issa haiku

I'd like that little one
for my gate...
billowing clouds

 

ISSA 1811

 

 

.ちさいのは門にほしさよ雲の峰
chisai no wa kado ni hoshisa yo kumo no mine

 

 

Or: "I'd like those little ones..." Issa sees the little cloud (or clouds) as suitable for his small, humble hut.

http://haikuguy.com/issa /new.html

https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/news/introducing-best-australian-stories-essays-and-poems-2017?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Friends%20of%20Black%20Inc%20-%20October%202017&utm_content=Friends%20of%20Black%20Inc%20-%20October%202017+CID_536c63600ba073fba0fb10ffc6e1efe9&utm_source=EDM&utm_term=Introducing%20The%20Best%20Australian%20Writing%202017

 

The Best Australian Poems 2017
Edited by Sarah Holland-Batt

Mark Twain once wrote that when Benjamin Franklin wanted to fly his kite undisturbed on a Sunday, he used to hook a key on his kite string and tell any scandalised onlookers he wasn’t breaking the Sabbath, but rather ‘fishing for lightning.’ Reading for The Best Australian Poems 2017 feels very much like Franklin's fanciful hobby. You tell everyone how arduous and serious the job is, but secretly you spend your time joyously rummaging through journals, magazines, anthologies, individual books and submissions, compiling a long list of your favourites. Of course, the difficult part swiftly follows: you have to shave all those poems down to a tidy hundred. At the end of the process, though, I’m thrilled by this year’s haul. A few special highlights for me are Barry Hill’s moving elegy for the late great poet Fay Zwicky, which lands on the beautiful afterimage of Zwicky’s voice, ‘the old smoke still roiling in it’, Maria Takolander’s wonderfully spiky ‘Nox’, in which a wife composes a poem during a husband’s stint anaesthetised in the ER, and Jaya Savige’s exuberant echo-chamber ‘Fort Dada’, where language doubles in on itself in a serious of skilful refractions. There are more such favourites, of course – many more – and I hope readers will enjoy fishing for lightning in this year’s anthology themselves.
—Sarah Holland-Batt

Contributors:

Robert Adamson, Jordie Albiston, Cassandra Atherton, Luke Beesley, Judith Beveridge, Judith Bishop, Kim Cheng Boey, Ken Bolton, Peter Boyle, Margaret Bradstock, Lisa Brockwell, David Brooks, Pam Brown, Joanne Burns, Michelle Cahill, Lee Cataldi, Julie Chevalier, Eileen Chong, Jennifer Compton, Stuart Cooke, Shevaun Cooley, Judith Crispin, Sarah Day, Shastra Deo, B.R. Dionysius, Lucy Dougan, Laurie Duggan, Adrienne Eberhard, Ali Cobby Eckermann, Stephen Edgar, Anne Elvey, Russell Erwin, Diane Fahey, Michael Farrell, Susan Fealy, Liam Ferney, Luke Fischer, Toby Fitch, John Foulcher, William Fox, Angela Gardner, Lisa Gorton, Phillip Hall, Natalie Harkin, Jennifer Harrison, Dimitra Harvey, John Hawke, Dominique Hecq, Paul Hetherington, Barry Hill, Andy Jackson, Clive James, Carol Jenkins, A. Frances Johnson, Jill Jones, Rae Desmond Jones, Amanda Joy, Carmen Leigh Keates, Antigone Kefala, John Kinsella, Louis Klee, Mike Ladd, Anthony Lawrence, Bronwyn Lea, Jeanine Leane, Emma Lew, Cassie Lewis, Bella Li, Jennifer Maiden, Caitlin Maling, David McCooey, Peter Minter, Marjon Mossammaparast, Philip  Neilsen, Geoff Page, Claire Potter, Ron Pretty, Brendan Ryan,  Gig Ryan, Tracy Ryan, Philip Salom, Jaya Savige, Michael Sharkey, Melinda Smith, Vivian Smith, Maria Takolander, Heather Taylor Johnson, Andrew Taylor, Tim Thorne, Mark Tredinnick, Todd Turner, John Upton,  Chris Wallace-Crabbe, John Watson, Alan Wearne, Petra White, Jessica Wilkinson, Chloe Wilson, Fiona Wright and Fay Zwicky.

Anh Do wins the 2017 Archibald Prize ANZ People’s Choice Award

ILLUSTRATION:  GO HERE

The painter, comedian and author has taken out the $3,500 prize for his portrait of actor Jack Charles.

Painter, comedian and author Anh Do has won the 2017 Archibald Prize ANZ People’s Choice Award for his portrait of Jack Charles. The artist interviewed and painted the actor – whose recent roles have included Uncle Jimmy in the ABC TV sci-fi series Cleverman and his stage production Jack Charles v the Crown – on his popular ABC show Anh’s Brush with Fame. The portrait is a vivid depiction of the actor, whose tumultuous life story was told in the 2008 documentary Bastardy, with hidden surprises – or Easter eggs – that reveal themselves on closer inspection.

“I feel very lucky that Jack let me paint his portrait for the Archibald prize. He’s an extraordinary Australian with a great face full of character. Jack has lived a big life and I enjoyed getting to know him and painting his portrait immensely,” Do said.

nb: I couldn't supply an image, and for this I apologise.

A New Poem by EZRA POUND!

Hast thou 2 loaves of bread
Sell one + with the dole
Buy straightaway some hyacinths
To feed thy soul. —Ezra Pound

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/09/15/finding-lost-ezra-pound-poem-castle/

English Poetic Tradition & MUP INTERNATIONAL POETRY COMPETITION

In the most famous literary essay of the twentieth century T S Eliot wrote of “Tradition and the Individual Talent”, arguing that no poet’s work has its meaning alone. This series of discussion groups comprises twelve sessions, meeting fortnightly; commencing Wednesday, November 1, 2017 18:00 20:00.

 

Each session will begin with a talk on the poets and the period by Dennis Haskell, and will examine the tradition of poetry from Great Britain from a contemporary poet’s point of view as well as that of a literary scholar followed by group discussion. It is aimed at a greater understanding of the poetry of the past and the way the history of English poetic practice informs contemporary writing.

 

The total cost is $120 and all proceeds go to WAPI and the Centre for Stories.

 

Text: The Norton Anthology of Poetry, ed. Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter & Jon Stallworthy. 5^th edn; NY: Norton, 2005.

 

There will be a maximum of 20 participants. Enrolment is via the Centre for Stories website: http://www.centreforstories.com/story-events/2017/11/1/the-english-poetic-tradition

 

 

23rd Melbourne Poets Union  INTERNATIONAL POETRY COMPETITION 

 

Closing Date: Sunday 23rd of September 2017

 

2017 Competition Judge - Judith Rodriguez

 

First prize – Leon Shann Award $AU1,500

 

Second Prize $AU500,

 

Third prize $AU200

 

Martin Downey Urban Realist Award $AU100

 

Book Vouchers for 3 Highly Commended &

 

Books for 6 Commended Poems

 

 Details at

  http://www.melbournepoetsunion.com/2017-mpu-international-poetry-competition.html

JOHN ASHBERY RIP - 90 Years .

 

We are very sorry to hear of the loss of our admired and beloved contributor John Ashbery.

I don’t know what the poet that I am is, very much. I was rather an outsider as a child—I didn’t have many friends. We lived out in the country on a farm. I had a younger brother whom I didn’t get along with—we were always fighting the way kids do—and he died at the age of nine. I felt guilty because I had been so nasty to him, so that was a terrible shock. These are experiences which have been important to me. I don’t know quite how they may have fed into my poetry. My ambition was to be a painter, so I took weekly classes at the art museum in Rochester from the age of about eleven until fifteen or sixteen. I fell deeply in love with a girl who was in the class but who wouldn’t have anything to do with me. So I went to this weekly class knowing that I would see this girl, and somehow this being involved with art may have something to do with my poetry. Also, my grandfather was a professor at the University of Rochester, and I lived with them as a small child and went to kindergarten and first grade in the city. I always loved his house; there were lots of kids around, and I missed all this terribly when I went back to live with my parents. Then going back there each week for art class was a returning to things I had thought were lost, and gave me a curious combination of satisfaction and dissatisfaction. —John Ashbery, The Art of Poetry No. 33

 

WAPPA's HIT PARADE

ENTER NOW!

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23rd MPU INTERNATIONAL POETRY COMPETITION 
Applications are now open!
(Closing Date: Sunday 23rd of September 2017)

See below for entry forms and details.

Award show will be held on Friday November 24th at Collected Works  -
​check the upcoming events page. It's going to be a nail biting rush of excitement to find out who wins.

​

2017 Competition Judge - Judith Rodriguez
​
​First prize – Leon Shann Award $AU1,500

Second Prize $AU500, Third prize $AU200

Martin Downey Urban Realist Award $AU100
​
Book Vouchers for 3 Highly Commended
& Books for 6 Commended Poems

---

ENTRY FORM HERE see below for payment methods

2017-mpu-ipc-pdf-entry-formfinal21.pdf File Size: 154 kb File Type: pdf Download File

Melbourne Poets Union IPC Payment

1 Poem $10.00 AUD 2 Poems $20.00 AUD 3 Poems $30.00 AUD

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Email entries to: <mpoetsunion14@gmail.com>
​
OR

Post entries to: MPU International Poetry Competition, PO Box 266, Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria 8009, Australia.

ENTRY $10 per poem

CONDITIONS OF ENTRY

 All poems entered must be written in English, typed in a standard font (such as Times Roman, Garamond or Calibri) in 12pt, with a maximum of 50 lines.

 Poems must be the original work of an individual author, unpublished, not accepted or submitted for publication,
and not have been entered in any other competition.

 All poems must be accompanied by a single completed entry form. Entry forms may be downloaded from the MPU website
 The author's name or any identification must NOT appear on the same page(s) as the poem.

 There is no limit to the number of entries an individual may submit.

 The entry fee is $AU10 for each poem entered. Entry fees are not refundable.

 Entries may be submitted by email or by post.

 Email entries: poems and the completed entry form should be submitted as a single MS Word file or PDF attachment via the MPU website mpoets.union14@gmail.com by midnight Sunday 23 September 2017.

Prior payment of the entry fee must be made online to:
Account name: Melbourne Poets Union, BSB: 063 010, Account number: 1005 4087.

The author's name must appear as the 'Message/Reference'. This payment can also be made at any CBA branch or Post Office.

 Postal entries: poems and the completed entry form should be sent to MPU International Poetry Competition, PO Box 266, Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria 8009, Australia and received by Sunday 23 September 2017.

Entries must be accompanied by a cheque or money order payable to Melbourne Poets Union for the appropriate amount. Please do not send cash.

 Shortlisted poets will be notified by telephone or email before Friday 3 November 2017.

 Announcement of results and presentation of awards for all the prize-winning poems will take place at the Awards Night on Friday 24 November 2017 at 6.30 p.m. at Collected Works, Swanston St, Melbourne.

All prize-winners will be invited to read their poems at the event.

 The competition results will be published on the MPU website and Facebook. MPU reserves the right to publish the winning poems on their website and FB and subsequent anthology.

 Judith Rodriguez will judge the competition. Her decision is final and no correspondence shall be entered into.

---

​ENTRY FORM HERE

2017-mpu-ipc-pdf-entry-formfinal21.pdf File Size: 154 kb File Type: pdf Download File

Melbourne Poets Union IPC Payment

1 Poem $10.00 AUD 2 Poems $20.00 AUD 3 Poems $30.00 AUD

---

(Closing Date: Sunday 23rd of September 2017)

NOW Open

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Proudly sponsored by:

Black Inc Books - www.blackincbooks.com.au

Black Pepper Publishing - http://blackpepperpublishing.com

The Paperback Bookshop - http://www.paperbackbooks.com.au

and Wendy Fleming - CLICK HERE

The Queensland Poetry Festival 2017 poetry awards winners

 

Queensland Poetry Festival would like to announce the winners for the three main Arts Queensland Poetry Awards: the Thomas Shapcott, the Val Vallis, and the XYZ.

THOMAS SHAPCOTT POETRY PRIZE

 

Winner

Rae White Milk Teeth

 

Highly Commended

Luke Best Percussion

Mindy Gill August Burns the Sky

Rae White Milk Teeth

Jonathan Hadwen The Gone Day

 

VAL VALLIS AWARD FOR AN UNPUBLISHED POEM

 

Winner

Quietly, on the way to Mars – Bronwyn Lovell 

 

Highest Placed Queensland Entry

The Future of Music – Laurie Keim

 

Highly Commended

His Master’s Voice – Jeff Guess

9(after) HER dating app adventures – Rebecca Jessen

Buying satin dresses at Yu Garden – Ella Jeffery

 

XYZ PRIZE FOR INNOVATION IN SPOKEN WORD

 

Winner

Monday June 27  – Quinn Eades

  

Highest Placed Queensland Entry

Fight with my soul  – Anisa Nandaula

 

Highly Commended

25 words or less – Brendan Bonsack

This street was once a river – Sean M Whelan

Arguing with gravity – Maddie Godfrey

 

Congratulations to all winning and highly commended poets from QPF. 

 

 

The winners  of the Philip Bacon Award and Oodgeroo Noonuccal Indigenous Poetry Prize are:

 

 

OODGEROO NOONUCCAL INDIGENOUS POETRY PRIZE

Co-Winners
Jeanine Leane – Historians
Sachem Parkin-Owens – My Ancestors
Highest Placed Quandamooka Entry
Sachem Parkin-Owens – My Ancestors
Highly Commended
Grace Lucas-Pennington – On Arrival
Rachel Bos – Tick Tock 
Ashleigh Johnstone – Fragments of the Shadow People

THE PHILIP BACON EKPHRASIS AWARD

Winner
Dael Allison – Gethsemane, Bribie Island 1958
Highly Commended
Magdalena Ball – Agony in the Garden
Madison Godfrey – Three Winters
Joe Dolce – Homage to Shead
Joe Dolce – Too Late for Taxidermy

Congratulations to all the winning and highly commended poets from QPF. 

 

The PETER PORTER Poetry Prize 2018 Open Now

   

 The Peter Porter Poetry Prize is one of Australia's most prestigious prizes for a new poem. The Prize – now open to all poets writing in English – is named after the great Australian poet Peter Porter (1929–2010). The Prize was first awarded in 2005 (Stephen Edgar) and was renamed in 2011, following Peter Porter's death. Past winners include Tracy Ryan, Judith Beveridge, and Anthony Lawrence. To date, Judith Bishop is the only poet to win the Prize twice.

Each year all the shortlisted poems are published in the magazine, giving them equal prominence. The overall winner (who receives $5,000 and an Arthur Boyd print) is then named at a subsequent ceremony along with a runner-up who receives $2,000. The other three shortlisted poets receive $500.

Entries are now open for the 2018 Porter Prize (now worth $8,500).

Click here for more information about the 2018 Porter Prize.

Please read our Frequently Asked Questions page before contacting us with queries about the Porter Prize.
Click here for more information about past winners and to read their poems.
Click here for more information about the 2018 judges.

The unicorn and the angel was produced by Arthur Boyd to illustrate the book of poems by Peter Porter, entitled the Lady and the Unicorn (Secker & Warburg, London, 1975). The print is generously donated by Ivan Durrant in honour of Georges Mora.



We gratefully acknowledge the long-standing support of Ms Morag Fraser AM, and the support of ABR Patrons. The print is donated by Mr Ivan Durrant in honour of Georges Mora.

Hurry up and Enter

 

All queries can be directed to: wordsofwyndham@wyndham.vic.gov.au;

Glenn Greening ph. 03 8744 0200; or Mica Meerbach ph. 03 8734 2600

Australian Poetry: ‘Work’ for issue 7.2

Australian Poetry is looking for poems focused on the theme ‘work’ for issue 7.2, guest edited by Benjamin Laird and Cassandra Atherton.

Poems can also be selected from submissions outside this focus; that is, you can also submit poems on any theme. The theme of ‘work’ is broad – please be inspired to address it curiously! Work can be seen to connect to the work-place, employment, work-place issues etc.

Submissions for 7.2 can be sent to apjsubmissions@gmail.com and closes midnight, 1 October 2017.

ISSA HAIKU

in the big rain
gushing down
little butterfly

 

ISSA 1814

 

.大雨の降つて涌たる小てふ哉
ôame no futte waitaru ko chô kana

 

Issa can imagine and empathize with the reality of tiny creatures. For this intrepid little butterfly, for example, raindrops are crashing down like bombs.

http://haikuguy.com/issa/

CANBERRA POETRY READING Wednesday August 9th

Hello Poetry at the House (ANU Canberra) supporters

 

It's just a week to the next reading featuring John Stokes (Canberra), Merlinda Bobis (Canberra and the Philippines) and Andrew Burke (Perth). It's on Wed Aug 9 at 7.30 in the Fellows Bar at University House. At the moment there are only nine people coming!

 

Andrew Burke's latest book is a small pocket-sized book in English and Mandarin entitled The Line is Busy (Flying Islands Press). Before this he has had a baker's dozen books published and countless book reviews. He holds a doctorate in Writing from Edith Cowan University where he used to lecture. He will have flown all the way from Perth on the 'Red-eye Special'! Don't miss him.

After four novels, Merlinda Bobis has returned to poetry with Accidents of Composition (Spinifex Press 2017). In 2016 her novel, Locust Girl. A Lovesong, received the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction. In 1998 her Summer Was a Fast Train Without Terminals was shortlisted for The Age Poetry Book of the Year. She's a dramatic performer of her own work.

 

In a long career John Stokes has published widely worldwide; won or been short or long-listed for many major prizes, and represented his country internationally. His latest book, Fire in the Afternoon (Halstead Press, 2015), won the ACT National Writing & Publishing Award for best poetry book for 2015.

 

 

Admission: $10 waged, $5 unwaged.

Parking at ANU University House is best from Garran Road and on Balmain Lane off Balmain Crescent.

The Winner of the 2017 ARCHIBALD PRIZE

 

Mitch Cairns has taken out the Archibald Prize for his portrait of artist Agatha Gothe-Snape.

Mitch Cairns has won the 2017 Archibald Prize for his portrait of his partner, artist Agatha Gothe-Snape, the Art Gallery of New South Wales Board of Trustees' David Gonski announced at the Gallery today. Cairns will carry away a cash prize of $100,000 for the poplar portraiture prize, which is awarded to the best painting of a notable Australian.

READ ON HERE

Issa Haiku - just right for today!

rainstorm--
on this lawn, that lawn
just a cup's worth

Issa

1821

 

.夕立や芝から芝へ小盃
yûdachi ya shiba kara shiba e ko sakazuki

 

Shinji Ogawa translates the phrase, shiba kara shiba e, "from the lawn here to the lawn there." The word, ko sakazuki literally means "small sake cup," but here, Shinji believes, it is more likely being used metaphorically to denote "a small amount of rain."

http://haikuguy.com/issa/

TOM WAITS: Q: What’s wrong with the world?

 A: We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth with happiness. Leona Helmsley’s dog made 12 million last year… and Dean McLaine, a farmer in Ohio made $30,000. It’s just a gigantic version of the madness that grows in every one of our brains. We are monkeys with money and guns.

 -May 20, 2008 (Glitter and Doom promo, Tom Waits interviews himself)

Giacometti Exhibition

Seeing Beyond Alberto Giacometti’s Bronzes

Tate Modern’s retrospective of the Swiss sculptor, which gathers some 250 pieces, highlights his multi-pronged process and sustained work in plaster, wood, terracotta, oil paint, and more.

 

 

READ ON HERE

Poetry on a Plate

FAY'S FUNERAL poem

for Fay Zwicky 1933-2017

At your funeral today, the poets
and family congregate - dressed
formally, heads bowed. We hear
you play with the Melbourne Symphony
in 1954; we hear you read 'Picnic'
in 2010 - we are all ears until
a light-winged bird flies into
a grevillia out the window
and tweets. I lift my head
and smile.

- Andrew Burke