Most Popular Poetry Collection @ Amazon

Julie Andrews' Collection of Poems, Songs, and Lullabies (Hardcover)

1000 Verse Renga, the world's longest poem ever!

from Alan Summers -

I'm the Embassy of Japan's roving "Japan-UK 150" haiku & renga poet-in-residence at Bath Central Library's poet-in-residence for October (into November) starting with National Poetry Day this Thursday at 2pm.

Everyone is invited. For more information about the 1000 Verse Renga:
http://tiny.cc/1000VerseRenga

For library access incl. lifts, BSL, and computers: http://tiny.cc/LibraryAccess

Draft Two: A CRYPTIC POEM (for Jeanette on her return

Across.

1. This man’s note
may produce surprise (12)
I plan to let the sheets fall
the way they might
on the line, but
can’t help myself and straighten
them out. 7. Slide about
and move sideways (5) Now they are
two wet but even rectangles clinging
in the sun. The fitted bottom sheet
won’t behave like that, so I
scallop it, four pegs holding
it up like a slain carcase. 11. Puts up
a secret entanglement (6)
Pillowcases are amenable to my will
and hang meekly, pegged
within an inch of their binding.
That’s the washing done.
12. Smooth tongue? (6) Now
to walk the dog. Turn
the dishwasher on first. As I press
the ‘go’ button, a flash of
guilt runs through me, saying,
Lazy bastard. 17. A ship that carries
goods ashore (3) But it is our way
now in this age, every home
has one. Furthermore, our dog has chewed
a bright green ice cream plastic bucket
into jigsaw pieces over my study floor.
I’ll clean that up when we get home.
19. The doctor may take one
for an idler (5) Is today the day
I buy that literary edition of
The Australian? 21. Won’t they want
a penny for their thoughts? (4-8)


Down.

1. Thrice curate perhaps—it’s
a way to earn a living (12) Who do
wildflowers work for? Those sirens
dot the path with mouths open to
the sky, yearning for longevity.
My dog and I step carefully.
2. What one does when
agreeably tired (3) When snap dragons
last in my doorway bloomed,
the pollen toecap of the gardener’s boot
heralded Hart-Smith between patrons.
5. She’s exact about one point (5)
a passion for the body in love or
dying, composing and decomposing.
10. Yet it means there’s only
a slim hope! (3, 6) which speaks
volumes about the interconnectivity
of our multi-celled selves. 13. I am
a long time getting the likeness (5)
whether you get my drift or not: one
cannot escape the canon, or, if so,
remain comprehensible. 20. Admit
changes now (3) how in slippage we
create, one lip singing over another.

Take a tour of the Novels up for the 2009 Man Booker prize

Go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/gallery/2009/sep/08/booker-prize-sarahwaters

Magpie poem project

John Malone invited other people on facebook to contribute haiku or haiku-like links to a poem along the lines of 13 Ways to view a Blackbird, by Wallace Stevens. Here's the result:

The Mag-Pie Poetry Project: a collaborative celebration of all things 'magpie' by fellow facebookers in haiku or haiku-like verse. These poems were collected over a period of only two days and appear in roughly the order in which they were received (JM):

11 Ways of Looking at a Magpie

low-flying magpie
dips wings, changes direction;
watching child applauds.

deborah green

punch-drunk magpie: pounding his reflection

john malone

black and white;
surely brown and grey?
half there in yellow grass

abigail dunleavy

heat wave ---
a magpie looks up
at the closed tap

myron lysenko

sticky-beak --
a magpie flies away
with the cat's lunch

maya lyubenova

persistent begging
of baby magpie. Gaping
mouth worm-filled. Silence

trevor hampel

cracking dawn
black white flash of
magpie beak

susan hawthorne

evening worship
in the silence between chants
magpie carolling

lyn reeves

after the shouting
two magpies in the garden
keeping their distance

rob scott

The 'Pies are out of the finals.
He sits and scratches at
the Magpie on his chest
but it won't fly off.

andrew burke

spring morn; cycling
through smoggy traffic, skirting parks
with trees --- and magpies

amelia walker

haiku

Oh, weeds!
If only my hair grew
as lushly.

Quote: Saint Francis of Assisi

"He who works with his hands is a laborer.
He who works with his hands and his head is
a craftsman. He who works with his hands
and his head and his heart is an artist."
~St Francis of Assisi

I hitched this from Amanda Joy's facebook page. Thanks, Amanda, I think it is great.

Hear a ballad from BEYOND CITY LIMITS ...

Go to http://www.margaretwalters.com/, scroll down to the CD named Power of Song, and look for Track 13, The Ballad of Many Crows. Click on the music notation at the end of the name. Voila! Australian folksinger Margaret Walters will sing it for you.

I have been reading this poem from my new book Beyond City Limits (ICLL @ ECU)around the traps, and told people of the sung version, so I thought I'd post the connection up here. I hope you enjoy it.

Beyond City Limits is available at -

BASSENDEAN
Swan News, Bassendean Shopping Centre, cnr Old Perth Road and West Road, Bassendean

FREMANTLE
St John Bookshop, Highgate Court, Queen Street (near cnr High Street)

LEEDERVILLE
Oxford Street Books, 119 Oxford Street, Leederville

MELBOURNE
Collected Works Bookshop, Nicholas Building, Swanston Street, Melbourne 3000

Mt LAWLEY
ECU Bookshop, 2 Bradford Street, Mt Lawley

Planet Books, just off the corner of Beaufort & Walcott Sts., Mt Lawley (part of the Planet Video complex)

Vivienne Glance's "The Softness of Water" launched today

Today saw the launch of Vivienne Glance's The Softness of Water, published by Roland Leach's Sunline Press. A very attractive book, indeed. (Cover image above.)

Some people at the launch - Peter and Julie Jeffery, Pauline Matthews, John Aitken, Annamaria Weldon, Afeif Ismael, Amanda Joy and Angelo, Sally Clarke, Amanda Curtin, Jo Clark(e), Jen de Ness and husband William I think it was, Dick Atherton... No doubt I have forgotten some, so forgive me, please.

The book was launched by Shane McCauley and Donna Ward. Shane's speech was more about the literary content of the book, while Donna spoke of Vivienne's contribution to the arts and their long friendship, including writing sessions and editing each other's work.

Today's spring weather was delightful and the courtyard at the Fremantle Arts Centre was just perfect for the occasion.

So, long live Roland's Sunline Press, and may The Softness of Water sell well.

Style Invitational Winners - It's good to have a larf!

The Washington Post's Style Invitational also asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.

The winners are:


1. *Bozone* (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright
ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign
of breaking down in the near future.

2. *Foreploy* (v): Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of
getting laid.

3. *Cashtration* (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject
financially impotent for an indefinite period.

4. *Giraffiti* (n): Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

5. *Sarchasm* (n): The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the
person who doesn't get it.

6. *Inoculatte* (v): To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

7. *Hipatitis* (n): Terminal coolness.

8. *Osteopornosis* (n): A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)

9. *Karmageddon* (n): its like, when everybody is sending off all these
really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a
serious bummer.

10. *Decafalon* (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day
consuming only things that are good for you.

11. *Glibido* (v): All talk and no action.

12. *Dopeler effect* (n): The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when
they come at you rapidly.

13. *Arachnoleptic fit *(n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've
accidentally walked through a spider web.

14. *Beelzebug* (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your
bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

15. *Caterpallor* (n.): The color you turn after finding half a grub in the
fruit you're eating.

And the pick of the literature:

16. *Ignoranus* (n): A person who's both stupid and an asshole.

BEYOND CITY LIMITS Available at These Bookshops

Forty one (41) poems for just $15. Bargain!

BASSENDEAN
Swan News, Bassendean Shopping Centre, cnr Old Perth Road and West Road, Bassendean

FREMANTLE
St John Bookshop, Highgate Court, Queen Street (near cnr High Street)

LEEDERVILLE
Oxford Street Books, 119 Oxford Street, Leederville

Mt LAWLEY
ECU Bookshop, 2 Bradford Street, Mt Lawley

Planet Books, just off the corner of Beaufort & Walcott Sts., Mt Lawley (part of the Planet Video complex)

A Basho hokku from 1692 ...

cats making love-
when it's over, misty
moonlight in the bedroom

-

A terrible joke, the pain of which is lessened if I share it with you ...

Old Poets bar, one poet talking to another.
"Why do Cowboys write poetry?"
Second poet says,"I don't know. Why?"
"Because they’re inspired by the moos."

Thank you, Sam Taggart - I think.

Watch+Listen - Hammer Museum: Rachel Loden and Rae Armantrout

Watch+Listen - Hammer Museum

Shared via AddThis

A couple of my favourite contemporary writers reading. Ain't technology grand?!

Blurb from the site:

9/8/09 -- Rae Armantrout is a professor of writing in the literature department at UCSD and the author of ten books of poetry, including Versed, Next Life, which was selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the best poetry books of 2007, and Up to Speed, also selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the best poetry books of the year. She has received awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Fund for Poetry, and the California Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship. Rachel Loden is the author of Dick of the Dead, which came out in May, 2009. Her first book, Hotel Imperium, was selected as one of the ten best poetry books of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle, which called it ?quirky and beguiling.? Awards include two appearances in the Best American Poetry series, a Pushcart Prize, a Fellowship in Poetry from the California Arts Council, and a grant from the Fund for Poetry. (Run Time: 1 hour, 23 min.)

Dennis Haskell spells out his literary goals

from http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au


His appointment strengthens WA's representation on the seven-member literature board: Perth-born Gail Jones and Fay Zwicky, who went from Melbourne to Perth to work at UWA many years ago, are also on it.

The Literature Board's primary role is to grant funds directly to writers as well as to organisations such as publishers, literary magazines and writers centres, which make up the infrastructure of the literary world.

Haskell describes three aspects of the task of fostering literature: "The creation of literature, getting it published and marketing it, which includes writers festivals and encouragements to readers."

The board's five members are now Haskell, Jones, Zwicky, John Romeril and Margo Lanagan. Last month, according to an Australia Council spokesperson, the federal Arts Minister received recommendations for filling two vacancies, one of which opened when Nicholas Jose recently left to take up the chair of Australian studies at Harvard.

Stockhausen's Kontakte with the Ensemble Offpsring

Last night I attended the 9th Totally Huge New Music Festival for the Western Australian premier performance of Karlheinz Stockhausen's Kontakte by members of Ensemble Offspring.
The program began with some forgettable works by Pimmon (Paul Gough) and other members of Ensemble Offspring, but the actual Stockhausen piece was fan-bloody-tastic. The pre-recorded electronic work was piped into the room in four corners, while Bernadette Balkus on piano and percussion pieces and Claire Edwardes on everything percussive (and some strange uses of those at that!)played live - and energetically too! They'll never get fat and unfit, I can tell you.

Old fashioned music man that I am, I enjoyed the cohesiveness of it and the connectivity of disparate sounds from a multitude of instruments, building a musical narrative framework - in direct contrast to Stockhausen's stated intention. Maybe his theory came to life in pieces after this. The programme notes, by Damien Ricketson (co-artistic director of Ensemble Offspring), say 'Kontakte is also noted as an example of Stockhausen's "moment form": a concept of structuring time that largely negates a narrative reading of music. Moment form focuses on the present moment and rejects music as a sequence of linear cause and effect relationships.'

In what time I have in the next couple of days, I will listen to other Stockhausen works (on CD) with this in mind.

Thanks to Tos Mahoney and Tura New Music for organising this festival - in a strange place for a New Music Fest - the WA Museum!

Beth Gelert; or, the Grave of the Greyhound

(William Robert Spencer 1769-1834)

The spearmen heard the bugle sound,
And cheerly smiled the morn;
And many a brach, and many a hound,
Obeyed Llewelyn's horn.

And still he blew a louder blast,
And gave a lustier cheer:
'Come, Gelert come, wer't never last
Llewelyn's horn to hear.

'Oh where does faithful Gelert roam,
The flower of all his race;
So true, so brave, a lamb at home,
A lion in the chase?'

'Twas only at Llewelyn's board
The faithful Gelert fed;
He watched, he served, he cheered his lord,
And sentinelled his bed.

In sooth he was a peerless hound,
The gift of royal John;
But now no Gelert could be found,
And all the chase rode on.

And now, as o'er the rocks and dells
The gallant chidings rise,
All Snowdon's craggy chaos yells
The many-mingled cries.

That day Llewelyn little loved
The chase of hart and hare;
And scant and small the booty proved,
For Gelert was not there.

Unpleased Llewelyn homeward hied,
When near the portal seat
His truant Gelert he espied,
Bounding his lord to greet.

But when he gained his castle door
Aghast the chieftain stood;
The hound all o'er was smeared with gore,
His lips, his fangs, ran blood.

Llewelyn gazed with fierce surprise;
Unused such looks to meet,
His favourite checked his joyful guise,
And crouched, and licked his feet.

Onward in haste Llewelyn passed,
And on went Gelert too;
And still, where'er his eyes he cast,
Fresh blood-gouts shocked his view.

O'erturned his infants bed he found,
With blood-stained covert rent;
And all around the walls and ground
With recent blood besprent.

He called his child--no voice replied--
He searched with terror wild;
Blood, blood he found on every side,
But nowhere found his child.

'Hell hound! my child's by thee devoured,'
The frantic father cried;
And to the hilt his vengeful sword
He plunged in Gelert's side.

His suppliant looks, as prone he fell,
No pity could impart;
But still his Gelert's dying yell
Passed heavy o'er his heart.

Aroused by Gelert's dying yell,
Some slumberer wakened nigh:
What words the parent's joy could tell
To hear his infant's cry!

Concealed beneath a tumbled heap
His hurried search had missed,
All glowing from his rosy sleep,
The cherub boy he kissed.

Nor scathe had he, nor harm, nor dread,
But, the same couch beneath,
Lay a gaunt wolf, all torn and dead,
Tremendous still in death.

Ah, what was then Llewelyn's pain!
For now the truth was clear;
His gallant hound the wolf had slain,
To save Llewelyn's heir.

Vain, vain was all Llewelyn's woe:
'Best of thy kind, adieu!
The frantic blow, which laid thee low,
This heart shall ever rue.'

And now a gallant tomb they raise,
With costly sculpture decked;
And marbles storied with his praise
Poor Gelert's bones protect.

There never could the spearman pass,
Or forester, unmoved;
There, oft the tear-besprinkled grass
Llewelyn's sorrow proved.

And there he hung his horn and spear,
And there, as evening fell,
In fancy's ear he oft would hear
Poor Gelert's dying yell.

And till great Snowdon's rocks grow old,
And cease the storm to brave,
The consecrated spot shall hold
The name of 'Gelert's grave'.

Note that the accent is on the first syllable of Gelert and Beddgelert is pronounced Beth Gelert as in the title of Spencer's poem.

CJ Dennis Prize for Poetry: Winner & Shortlist 2009

Judges: Claire Gaskin (convenor), Justin Clemens and Lisa Gorton
Judges’ comments

It was great to see such a large number of entries from Australian presses, reflecting the range and strength of our national poetry scene, the irrepressibility of poetry. We were excited by several new poets, such as Andrew Slattery with Canyon, and also by some striking collections from established poets, such as Anthony Lawrence's Bark and Pam Brown's True Thoughts. This award is for a substantial body of new work: the books on the shortlist distinguished themselves by their craft and commitment, and because they held together as collections.

Winner

The winner of the CJ Dennis Prize for Poetry is:

* The Golden Bird
Robert Adamson (Black Inc)

Shortlist

The Golden Bird - WINNER

Robert Adamson
(Black Inc)

The new work in this collection shows remarkable craftsmanship. From the very beginning of the sequence, one knows one is in capable hands; Adamson never strikes a bum note. The poems are spare and fantastical, where strange birds fly from savage nature into the world of history and politics. Adamson creates a taut vernacular with an element of song, which pulses throughout the poems.


Fishing in the Devonian

Carol Jenkins
(Puncher and Wattman)

Fishing in the Devonian draws on astrophysics, palaeontology and suburban Australian life. Driving the idea of 'nature poetry' beyond its usual limits, Jenkins creates a stunning sequence of poems with an extraordinary power of defamiliarisation. From extinct species of fish to extinct species of fridge, Jenkins' wit and imagination is evident throughout.


The Other Way Out

Bronwyn Lea
(Giramondo Publishing)

Lea works and reworks traditional forms, bringing individuality and edginess, wit and longing to her verse. The poems are lucid yet surprising, consistent and seductive. The directness of Lea's voice balances intimacy with restrained technical experimentation. Wide-ranging in her allusions, Lea writes as well about love as about art, setting up dialogues between other writers, thinkers and her own life.

Two New Chapbooks by Andrew Lansdown from Picaro Press

You might like to know that Picaro Press (Warners Bay, NSW) has just published two small collections of Andrew Lansdown's poetry:



1. Consolations: 48 tanka (28 pages)



2. Little Matters: a gathering of 89 haiku & senryu (24 pages)



These chapbooks are available from the publisher http://www.picaropress.com/ for $3.60 each, postage included.

I'll say it again ...

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.


CALVIN COOLIDGE
July 4, 1872 – January 5, 1933

from The Group

WARNING!! SPECIAL SEALED POETRY SECTION!!


All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling Oscar Wilde No poems can please for long or live that are written by water drinkers Horace Nothing stinks like a pile of unpublished writing Sylvia Plath A poet's work is to name the unnameable to point at frauds to take sides start arguments shape the world and stop it going to sleep Salman Rushdie Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world Percy Bysshe Shelley Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history Plato Poetry is as precise as geometry Gustave Flaubert Always be a poet even in prose Charles Baudelaire A poem is never finished only abandoned Paul Valery



CLICK BELOW AT OWN RISK!!**



http://larrybuttrose.blogspot.com/2009/08/group-2-poets.html



Poetry is what gets lost in translation Robert Frost There is poetry as soon as we realize that we possess nothing John Cage Poetry the best words in the best order Samuel Taylor Coleridge Painting is silent poetry and poetry is painting that speaks Plutarch To see clearly is poetry prophecy and religion all in one John Ruskin There's no money in poetry but then there's no poetry in money either Robert Graves I talk to God but the sky is empty Sylvia Plath Forever is composed of nows Emily Dickinson A poet can survive everything but a misplint Oscar Wilde

LAUNCH: The Softness of Water by Vivienne Glance, published by Sunline Press

You are invited to celebrate the launch of

“The Softness of Water”
a collection of poems
by Vivienne Glance

Launched by Shane McCauley with Donna Ward

Sunday 27th September 2009

2.30pm - 4.30pm
The Inner Courtyard, Fremantle Arts Centre
1, Finnerty Street, Fremantle

Light refreshments
Music from WAZA Ensemble
and Jen de Ness & Bill Atkinson
Books available for sale $25

Sonnets from Carine Senior High School Students

Recently I visited Carine Senior High School for National Poetry Week where a couple of classes were looking at the Sonnet form. We looked at Sonnets from Shakespeare to Tranter, taking them on a whirlwind journey from the revolutionary forms created by the Bard through to John Tranter's hundred sonnets in his earlier collection, Crying In Early Infancy.

Their teacher, Helen McCormick, kindly sent me a couple of sonnets by two of the students, so - with their permission - I will share them with you now.

Sonnet #4,359
by KALE CROSBIE

Shall I compare thee to a bowl of cereal?
Thou art more lovely - though contain less whole grains.
While a bowl of cereal is a tasty morning snack
and contains many nutrients essential to well being,
I believe you could far outpace one in a triathlon,
Or maintain a better golfing handicap.
Cereals wither by milk's souring course untrimmed,
But thy eternal dairy shall not rot!
I would also like to point out that such a bowl
Does not have the mental capacity to operate simple devices
Such as an umbrella, doorknob or wooden box,
Whereas you exceed at such activities.
So long as brunch can provide us with these nutrients,
So long lives my preference for you over Uncle Toby.


*

The Model of Modern Society
by Hannah Richards

Her hair is ruler straight with multi-hued tips,
eyelashes flick dark black while lines are drawn.
A tan visage, cherry-licking lips.
Glass reflects a sleek, short silk, slimly worn.

A diamond bag worth half the week's earnings
clutched at her side, the nails creamy French fakes.
The men sigh, brought back to common yearnings,
women cry, oh how that jealousy aches.

Replications stuck in people’s faces.
At new birth, will she be remembered?
Girls; dreaming of re-walking her paces.
Sly reporters; her story dismembered.

To be famous, to be rich, to be hot;
aspirations are founded on these, are they not?

*

Thank you also to Betty Bryant who organised the visit, and to Robin (spl?) Archer, teacher, and the great librarians I met who were nothing like the ones I see causing such havoc on ABC TV.


PS: I apologise to Kale who I had as Kate for about two days - sorry about that.

Thursday evening @ 6.30pm at PLANET BOOKS be there for the launch of ANDREW TAYLOR'S The Unhaunting

Hear ye! Hear ye!

Entries are now being accepted for the KSP Short Fiction Award 2009:


Writers of all ages are invited to submit their work.
Young writers (20 years and under) are encouraged to enter the
Mundaring National Young Writers Awards
where they may submit their work for FREE!

Cash prizes are awarded, and winners will be invited to read
at the Celebration of Katharine’s Birthday
KSP Writers’ Centre, 3 pm Sunday, December 6, 2009.

A fee of $7.00 per story applies for all Open Category entries with a limit of one story per person.


For further information, including Conditions of Entry,
please contact KSP on 9294 1872
or visit their website http://www.kspf.iinet.net.au.

My visit to ECU Bunbury today (for National Poetry Week)

Dr Donna Mazza, author and academic, arranged for a poetry workshop and reading down at ECU Bunbury today. I enjoyed every minute of it - well, I'm like that with an audience, aren't I. The audience was mainly from the local campus, but a small number of people did come from Margaret River and Busselton, etc. I was flattered that people would drive out of their way to hear me.

My new book, Beyond City Limits, did sell well, so I was doubly pleased.

Pics: The small crowd are reading entries in the instant poetry competition, which Donna organised great prizes for. And the formal photo shows myself, the boss Robert Irvine, and the indefatigable Donna Mazza.

Today, 2-hour Poetry Workshop at ECU Bunbury Campus

If you are down Bunbury way Thursday 3 September, come to ECU's South West Campus, Building 5, for a two hour Poetry Workshop lead by yours truly, starting at 10am, then a poetry Reading & Slam, with prizes, after. It will be fun, I assure you, and it is all part of Australia's National Poetry Week.

Andrew Taylor interviewed by Peter Jeffery this Friday

Hear ANDREW TAYLOR on 6EBA (95.3 FM) around 4pm this Friday in an interview with Peter Jeffery. This Arts program is one of the few places in Perth media where poetry is often featured and promoted.

Andrew Taylor's new poetry collection, The Unhaunting, has just been released by SALT Books. It will be launched by Dennis Haskell at Planet Books, Beaufort Street, Mt Lawley, 6.30pm on Thursday 10th September.

STOP PRESS:

The title poem from Annamaria Weldon's collection The Roof Milkers (Sunline Press 2008) will be featured on ABC Radio National's Poetica this Saturday 5th September.

Couple more snaps from Perth Spring Poetry Festival

Peter Jeffery, chair of WA Poets Inc, addresses the panel in his inimitable style; Shane McCauley, assistent editor of Indigo magazine, waits for the next question.

Images from today at the Spring Poetry Festival, Perth

Amber Fresh and Janet Jackson (reading); Graham Nunn, guest of the Fest, reading; Andrew Taylor reading. In the audience: Maureen Sexton, Coral Carter, Amanda Joy (guest of the Fest), Scott Patrick-Mitchell in black. Poem-painting by Annie Otness.

'Beyond City Limits' should be in hand Tuesday

BEYOND CITY LIMITS is a book of poems of place, published by the International Centre for Landscape and Language (ICLL) at Edith Cowan University, Mt Lawley, Western Australia, and edited by Glen Phillips and Andrew Taylor. I thank them profusely for their help along the way of selection, construction and production.

From Nov 13, 2006 and Notes on the Poetry Festival and National Poetry Week

Snap: Learning & Teaching

no poem is perfect
i keep telling myself
but in a whisper
hoping i won't hear.


This first verse was from a slightly longer snap, written way back in China. Shawna, a reader, pointed it out to me.

The Perth Spring Poetry Festival started last night, launched by Phillip Mead, with Chair of WA Poets Inc Peter Jeffery organising, MCing, and being the busybee he has been for decades for the furtherment of WA poets and poetry. Others on the bill last evening included Maureen Sexton, Graham Nunn (guest of the fest), Helen Hagemann, Vivienne Glance, Patrick Scott-Mitchell, Roland Leach and Gary De Piazzi. A reading elsewhere later, in Victoria Park, featured Sue Clennell, Peter Bibby and others. I could only attend the launch, and even then I forgot my camera, so there are no pics to show you.

As part of it all, AnnaMarie Weldon visited Applecross High School during the day, and I visited Carine High School. Both schools were eager and responsive communities. Thanks to the teachers and students who participated.

The Festival runs all this weekend, with National Poetry Week events happening at school, libraries and other centres all next week. Look up the WA Poets Inc website for a full program.

Quote of the Day

"The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled." - Plutarch -

Larf

Sue Clennell sent me a series of newspaper crazy quotes, and many were funny, but this one tickled my fancy.

Celebrate the Launch of ANDREW TAYLOR'S 'THE UNHAUNTING' at Planet Books Thursday 10 September

The Unhaunting
by
ANDREW TAYLOR
Published by Salt

To be launched by
Dennis Haskell
Thursday, 10th September
6:30 pm
at Planet Books
636 Beaufort Street
Mount Lawley, Perth

RSVP by Tuesday 8th September
Tel 08 9328 7464 or email
books@planetvideo.com.au

You can see more about the book at http://www.saltpublishing.com/books/smp/9781844713486.htm

That's why they call it Silly Point, Punter ...

Stumps - Day 3
England 332 & 373/9d
Australia 160 & 80/0 (20.0 ov)
Australia require another 466 runs with 10 wickets remaining

THREE OPPORTUNITIES FOR PUBLICATION

MELALEUCA

Melaleuca is a free e-zine of Australian poetry, delivered monthly
through your email in-box. For submissions and subscriptions, contact the editor, Phillip A. Ellis, at phillip.a.ellis@gmail.com


*

Broken Hill Anthology
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
Deadline 30 October


Meuse Press is publishing an e-anthology - "from this Broken Hill” - of poetry, short prose & photography celebrating the people, culture, history & landscapes of Broken Hill which is currently being considered for National Heritage listing.

The anthology will not appear on paper & there will be no money in, so no payment out to contributors. You are invited to submit up to 3 pieces. Submissions should be in the body of the e-mail, single spaced Times New Roman 12p & be accompanied by a 3 line bio. Prior publication is no problem but you should include acknowledgement. It will be edited by Barbara de Franceschi, Marvis Sofield & Les Wicks.

Send to leswicks@hotmail.com


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dotdotdash taking submissions for Issue 2


The inaugual issue of dotdotdash will hit the streets on September 5th!
So get writing or drawing again because submissions are now open for dotdotdash Issue 2. The theme is ‘ugly’, but unthemed work is also sought.

Submissions close 30th September. To submit visit http://www.dotdotdash.org/

Salt Publishing and Inbooks invite you to celebrate the publication of

The Unhaunting
by
ANDREW TAYLOR
Published by Salt

To be launched by
Dennis Haskell
Thursday, 10th September
6:30 pm
at Planet Books
636 Beaufort Street
Mount Lawley, Perth

RSVP by Tuesday 8th September
Tel 08 9328 7464 or email
books@planetvideo.com.au

You can see more about the book at http://www.saltpublishing.com/books/smp/9781844713486.htm

Rae Armantrout, USA poet

Q: What kind of writing routine do you tend to keep, or do you even have one? How does a typical day (for you) begin?

A: I carry a notebook with me and write down observations and ideas. In the morning, over coffee, I sit down with my notebook and see what’s there. If there’s something there, I work on it.


Andrew: What a good routine!

The entire interview, and others in this 12 or 20 Questions series, available at http://robmclennan.blogspot.com/2009/08/12-or-20-questions-with-rae-armantrout.html

Perth Poetry Club calendar

Perth Poetry Club this Saturday and every Saturday, 2-4pm at The Court, 50 Beaufort Street, Perth. Free entry. Be early! We start shortly after 2pm. Lots of 5-minute open-stage slots, plus...
22 AUG: Gabrielle Everall + Caroline Sambridge + Fiona Stuart (Melbourne)
Three (yes, three) strong entertaining women this week! All very different from one another... so if, like us, you get bored hearing the same thing over and over, this is for you.
GABRIELLE EVERALL -- feminist theory eyes off tight black Levis --
plus CAROLINE SAMBRIDGE -- straight-up comic rhyme --
& FIONA STUART -- a slice of Melbourne life.
Go grrls!
29 AUG: WA Spring Poetry Festival's only event being held in a bar. With
GRAHAM NUNN (QLD) - poetry described as 'assured, achieved and ambitious'. Chair of the awesome Queensland Poetry Festival.
SCOTT-PATRICK MITCHELL - underground adventures. 2009 PressPress Chapbook Award winner.
AMBER FRESH - wanna hear a secret?
PETER BIBBY - direct, engaging, disarming. Two-time Tom Collins Poetry Prize winner.
5 SEP: Derek Fenton + Karla Hart
12 SEP: Helen Child + Dosh Luckwell
19 SEP: Santo Cazzati (Melbourne)
More info at http://www.perthpoetryclub.com. Enquiries: perthpoetryclub@gmail.com or Janet 0406 624 578.

Souvenir-seeking seagull at Australia-England cricket match

Seagull interrupts play: The bird snatched one of the bails, England Lions v Australians, Canterbury, 2nd day, August 16, 2009

Alistair Te Ariki Campbell ONZM 1925-2009

Alistair Te Ariki Campbell died aged 84. Campbell also wrote plays, radio drama and novels.

One of New Zealand's leading poets, Campbell was born in the Cook Islands on 25 June 1925. His mother died from tuberculosis in 1932, and after his father died in 1933 he and his siblings were moved to New Zealand.

More, with links, at http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/Literature/People/C/CampbellAlistair/
A couple of poems at http://burning-moon.blogspot.com/2007/03/poems-by-alistair-te-ariki-campbell.html

Carnation Milk 65 Years Ago ...

A little old lady from Wisconsin had worked in and around her family dairy farms since she was old enough to walk, with hours of hard work and little compensation.

When canned Carnation Milk became available in grocery stores in approximately the 1940s, she read an advertisement offering $5,000 for the best slogan.. The producers wanted a rhyme beginning with 'Carnation Milk is best of all.'

She thought to herself, I know all about milk and dairy farms. I can do this!

She sent in her entry, and several weeks later, a black limo pulled up in front of her house. A man got out and said, 'Carnation LOVED your entry so much, we are here to award you $2,000 even though we will not be able to use it!'

Issa's delightful silkworm poem!

at gate after gate
green hills
of silkworm poop


-Issa, 1824

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

John Tranter and three New York Poets on ABC's Poetica

ABC's Poetica this week is a presentation of three New York poets - Ron Padgett, Elaine Equi and Brian Kim Stefans - by John Tranter. Very interesting program for me. If you missed it today, check it out at http://www.abc.net.au/rn/poetica/stories/2009/2607441.htm It is repeated Thursday afternoon 3pm Australian time.

Les Paul has passed to the Great Studio in the Sky

From Associated Press:

Tributes for guitar legend Les Paul; dead at 94

By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY (AP) –

NEW YORK — Musicians worldwide are paying tribute to Les Paul, the music icon whose solid-body electric guitar paved the way for rock 'n' roll.

The guitar virtuoso who died Thursday at age 94 performed with some of early pop's biggest names and produced a slew of hits, many with wife Mary Ford. But it was his inventive streak that made him universally revered by guitar gods as their original ancestor and earned his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the most important forces in popular music.

"He actually taught himself to play guitar in order to demonstrate his electronic theories," said Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards. "All of us owe an unimaginable debt to his work and his talent."

Paul died in suburban White Plains of complications from pneumonia. He was remembered as a tireless tinkerer whose quest for a particular sound led him to create the first solid-body electric guitar. His invention became the standard instrument for legends like Pete Townshend and Jimmy Page.


Read more at http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jBD78k8tewQ7FPeiKtJbK8QPmtzAD9A2OOD00

ABC Radio National Books and Drama newsletter 14-21 August 2009

POETICA
15/8/2009 15:00
20/8/2009 15:00
Three Generations of New York Poets
URL: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/poetica/stories/2009/2607441.htm
A selection of poems written and read by New York City based poets Ron Padgett, Elaine Equi and Brian Kim Stefans.


LINGUA FRANCA
15/8/2009 15:45
20/8/2009 15:45
Natural Semantic Metalanguage
URL: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/linguafranca/stories/2009/2653726.htm
The Natural Semantic Metalanguage is a way to eliminate all the confusions of cross-cultural communication, by using a core set of basic and universal concepts present in all languages. Invented by the Polish-Australian linguist Anna Wierzbicka, it is based on a centuries-old idea of a language of the mind.


SUNDAY STORY
16/8/2009 08:30
My Brother Steven by Nathan Hollier, read by Syd Brisbane
URL: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/shortstory
A young man’s search for good times doesn't help bring meaning to his life.


AIRPLAY
16/8/2009 15:00
20/8/2009 19:00
Blackrock by Nick Enright
URL: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/airplay/stories/2009/2607357.htm
Nick Enright's Blackrock has been an acclaimed stage production and a major feature film. This leading Australian playwright has also reconceived the story of Blackrock for radio, working from aspects of both the stage text and the screenplay. The result is a sharply observed journey among the sounds and voices of Blackrock, the beachside suburb of a contemporary industrial city.


THE BOOK SHOW
Monday to Friday 10:00 (repeated at midnight)

17/8/2009
Graham Swift's Making an Elephant
URL: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2009/2649421.htm
British author Graham Swift talks about his new collection of non-fiction stories and poetry Making An Elephant.

19/8/2009
A literary history of babysitting
URL: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2009/2649477.htm
They're oversexed, underpaid, they break up homes, steal husbands and are the victims of gruesome murders. They're babysitters.

20/8/2009
Bernard Schlink In Conversation
URL: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2009/2649429.htm
German-born author, scholar and judge Bernard Schlink is in converation with Ramona Koval.


THE BOOK READING
Monday to Friday 14:00
3/8/2009 - 21/8/2009
Life of Pi by Yann Martel, read by Raj Sidhu
URL: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookreading/stories/2009/2508939.htm
After the tragic sinking of a cargo ship, one solitary lifeboat remains bobbing up on the wild, blue Pacific. The crew of the vessel consists of a hyena, a zebra, a female orang-utan, a four hundred and fifty pound tiger and Pi, a sixteen year old Indian boy.


FIRST PERSON
Monday to Friday 10.45
10/8/2009 - 28/8/2009
Flaws in the Glass by Patrick White
URL: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/firstperson/stories/2009/2595551.htm
Flaws in the Glass is a disturbingly honest autobiography which, much to White's chagrin, proved more popular than his novels. He writes of his youth in Australia, his English boarding school, life at Cambridge and his trips to Germany. Also of London during the Blitz, his RAF wartime intelligence role in the Middle East, and his first meeting with the man who was to become the focus of his life.

Daily Issa

in the coolness
like Gautama Buddha...
cross-legged


-Issa, 1818

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

Answer to Sunday's Word Game

Remember this Word Game from Sunday? It's time I told you the answer, isn't it!

See if you can figure out what these words have in common.

1 Banana
2 Dresser
3 Grammar
4 Potato
5 Revive
6 Uneven
7 Assess

If you take the first letter off and place it at the back, the word is spelt correctly but backwards. Did you get it?

Perth Poetry Club 15 Aug MORGAN YASBINCEK

from the desk of Janet Jackson ...

This week, we've got Morgan Yasbincek! Poignant insights, clever metaphor, surprising language, and a clear, elegant reading style... all you could want in a contemporary poet, really. And it's not just me that thinks so:

MORGAN YASBINCEK is a Western Australian writer. She has published two collections of poetry and one novel. Her first collection, Night Reversing won the Anne Elder and Mary Gilmore awards. Her second collection, Firelick was short-listed for the Victorian Premier’s CJ Dennis award.Her novel, liv, was short-listed for the ASAL award and highly commended for the Victorian Premier’s Fiction award. She has taught creative writing in Australia and overseas and has recently mentored several first collections of emerging Western Australian poets. She will (we expect!) be reading from her new collection.

Plus open stage. Don't be shy -- our audience wants your words.

2-4pm in the Red Bar at The Court hotel & restaurant, 50 Beaufort Street, Perth. Food and drink for all tastes, service with a flourish. Just along from the train station.

Be late if you like -- but you risk missing half the show. Our guests do two sets, one in each half of the afternoon. And we break with the tradition of poetry events by actually starting pretty soon after 2pm.

'China takes lead in greens race'

Read it to believe it at http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090811/BUSINESS/708119986/1005

Stylus Journal's evaluation of the state of Australian Poetry

Interesting review of The Best Australian Poems 2008 in Stylus Journal by Simon Patton. And some interesting poetry selected by guest poetry ed, Jill Jones.

Go to http://www.styluspoetryjournal.com/main/master.asp?id=938

Congratulations, Rachel!

Here's the good news from the Australian Poetry Centre:

The Australian Poetry Centre and the LongLines Poetry Selection Committee is pleased to announce that they have selected the following four applicants to attend the Macquarie Group Foundation LongLines Varuna Poetry Workshop (5-11 October) at Varuna, The Writers’ House as part of the APC New Poets Program:

Ann de Hugard (VIC)
Michelle Leber (VIC)
Rachel Petridis (WA)
Chloe Wilson (VIC)

Congratulations to the four selected poets, and thanks to all the great poets who applied.

Blake redefined

in a local UK paper, as reported by David Birkenshaw:

KNOWLEDGE of angels, William Blake, songs of inner sense and of experience, £3

[1] I celebrate myself, and sing myself, (from Song of Myself)

I loaf and invite my soul

Walt Whitman

I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
I loaf and invite my soul,
I lean and loaf at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.
My tongue, every atom of my blood, formed from this soil, this air,
Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same,
I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,
Hoping to cease not till death.
Creeds and schools in abeyance,
Retiring back awhile sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten,
I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard,
Nature without check with original energy.

Paul McCartney & Allen Ginsberg - The Ballad of the Skeletons

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZvzdzwPVZU&NR=1

Fun with Words

See if you can figure out what these words have in common.

1 Banana
2 Dresser
3 Grammar
4 Potato
5 Revive
6 Uneven
7 Assess

Give it another try Look at each word carefully.

(You'll kick yourself when you discover the answer.)
This Is Cool.

Answer: No, it is not that they all have at least 2 double letters. I will post the rest of the answer tomorrow.

The Gormley sculptures at Lake Ballard

An eerie sight in the WA Goldfields near Site 20 of the Golden Quest Discovery Trail are the 51 life-sized statues that form the "Inside Australia" exhibition by internationally renowned artist Antony Gormley through an initiative of the Perth International Arts Festival. The Statues are situated on part of the major salt Lake system for the Northern Goldfields - Lake Ballard near the town of Menzies.

The work is an installation of black abstracted steel figures standing in a 7 square kilometre area of Lake Ballard - a salt-lake which is an extreme example of the beauty of the Western Australian outback. Sunrise and sunset are the best time to walk through this extensive installation of sculptures in the landscape.

Locals in the Menzies community contributed by having their naked bodies scanned. The resulting scans were used as the basis for making accurate concentrated forms which allow attitudes and emotions embedded in posture to be revealed. The resulting sculptures cast in a special alloy of elements taken from Western Australia are life-size in height but reduced to one third of their original body volume. They are intense, taut, stick-like body-forms that will stand out against the brilliant white of the salt-lake.

Apology and a Link to 'What Dylan said to the band ...' ha ha ha

I apologise for my silence. I have been busily trying to select poems of place for a publication of a collection by ECU's International Centre for Landscape and Language, as well as reading some titles for an omnibus review, plus trying to pack up my study and two bedrooms before carpet layers appear late this week - and watching Test cricket from England.

But in my screen-gazing moments I have come across a heavy putdown which I'd like to share with you:
Really? Is this an article or has your site been hacked by a keyboard monkey? FFS

It's from an article on what Dylan said to the band at that famous moment when he went 'electric' - read it at http://timesonline.typepad.com/comment/2009/07/bob-dylan-1.html

Hearing Helen Hagemann read from 'Evangelyne & other poems'

Today I took myself off to Lunchlines at Edith Cowan University (this semester in its new time slot of Monday 12.30 to 1.20pm) to hear my long time friend, poet and novelist, Helen Hagemann, read.

It was a pleasure walking into the stale old classroom in Building 17 to see some friendly faces I knew from when I taught there. I bought a copy of Evangelyne off Helen - a handsome hand-sized red book with stitched binding and fold-over cover (a style I really like myself).

Helen read from a new poetry collection in manuscript before reading from her second novel, a work in progress. The narrative sense and the imaginative similes kept the audience engrossed, both in the poetry and the prose. In fact, she shared with us her love of the prose poem, and illustrated this love with a haibun from her book, Ball Doyen(ne), pg 17. I notice there are a number of prose poems and haibun in Evangelyne, so I am looking forward to investigating that text.

Helen laughed at herself as she gave the audience (mainly present day students) 'motherly advice' about getting up at Lunchlines and reading to your first audience. Her confidence and style weren't there when she first stood up at ECU some years ago!

Evangelyne and Other Poems is published by the Australian Poetry Centre as part of the APC New Poets Program (supported by the Sidney Myer Fund), PO Box 284, BALACLAVA 3183. Visit their website at http://www.australianpoetrycentre.org.au

FYI, a haiku magazine

Read haiku, then maybe send them your own: http://www.roadrunnerjournal.net/pages81/haiku81_revealed.htm

Read Write Poem refreshed

A fun & potentially useful site for poets: http://readwritepoem.org/

From Dana Guthrie Martin:

Wouldn't it be great if there was a site that had groups, private messaging, forums, status messages, profile pages and loads of poetry-related content all in one place -- completely ad-free, and all poetry, all the time? What if it were free? Too good to be true, you say?

Check out the new Read Write Poem.