my back, money or no
Down the road to the next place the highway leading to the
mountains
From which I absolutely must come back

What business have I to do that?
I know the world and I love it too much and it
Is not the one I'd find outside this door

31:iii:60
— Philip Whalen

Reprinted from Canoeing up Cabarga Creek: Buddhist Poems 1955-1986 (1996) by Philip Whalen, with permission of Parallax Press, Berkeley, California, www.parallax.org

Unusual Easter Time - the facts

Easter this year is: Sunday March 23, 2008

As you may know, Easter is always the 1st Sunday after
the 1st full moon after the Spring Equinox (which is March 20).
This dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar
that Hebrew people used to identify Passover, which is
why it moves around on our Roman calendar.

Based on the above, Easter can actually be one day
earlier (March 22) but that is pretty rare. This year
is the earliest Easter any of us will ever
see the rest of our lives! And only the most elderly
of our population have ever seen it this early (95
years old or above!). And none of us have ever, or
will ever, see it a day earlier! Here are the facts:

The next time Easter will be this early (March 23)
will be the year 2228 (220 years from now). The last
time it was this early was 1913 (so if you're 95 or
older, you are the only ones that were around for
that!).

The next time it will be a day earlier, March 22, will
be in the year 2285 (277 years from now). The last
time it was on March 22 was 1818. So, no one alive
today has or will ever see it any earlier than this
year!


Thanks, Del, for this information.

Yungang’s treasure

Since I lived in Linfen (cough, cough) I've kept up with news of that grotty city with a Google Alert. There is a better spin on the province at http://thestar.com.my/columnists/story.asp?file=/2008/3/12/columnists/ziyingbrush/20581640&sec=Ziying's%20Brush

ZIYING'S BRUSH

Shanxi’s Yungang grottoes are renowned for some of the finest Buddhist carvings in China.

WHENEVER China’s coal-rich Shanxi province is in the news, it is usually for the wrong reasons.

Grim images of the darkened skies and soot-covered streets of Linfen, a coal-mining centre in the southern part of the province, have been featured repeatedly in various international media.

INDIGO 2 Launch Invitation

Out of the Asylum Writers' Group
with Christchurch Grammar
Centre for Ethics

presents

Frank Sheehan in conversation with Les Murray


Friday 28 March at 7:30pm
Christchurch Chapel
Queenslea Drive Claremont


RSVP Friday14 March
email: dwcontac@bigpond.net.au
or call 9335 3736



The Lane Bookshop will be on hand to sell indigo for $25

Beatnik Questionnaire, copyright 1960, Gimmix Novelties, White Plains, N.Y. (Harry Ransom Center)

Free Penguins at Planet Books!

Your friendly bookseller offers you:

Penguin have given PLANET BOOKS a couple of boxes of Penguin 70s (small books by
authors including Dave Eggers, Will Self, Anthony Beevor, WG Sebald...)

They are giving one away with every purchase while stocks last!

PLANET BOOKS
636-638 Beaufort Street
MOUNT LAWLEY WA 6050
phone 08 9328 7464

Australian Archibald Prize for Portraiture goes to ...

Sydney artist Del Kathryn Barton has been announced as this year's Archibald Prize winner.

Barton's self-portrait You Are What Is Most Beautiful About Me also depicts her two children - Kell and Arella.

PEN Petition to Free Chinese Writers

PEN America
is trying to get China
to free nearly 40 writers
rounded up in advance of
this year’s Olympics

World-renowned writers from China and North America marked International Human Rights Day by launching We Are Ready for Freedom of Expression, a campaign that challenges the Chinese government to release all the writers and journalists it is holding in prisons before the August 8, 2008 opening of the Olympic Games. Noted Chinese authors Liu Xiaobo and Zheng Yi were among those joining international counterparts including Margaret Atwood, Francine Prose, and Salman Rushdie in issuing the challenge on behalf of PEN.

You can help:

Sign the petition to the Chinese government

Sign the petition to the U.S. Congress

Sign up to receive updates & breaking campaign news

Information on 38 currently imprisoned writers
(plus four others already released)
with actions you can take
to help each
are on the Penn American Center site!

http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/1527

If you're into Pantoums ...

go to http://poetry.about.com/b/2008/03/05/mcsweeneys-quarterly-seeking-pantoums.htm

Invitation to view Poneme's blog

I've been on the poetry list Poneme for some years, through its various manifestations, and now it has sprouted wings: yes, it has its own blog. Your welcome to view http://poneme.blogspot.com/

A slightly different Hope and Sandals is on there now - latest edit prompted by Frederick Pollack , so thank you Fred. I do listen to other poets, you know >g<

Hope and Sandals (revised)

shuffling yours and hours
you come to a sudden cliff
hot autumn winds make nerves
jumpy and skin erupt

take the easy way out
and lie down or
walk to the letterbox
in hope and sandals

today's snail dries out
in the letterbox oven as
the driveway burns your feet
no news or cheques

no matter tonight
is the third episode of
that gangland series
just the ticket to

take your mind off

PoemTalk - Podcasts worth hearing

sponsored by
the Poetry Foundation | the Kelly Writers House | & PennSound

readings by the poets and close readings of the poems by critics and poets.
Featured already are William Carlos Williams, Adrienne Rich, George Oppen and Ginsberg chanting Blake


I hope you enjoy -
http://poemtalkatkwh.blogspot.com/2007/10/broken-pieces.html

In Hope and Sandals

shuffling yours and hours
you come to a sudden cliff
hot autumn winds make nerves
jumpy and skin erupt

take the easy way out
and lie down or
walk to the letterbox
in hope and sandals

today's snail has dried out
and the letterbox yawns
as the driveway burns your feet
no news or cheques

no matter tonight
is the third episode of
that gangland series
just the ticket

pitched passed grief
days are marked off
as liquidity balances
book after book

Poems: Philip Whalen; Photos: Aram Saroyan

http://www.bigbridge.org/AS-CH.HTM

Beautiful series of photographs taken early in his life by poet Aram Saroyan, and then added to by poet Philip Whalen. A wonderful series full of wit and humanity.

Quote of the Day

The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.

- George Orwell


Thanks, Del, for this one.

Quote of the Day

Everywhere I go I find that a poet has been there before me.
Sigmund Freud

CORSO - The Last Beat

http://www.corsothefilm.com/index.php

New Writing Courses

Creative Writing Course @ FAWWA

New Creative Writing course starting in Swanbourne at Tom
Collins House 5 March - continuous every Wednesday from 10am to Noon.

10 weeks for $150 or $20 per session.

Tutor: Dr Andrew Burke, author, poet, lecturer.

Venue: Historic TOM COLLINS HOUSE, Wood Street, Swanbourne - in the
bush beside Allen Park, at the base of Melon Hill.

Information and bookings via admin@fawwa.org.au

I'll be starting from scratch.

I will teach techniques which cover -
accessing your own creativity,
prose writing for stories and novels,
and various poetry styles.

And fun and laughter are guaranteed >g<

*

Write Your Life Story
New Writing Workshop
starting Tuesday, March 11, 2008
at Bassendean Library
46 Old Perth Road,
Bassendean 6054

WRITE YOUR LIFE STORY

with your highly experienced
group leader and mentor
ANDREW BURKE

For ten weeks, each Tuesday from
10am to Noon
in the library meeting room,
you can learn techniques how best
to research and write the story
of your life. Sharing with
others in the group makes this
a joyful and life-enriching activity.

Cost? $5 for the complete course.

For enquiries, phone 9279 2966 or
email baslib@bassendean.wa.gov.au



Please pass this on to friends and any groups you think may be interested.

Save the Whales

Save the Whales at www.whalesrevenge.com Sign the petition and play the game (there really is one).

You can't think and play at the same time ...

"JW: When you put your horn in your mouth to play, what's going through your mind?

"SR: When I was a boy practicing the alto sax in my bedroom or in the closet or someplace else in my house, I would sort of do what I do now, which is go into a stream-of-consciousness state. This is what I do today when I’m soloing in a concert setting. I go into this neutral mental state. To create, my mind has to be blank. I may think of a few things at the beginning to get started. But when I really get into a solo, my mind is completely blank. You can’t think and play at the same time. It comes too fast."

Sonny Rollins interviewed on jazzwax, a dedicated blog, but here broadcast at http://fatherbrownatleisure.blogspot.com/2008/02/sonny-rollins-legendary-jazz-soloist.html

Bill Manhire in The Age

Here's a direct quote from Bill Manhire about how a poem starts, a question asked at Lucy Dougan's book launch today of herself and Fay Zwicky:

'The great pleasure, for Manhire, comes from how poetry mines the imagination. "One of the truisms of writing is that you have to show a little respect for your own ignorance rather than start off as a know-all . . . writing what you don't know is at least as important as writing what you know. The whole business of surprise as you write is the great joy."
Often he will just sit down and scribble words for several pages, "until suddenly you just bump into this very strange phrase that you couldn't have anticipated and that is charged with all sorts of resonance, so you chase on after what that phrase suggests and suddenly you are in the territory of what you don't know; that unmapped space".

Or he will start with some sort of trigger, "often just the music of a phrase and I will let that generate what it can - cadence, image, mood, tone or voice - before I find my way to meaning. I want to bump into meaning rather than assert it from the very beginning". '


This and more at http://www.theage.com.au/news/books/the-accidental-poet/2008/02/22/1203467295623.html

A Sorry lot ...

Another grand entertaining satirical moment at http://media.theaustralian.news.com.au/nich/20080222_sorry_lot.htm

Dialogue Sonnet

First, do you mind if I record this as we speak? No,
of course not. Okay then, let’s salivate together.
Reaganite goo has spread itself all over this primary
season, don’t you agree? Well, one might say so,

but it’s early in the century, and the campaign will drag
on for months and months if not years and years. We
will all come to regret our first thoughts, our early
prognostications. Progressive enervation, eh?

Yep, right here in Enervation Nation. Don’t you find
all of this . . . well, shall we say a little Mozartean?
To be sure. But left hands barely hear what the right
hands are doing. Robbing St. Peter to pay St. Paul, eh?

Just so. Thanks for coming in today. One last thought
for our listeners? Just one: Beware the blowflies of fame.




Halvard Johnson

Quote of the Day

"The trouble with words is that you never know whose mouths they've been in."
--Dennis Potter




Thank you, Halvard Johnson, for this delicious quote.

WOW Reading 7.30pm Monday 3 March

Jane Cornes is the coordinator and motivator behind Perth's vibrant city literature readings, Walking On Water - aka WOW. Here is her publicity for next month's event:

Yes, it IS a long weekend and yes, we WILL be having WOW as usual!

Our invited reader is MURRAY JENNINGS, who will read from his just-published book of poetry, "Flash Company".

Given WOW's new format of occasional invited readers and a focus on our own work, please do bring along something/s to share, to a strict maximum of five minutes.

Where: The Laneway, between Murray & Wellington Streets (almost across the road from Miss Maud's)
When: Monday 3 March 2008
Time: 7.30pm
Bring: Your own mug.
Tea and coffee supplied. Biscuits appreciated.
$5 waged/$ unwaged

WOW is a not for profit organisation. We are not funded and all door monies go towards the rent.

Robbe-Grillet RIP

At 85 ...

Creative Writing Course @ FAWWA

New Creative Writing course starting in Swanbourne at Tom
Collins House 5 March - continuous every Wednesday from 10am to Noon.

10 weeks for $150 or $20 per session.

Tutor: Dr Andrew Burke, author, poet, lecturer.

Venue: Historic TOM COLLINS HOUSE, Wood Street, Swanbourne - in the
bush beside Allen Park, at the base of Melon Hill.

Information and bookings via admin@fawwa.org.au

I'll be starting from scratch unless all participants at the first
session are somewhat experienced writers :-)

I will teach techniques which cover -
accessing your own creativity,
prose writing for stories and novels,
and various poetry styles and 'fashionable hijinks'.

And fun and laughter are guaranteed >g<

Lucy Dougan's launch at the Dolphin

The Giramondo Publishing Company
warmly invites you
to the launch of the new
poetry collection by

LUCY DOUGAN

WHITE CLAY

to be launched by
Fay Zwicky

on Saturday 23 February
12.30pm
Perth Writers'Festival
Dolphim Theatre,
University of Western Australia

More information on (08) 6488 5555

Why did the chicken cross the road?

A friend just sent me a very funny 'joke' - replies to the age-old question Why did the chicken cross the road? answered by Dr Phil, George Bush, Oprah, Einstein, etc. My favourite was this:

ERNEST HEMINGWAY : To die in the rain. Alone.


You have to be into Hemingway to appreciate it, but I loved it. The others were mainly obvious - this one was subtle. Well, a little ...

Wednesday & Thursday snap(s)

Every Wednesday
they string-up
lines

all across
suburban skies
four black lines

before the blue
of a startling
clear sky

then birds come -
lorikeets to crows -
to perch and

meditate


*


Thursday evening on dry earth
by the wetlands
bright orange-striped wasp
and greyhaired spider
fight on the run
wasp dragging reverse
spider's legs leaping
dry brown
blades

They move
jerkily over dry grass
like a toddler’s crazy writing
on scrap paper

I stare and can’t tell
who drags who pushes
the thought comes to me
I am standing like
my childhood self
staring at the ground
as the world went by

18 weeks 3D scan -

Meet my next grandkid. Doesn't he look like his father! He or she will be the third child of my eldest son Miles and my daughter-in-law Meredith. Congratulations!

Write Your Life Story

New Writing Workshop
starting Tuesday, March 11, 2008
at Bassendean Library
46 Old Perth Road,
Bassendean 6054

WRITE YOUR LIFE STORY

with your highly experienced
group leader and mentor
ANDREW BURKE

For ten weeks, each Tuesday from
10am to Noon
in the library meeting room,
you can learn techniques how best
to research and write the story
of your life. Sharing with
others in the group makes this
a joyful and life-enriching activity.

Cost? $5 for the complete course.

For enquiries, phone 9279 2966 or
email baslib@bassendean.wa.gov.au



Please pass this on to friends and any groups you think may be interested.

Tuesday Snap

This is definitely a first draft, so feel free to comment. And if the commenting panel bugs you, email me at burkeandre(at)gmail(dot)com


Tuesday morning wind
has blown the birds away
and plants sweep
the garden back
and forth.

He is inside his head
as usual
wind whistling in one ear
the other leeward
and nostalgic for

childhood holiday camps
by the Indian Ocean
dogs’ ears pinned back
all eyes
on the horizon.

He leans
and turns the hose off
hand over hand
he wends it around
the half wheel rim
screwed to the porch.

POETS CORNER THIS SATURDAY @ PAGES CAFE

February 16th 2008
http://www.poetscornerwa.com/PoetsCornerFeb08.html

Vivienne Glance ~ guest-hosting the event with poetic humour, word play and some verbal seduction.

With her invited guests:
Anti-poet allan boyd ~ well known for his dynamic, cutting and cutting-edge spoken word artistry

Nandi Chinna ~ her subtle imagery and sharp observations blend with the gentle sounds of musician Danna Stevenson

Dosh Luckwell ~ State Final runner-up and teller of tales dark and mysterious.

The usual OPEN MIC @ 4pm

Come along and support West Australian poets!

Entry is free but purchase a coffee if you can to support out generous sponsors,
PAGES CAFE and the State Library of WA.

POETS CORNER @ PAGES CAFE
2pm Saturday, 16th February 2008
State Library of WA, Alexander Building ,
Perth Cultural Centre,
(across the bridge from the Wellington Street Train Station)

For more information contact Frances Macaulay Forde: poetscornerwa@yahoo.com.au

Mawson's Hut at Cape Denison, Commonwealth Bay

My cousin Mary Lyden went down south recently, wayyyyy down south, and took some great snaps. Here are a couple of Mawson's hut at Cape Denison - I will try to right that second photo so all his stocks don't fall out into the snow.

A Monday Snap

Monday means nothing
in China where
you work seven days a week.

Monday means nothing
much when
you're unemployed
in Australia.

This Monday I bring
the washing in from
Sunday and wake my wife
late.

Monday's mudlarks play
flying leapfrog over bins
out for collection
on brown summer verges

Hemingway's Honolulu Honeymoon

Ernest Hemingway with Martha Gellhorn on their honeymoon in Honolulu in 1940.

More about Hemingway's play writing and a letter on the subject, plus a great photo of him in the Spanish Civil War, at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/10/theater/10mcgr.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Hangzhou - West Lake in winter

This winter has been most extreme in China, as no doubt you have seen reported in the media. Here's a photo from Reuters of the beautiful West Lake in Hangzhou aboslutely snowed under. We have been told it has frozen over, which would be an amazing sight.

Perth city

After all my talk in recent times of snakes and kangaroos and such, readers outside of Australia may have a rather rural view of what Perth looks like. THis photo was on The West Australian Newspaper's website yesterday, so I've borrowed it to show you this is a thriving metropolis, with its own skyscraper skyline and traffic problems. We are part of the modern Western world, but we are situated on the buttocks of Asia. The NYSX influences our finances on a daily basis, but we trade most fruitfully with China and Japan. The snakes and kangaroos and all our wildlife (koala bears, frill-necked lizards, etc) are mainly way outside the city environs, although we do have wildlife parks for tourists and visitors to see in the outer suburbs.

We have a thriving cultural society, with many writers and artists of renown living and working here, plus musicians from pop to classical. In fact, when it comes to jazz and pop and blues, we excell.

Rain ... at last!

This report from local newspaper, The West Australian:

Record rain brings relief

7th February 2008, 11:45 WST


Perth has recorded its wettest February in 16 years.

The deluge dumped 31.8mm on the city in just six hours causing traffic chaos and bringing relief to gardens and residents across the city.

But the much awaited cooler conditions are not expected to last with a return to stiffling heat expected tomorrow.

The record for February, for 1992, sits at 131mm.

Bureau spokesman John Relf said the difference between the weather out look from yesterday to today was "unbelievable".

“Everything has changed in the past 24 hours,” he said.

“What a difference a day can make, yesterday there was nothing.”

Perth has also exceeded its 35mm summer average to so far record 49.8mm since the beginning of December that included a 48 day run without any rain.

Quote of the Day

Lawrence Clark Powell - "Write to be understood, speak to be heard, read to grow."

'Write to be understood' - someday. So many authors of genius write before their audience catches up with them - Joyce and Beckett in modern (and post-modern) times. Limiting yourself to write for instant understanding can be exactly that: limiting. John Ashbery once said words to the effect that he wrote what he didn't already know - 'Why write what you already know?' was his point of view. Often I write and I didn't know until I read it what I already knew.

Caroline Caddy shortlisted for Adelaide Writers' Festival award

This lifted entire from Fremantle Press blog:

Caroline Caddy's latest collection of poetry, Esperance: new and selected poems, was shortlisted for the prestigious John Bray Poetry Award worth $15,000 this week. The Award will be announced at the Adelaide Writers' Festival on Sunday 2 March.

Caroline Caddy was born in Perth, Western Australia, in 1944 and spent her childhood in the United States and Japan. Since then, she has lived much of her life in Western Australia, raised two children, published seven books of poetry, received national and state fellowships for creative writing, and won the WA Week Literary Award for Poetry and the National Book Council’s Banjo Award in 1992. Her work has been broadcast on ABC Radio National and appeared in numerous literary magazines and anthologies.

Fellow poets up for the John Bray Poetry Prize include Ken Bolton, John Tranter, Claire Gaskin, J. S. Harry and Geoff Page.

Praise for Caroline Caddy
... a master poet with a style and panache all her own - Andrew Burke, West Australian

The poetry is full of words in action and action in words... the sense of an educated sensibility responding to the sensuous universe - Graham Rowlands, Overland

Caddy is at her most stunning when she describes what she's seeing around her - Nikki Gemmell, Quadrant

Haiku for Today

Ron Sims, freelance radio producer, sculptor and friend, dropped by today to record an interview about haiku and to take some haiku away for recording by illustrious acting talent such as my other old buddy Peter Holland. Six degrees? Nah, less'n that in this town. This is all for a future Poetica ABC radio programme - to go to air sometime in the future. I'll no doubt advertise it before hand here on Hispirits.

Anyway, long story short, I had to dig out my haiku from various corners of my poetry files on about three different computers (travel broadens the confusion) and some I found needed attention. Here's one that was a badly written thought until last night. Now, I'm happy with it:

orientation week:
they read each other's
t-shirts

Cottonmouth

Cottonmouth is a performance-based project by and for emerging wordsmiths. Held monthly, Cottonmouth #1 will feature Vivienne Glance, Jay Pruyn, Gabby Everall, Mathas, Benedict Moleta, Kevin Gillam and others. There is a limited open mic spot. Cottonmouth will also feature a national podcast and monthly publication.
Thursday February 7 2008, 7 – 11pm
Bar 459 @ The Rosemount Hotel
$5
For more information visit www.cottonmouth.org.au or make media enquiries by contacting Sean Wilson on 0402 785 592.

Why Does It Still Take So Long To Publish A Book?

Read all about it at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/03/books/review/Donadio-t.html

Maybe you have to sign up - I don't know. I've already signed up some time ago to the New York Times so now it is all easier to access.

PressPress Chapbook Award 2008

Caption: Chris Mansell, publisher, trying to sell a camel driver a chapbook at Sakara

The PressPress Chapbook Award is for an unpublished chapbook length manuscript of poems. The winning manuscript will receive $300 and chapbook publication with PressPress. The Award will be announced in July 2008 on the site.

Conditions of entry

1. The manuscript should be an original poetry of chapbook length (ie 20 to 40 pages). It must be unpublished and not on offer to another publisher in Australia or elsewhere (except that individual poems can be already taken or on offer to journals, sites or anthologies where you keep the copyright).

2. The Award will be made to the best overall chapbook received. PressPress reserves the right not to make an award if the standard of submitted entries is insufficient or to split an Award.

3. The Award will be judged by the PressPress Award panel: the decision will be final and no correspondence will be entered.

4. The Award, $300 (AUD) and publication of the manuscript as a PressPress chapbook, will be announced on the PressPress site in July 2008. The final content of the winning chapbook will be negotiated with PressPress editors.

5. The author's name and address must appear on the entry form but not on the manuscript.

6. A stamped self-addressed envelope (SSAE) big enough to return the manuscript OR a small envelope for notification of results (in this case the original ms will be recycled and the disk destroyed) must be included if you want your entry returned. Entries from outside Australia must be accompanied by an International Reply Paid Postage Coupon.

7. Two copies of the entry should be provided: a hardcopy typed double or one and a half spacing on single-sided A4 with no borders or illustrations or fancy fonts; and, a digital copy on disk as a pdf or in Word (Mac or PC) or Appleworks.

8. Entries must be received by 30 May 2008.

9. Attach an entry form and a cheque or money order (or pay by credit card via PayPal) for the administration fee of $15 (AUD) per entry.

10. Send your entry to: PressPress Chapbook Award 2008 PressPress PO Box 94 Berry NSW 2535 Australia

http://www.presspress.com.au/

Aussie Writers list Expanded

Thanks, Helen Hagemann, for prompting me to add a few more to this list, and I added one or two more ...

50 Best Australian Writers since 1945 ...
(in no particular order)

Helen Garner,
Peter Carey,
Tim Winton,
Patrick White,
Gwen Harwood,
Vincent Buckley,
David Williamson,
AD Hope,
David Malouf,
John Tranter,
Les Murray,
Robert Adamson,
Kevin Hart,
Peter Cowan,
Shirley Hazzard,
Janette Turner-Hospital,
Frank Moorhouse,
Hal Porter,
Randolph Stowe,
Andrew Taylor,
Dorothy Hewett,
Thom Shapcott,
John Forbes,
Judith Wright,
Thomas Kenneally,
Glenda Adams,
Elizabeth Jolley,
Kim Scott,
Kenneth Slessor,
Thea Astley,
Bruce Dawe,
Morris Gleitzman,
John Marsden,
Clive James,
Kate Grenville,
Ern Malley,
Bruce Beaver,
Peter Porter,
John Kinsella,
Geoff Page,
Jack Davis,
John Blight,
Geraldine Brooks,
Paul Jennings,
Brenda Walker,
Gail Jones,
Dorothy Porter ...