Les Murray says:

I love poetry for the unemployment it causes, for how it constrains one to work always beyond one’s own intelligence, for its not requiring one to rise socially. — Les Murray

I'm proud to be in Southerly's Long Paddock now ...

Check out a new poem at http://www.brandl.com.au/Southerly/southerly%20longpaddock/1-69/burke.html

Now that I'm a pensioner ...

... people are sending me age jokes. If you know how height challenged I am, the accompanying cartoon is even funnier. (Thanks, Patrick.)

'New Tricks' group writes Six Word Stories

In my Wednesday writing group, calleed New Tricks and held at Tom Collins House from 6.30pm each Wednesday, we had a go at Hemingway's famous six word short story project. His was masterful:

For Sale: Baby shoes. Never worn.

With that as our benchmark, we sat in thoughtful silence and composed our works. In no particular order, here are some of our efforts:

Fate - Not for the feint hearted. (David)

Broken wing. Broken lives. Fragile glue. (Jeanette)

Wanted: Unwanted dog for lonely widow. (Denise)

Stop breathing. Not blue. Black (Jean)

Thin skins. The art of rejections. (Carolyn)

Marriott doors blew open. Last orders (Andrew)

Come join us any Wednesday! More info at FAWWA 9384 4771 or burkeandre(at)gmail(dot)come

There's a Big Lesson to be Learnt in the rendering of this poem by Rachel Loden

For an expansive and illuminating essay on Rachel Loden's poem AFFIDAVIT, go to http://stevenfama.blogspot.com/2009/07/poetry-from-law-part-3.html

I find it quite brilliant and so interesting. Please take the time to read it completely.

choice Poll on Parallel Import of Books

The Productivity Commission’s recent report into the recommendation for unrestricted importation of books has highlighted the debate between, consumers, publishers and authors on the cost of books in Australia.

Make your choice now.

Participate in the Poll on the Parallel Import of Books at http://www.choice.com.au/viewArticle.aspx?id=106956&catId=100167&tid=100008&p=1&title=Poll%3A%20Parallel%20import%20of%20books

Faber and Faber's Cover Art Gallery - 18 examples

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/gallery/2009/jul/10/publishing-fiction?picture=350087660

Happy Birthday, Hemingway

To celebrate Ernest Hemingway's birthday, I'd love to publish one of his short stories, my favourite works in his oeuvre. Space is a problem, as you can see, but I will publish a short story which he is reported to have said is one of the best he ever wrote:

"For sale: baby shoes, never worn."

Six words, carrying so much emotional impact. Understatement and subtlety are two of the strongest tools in any writer's box of tricks, so have a go yourself. It is easy to be flippant and cutesy, but those stories don't mean a lot. Try to write a moving short story in just half a dozen words. If you can't post it to me through the comments panel, send it to burkeandre(at)gmail(dot)com

Now, honour the great writer with your words. Good luck!

Frank McCourt RIP

One of my favourite books of modern times is Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, the hard-working Irish author who died this week. His book humbly and gently painted a picture of a hard life growing up in Limerick in Ireland, before taking off for USA as a young man. It took him many decades to come to the right stance toward his material, but when he let the story tell itself, without anger, self-pity or any self-aggrandisement - just the details - it spoke volumes. A warm sense of humanity lifted the book above the pack and made it a modern classic among other Irish classics.

An interview with and article about Frank McCourt can be read at Newsweek's website http://www.newsweek.com/id/207589/page/1

'Renga is the prototype of the New Sentence!' Kent Johnson

'Samizdat' poetry mag is no more, but the Samizdat Blog is alive and vibrant, run by poet Robert Archambeau at http://samizdatblog.blogspot.com/ Recently there was a posting about Poetry/Not Poetry which elicited a response from the witty and the prolific Kent Johnson. In part, Kent said a very interesting and pertinent (to my poetic) thing. I quote:

"The other thing I was thinking you could qualify/clarify is that you are speaking about the *Western tradition*. It's very interesting that Chinese poets in the late Tang, for instance, or Japanese renga poets for centuries--and long before the Romantics--were practicing a very elliptical, even "postmodern," "discontinuous language" kind of poetry (Renga is the prototype of the New Sentence!). Of course, some of this classical work has helped make our own modern and "post" period in English-language poetics what it is, starting with Pound, and so on, so it's not like it's new. But in other ways, we're just beginning to appreciate how ahead of "us" (by something like 1000 years!) the Chinese, for example, were."

The Renga's similarity with the 'New Sentence' and the disjunctive/conjunctive style in some contemporary poetic styles has been of interest to me for sometime. However, in my experience, it is difficult to teach the various schemes and rules of linking in renga without smothering the creativity of the writer. The further you look into the Japanese forms, the more rules and set traditions you seem to discover! Renga and Renku are from another culture and another time, virtually, but to approximate the general feeling of the creation and completion of a 36 link kasen renga is a great satisfaction and a great education to Western writers.

When I first read LangPo, I was not impressed. It seemed like scribbled notes in a first draft toward a poem, unedited and confused. But I am not adverse to wading into new work to see how it is writ, so - with the help of Ron Silliman's blog at http://ronsilliman.blogspot.com/ - I read more and looked back at the history and philosophy of the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E School. The wit and style of Charles Bernstein helped me enormously as it opened a door into one area of the work. Ron Silliman's discourse in various places, on the web and in books, on The New Sentence, opened my eyes to the linking character of the style. Lyn Heijinian's My Life was a grand example of a sustained work which stayed together and grew into a synergistic whole through Language poetics. It didn't take me long, either, to realise the connection to Gertrude Stein's theories and writing practice, in Tender Buttons for one.

But here I have been open-minded rambling without examples or references. I will expand on these thoughts and write a more expansive essay for days to come.

Daily Issa

over one thicket
a custom-made shroud...
evening mist


-Issa, 1805

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

What is a Poet? and its companion question, What is Poetry?

A lively symposium on 'What is a Poet?' with Helen Vindler, Louis Simpson, Charles Bernstein, Hank Lazer and others, now yours to enjoy at http://www.writing.upenn.edu/library/What-Is-a-Poet/

Photo of the final panel shows - Hank Lazer, Denise Levertov, Charles Altrieri, David Ignatow, Marjorie Perloff, Gerald Stern, Louis Simpson.(hidden), Helen Vendler, Charles Bernstein, Gregory Jay

From Eureka Street today, the eletronic newspaper of the Jesuit in Australia - :

The meddling priest and the Redfern prophet
by FRANK BRENNAN

Last week, Pope Benedict gave Kevin Rudd a copy of his new encyclical Caritas in Veritate. Rudd gave the Pope a copy of the National Apology. I wonder what the radical Redfern priest Ted Kennedy would have made of this exchange of literary gifts.

Now, read on at http://www.eurekastreet.com.au

Elvis Costello 'My Life'

Haiku

any grass serves
as the dog's toilet...
red leaves falling


-Issa, 1814

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

Woolf's lighthouse up for sale

One of Cornwall's best loved beaches is set to go under the hammer later.

Upton Towans beach in Gwithian and the lighthouse on nearby Godrevy Island are widely thought to have inspired the Virginia Woolf novel To the Lighthouse.

As a child, the author spent many holidays in a St Ives guest house from which she could see the lighthouse.

Read more at http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=122313651194&h=DQcWR&u=EzB-E&ref=nf

'New Tricks' Classes growing steadily at Tom Collins House

Last night we concentrated on Dialogue, and next Wednesday on Description. Each week we will look at one aspect of either poetry or prose, or a subject that fits both (like Description does). I sent everyone home this week with a copy of Collectors, a short story by Peter Cowan, fabulous West Australian writer.
So, no matter what stage of your writing career you're at, 'New Tricks' can expand your knowledge and interest in the craft and joy of writing.

Starts at 6.30pm each Wednesday (closes 9pm) at Tom Collins House, in the Historic Precinct to the side of Allen Park in Kirkwood Street, Swanbourne.

Mesostomatics For Free!

http://www.euph0r1a.net/mesostomatic/

'New Tricks' classes Tomorrow night at Tom Collins House

A series of informal classes by one of Western Australia's most experienced Creative Writing teachers, Dr ANDREW BURKE, continues at Tom Collins House from 6.30 to 9pm on Wednesday 8 July 2009, and continues each Wednesday evening thereafter.

All are welcome.

Subjects covered will include short fiction, formal prose writing, poetry, and 'aspects of the novel' - The pace and character of the classes will be dictated by the people participating. The main joy of these sessions is sharing with others and creating under the guidance of an experienced writer and workshop leader. Andrew's notes are also highly valued and are only available at these sessions. (Refreshments provided.)

Cost: $20 per session, $15 unwaged/pension/disadvantaged.
Time: 6.30 - 9pm Wednesdays
Venue: TOM COLLINS HOUSE, cnr Wood and Kirkwood Streets, Swanbourne - set in the trees next to Allen Park.

For more information contact Fellowship of Australian Writers WA
Email: admin@fawwa.org.au Telophone: +61 8 9384 4771
or Andrew Burke at burkeandre(at)gmail(dot)com

Kangaroo at Serpentine Dam picnic

Photos taken yesterday at Serpentine Dam just outside of Perth by intrepid photographer and poet, Glen Phillips. I hasten to add, we don't often have kangaroos this docile that they will come and eat out of your hand. The ones in the wild are precisely that: wild, and dangerous at times. This is Glen's wife Rita generously feeding the little creature.

Here's the first stanza of a poem by Glen, written before, as the sub title tells you:

KANGAROOS AT SERPENTINE FALLS
(during the struggle for independence in East Timor)

They came down from the hills
tentatively at first,
ears twitching noble noses
raised to the wind
as if deciding that the offence
of our human odours—
the richness of benzines
from cooling car exhausts,
charred chops on the barbecues,
whiffs of aftershave or underarm—
was one worthy
to be endured these two centuries
of ethnic wild-life cleansing.