Monthly Archives: June 2010

June 30, 2010 · 10:50 am

Holding ‘Ocean Hearted’ in my hands

Pushing out the blade on a stanley knife and gently running it through the tape that stands between you and your brand new book is a feeling that doesn’t happen too many times in this life, so when it does, you need to revel in it. And that is what I did last night…

Said tape has now been discarded and my latest book of poems, Ocean Hearted is now in my possession. I first and foremost thank my wife Julie for the typesetting and layout of the collection, Benjamin for the superb cover design and Ben at Paradigm Print for being one of the nicest guys you could ever want to deal with… seriously, if you are planning on producing a book, Paradigm Print Media are a small company that really take the time to get the finest of fine details perfect.

Ocean Hearted looks even better than I imagined… a beautifully textured cover (imagine a textured linen feel) and silky smooth pages. Soon it will be time to launch, so stay tuned for details and for those people overseas and further afield, I will also have details of how to purchase the book on the site very soon. Until then, here is a poem from the collection that I have not previously published on this site.

Swimmer

late at night
she’d swim

leave her panties on the door knob

I would lean
against the coolness of glass
let my eyes adjust to the dark

as she entered
her palms
hovered above the surface
as if preparing a lover

she had full, heavy breasts
and looked down to watch
the moon
reach out to swallow her contours

later
she’d slip
between the familiar white skin
of sheets
her body
water parting
to meet me

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Tagged as Another Lost Shark, Another Lost Shark Publications, Contemporary Australian Poetry, Graham Nunn, Graham Nunn poetry, new poem, new poetry, new writing, Ocean Hearted, Ocean Hearted Book, Ocean Hearted by Graham Nunn, Ocean Hearted Poetry, poem, poetry, poetry of Graham Nunn, Swimmer, Swimmer by Graham nunn, Swimmer poem, writing

June 29, 2010 · 11:30 am

SpeedPoets feat. Emily XYZ

SpeedPoets rolls back into InSpire Gallery Bar (71 Vulture St West End), this Sunday July 4 with a feature set from the 2010 Arts QLD Poet-in-Residence, Emily XYZ.

This will be the first chance for audiences to experience XYZ’s unique brand of spoken word during her 2010 residency in Brisbane. I had the pleasure of recently publishing Tiger Stadium in issue #37 of Stylus Poetry Journal, so if you have not yet checked it out, it is well worth the read. And to give you a taste of what’s to come, here’s a couple of links to Emily XYZ and Myers Bartlett performing The Bill of Rights and Separation of Church and State. Myers will be joining Emily for her performances at QPF 2010.

There will also be free Zines, raffles/giveaways, live sounds from Brisbane’s guitar slinging poet, Sheish Money and let’s not forget, the legendary SpeedPoets Open Mic section.

Doors open at 2pm – along with sign up for the Open Mic section.

SpeedPoets, Sunday July 4, 2:00pm – 5:00pm, InSpire Gallery Bar – 71 Vulture St. West End

featuring:

Emily XYZ (USA)

Entry is a gold coin donation

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June 28, 2010 · 9:42 am

Great Ocean Road

for someone who’s never seen it

If it takes until the lungs empty, you want it,
to walk on its glass surface, to date the seven sisters.

With your last kiss, gigantic angel wings will write prophecy
all over the sky; of storms and choking waves, of the things,

right and wrong that become sea, sea that dries to salt.
On the edge of breathing, you’ll walk faster than anyone,

lick at dry lips, the indescribable saltiness of the body;
ride the current, unburdened of this lifetime

of sediment, pursue nothing. If it takes until the lungs empty,
you will go safely into the ocean.

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June 25, 2010 · 9:05 pm

Lunar Eclipses & Poeteevee

Well, this Lost Shark has made it through to the holidays and tommorow I head up to beautiful Woodford to perform at Woongooroo Estate Winery alongside John Koenig, Rowan Donovan & Clayton Adam and Glenn Donovan. Sheish Money and I will close the night, hitting the stage at approx 9:15pm, just as the lunar eclipse takes hold, leaving us to light up the winter sky. Needless to say, I am looking forward to this gig.

If you too are looking for some poetry this weekend, and there are no gigs happening in your neck of the woods, why not check out Poeteevee. It’s a relatively new site with the first posts made in April this year, but already there is a great selection of readings available. Well worth sitting down with a tumbler, cup or mug of your chosen beverage and taking in the words of Stacy Szymaszek, Frank Sherlock, Anselm Berrigan, Eileen Myles & co.

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Tagged as Another Lost Shark, Graham Nunn, Graham Nunn & Sheish Money, Poeteevee, Poetry at Woongooroo Estate Winery, poetry events, poetry readings, Poetry Videos, Woongooroo Estate Winery

June 24, 2010 · 5:33 pm

The Write Advice

One of my all time favourite poets, Steven Heighton recently finished a week long post as editor of The Afterword and as a parting gesture, he left us with ’31 moments of clarity’, that he would have given to his much younger self starting out in the craft of writing.

Some of these hit me with all the force of an angry mule’s hoof. Here’s a taste of Heighton’s wisdom:

Could anyone else have written this thing? If Yes, start again.

In the long run, curiosity and stamina trump talent.

Be wary of the “respectability” that comes with even modest success. The respectable lose their yen for transcendence and grow obsessed with fortressing a social position—two changes that contaminate the creative sourcewaters.

The writing life, like life in general, has a sacramental and a secretarial side. As years pass and duties accrue, the secretarial, clerical mode can grow like a lymphoma and start to squeeze life from the sacramental.

Cast a spell and the small flaws don’t matter.

You can read the complete series here… I know I am better for it.

And if this has peaked your interest in the poetry and prose of Steven Heighton, you can get a hit of his words at Canadian Poetry Online and at his own website.

Tonight, the secretarial side is being put on hold…

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Tagged as Another Lost Shark, Canadian Poetry Online, Graham Nunn, Literary Advice, Natioanl Post, Steven Heighton, Steven Heighton Ten Year Memoranda, Steven Heighton's words of advice to the young writer, The Afterword, The Write Advice, words of advice to the young writer

June 23, 2010 · 6:39 pm

spoken in one strange word

Last night at Riverbend Books a crowd of 70+ gathered on the deck eager to get the first glimpse of the 2010 QLD Poetry Festival: spoken in one strange word program. And no one went home disappointed, with stunning feature sets from Suzanne Jones, Darkwing Dubs and Ynes Sanz, all of whom will be perfoming at QPF 2010.

The full program (including artist bios) is now available online at www.queenslandpoetryfestival.com and it is a program that I am very excited about!

QPF 2010 features six international artists - Emily XYZ (USA), Jon Paul Fiorentino (Canada), Angela Rawlings (Canada), Ken Babstock (Canada) and August Kleinzahler (USA) alongside more than 30 performers from all over Australia including Andrew Taylor (WA), Kelly-Lee Hickey (NT), Andy Jackson (VIC), Les Wicks (NSW) and Bruce Dawe (QLD) as well as a session paying tribute to one of Australia’s finest poets, Judith Wright and the much loved, A Million Bright Things, featuring every poet on the program.

And while I am speaking of A Million Bright Things, another highlight of last night’s event was the launch of the CD featuring 16 red hot performances from the A Million Bright Things session at QPF 2009. Readers included Adam Phillips, Zenobia Frost and Jeffery Harpeng as well as members of the QPF Committee performing a selection of poems. It was a buzz to hear these poems light up the winter night and to celebrate, I have 5 copies of the CD available for $12 incl. postage to send to the first five people who email me at geenunn(at)yahoo.com.au.

Here’s the track listing:

1. Jane Williams – Attention to Detail
2. Jayne Fenton Keane – A Jazz Poem for Miles Davis
3. Adam Phillips – Gem Cutter
4. Bremen Town Musician – Sailor (filmed live at A Million Bright Things 2009)
5. Angela Costi – Grandmother Maroulla’s Liturgy
6. Geoff Goodfellow – Blue Sky Mornings
7. Maurice McNamara – Elizabeth’s Baby Cries
8. Brianna Carpenter – Jacqueline
9. Elizabeth Bachinsky – Tips On Performing From My Mother
10. AF Harrold – Beowulf
11. Rob Morris, Sheish Money & Graham Nunn – Vegemite
12. Barbara Temperton – Purl
13. Jeffrey Harpeng – Horse Tail
14. Zenobia Frost – Bathing with Neil Gaiman
15. Hinemoana Baker & Christine White – Talk You Up
16. Neil Murray – Anywhere Tonight

Am looking forward to sending the copies out to some very lucky listeners!!!

The Crying Light

This is seriously old light;
we read it like sand,

a cloud of mayflies rising
with slow vertigo,

the river wearing the yacht’s wake
like a scar;

a simple luminosity,
a grandmother’s tear

how it fuels the heart,
like when the music stops

fingers gripping
the rim of the cymbal.

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June 20, 2010 · 10:27 am

The New Folk XV – Winter Sounds

This Lost Shark is moving slowly today… winter sun, lapping between my shoulder blades and the gentlest of breezes prickling my neck. Sunday’s don’t come much better, and today’s soundtrack comes courtesy of two fine Australian bands and one from the windy city of Chicago. Lose your self in these sounds… let your day find its own pace.

E-Song – Nikko

Brisbane band, Nikko have just released their much anticipated debut, The Warm Side. It is a brooding, densely crafted song cycle that seeps further into your consciousness with each listen. The band swings moodily across the nine songs, creating sonic peaks and troughs for singer/guitarist Ryan Potter to climb in and out of with his sparse lyricism. The Warm Side is a mature, intelligent debut, one that combines tension and tenderness, and leaves you with a feeling of discovery. While E-Song is not from the debut, I couldn’t resist posting this collaboration – Killing Time - with filmmaker Oliver Lofgren.

II – Fabulous Diamonds

Reverberated percussion, dubby-synths, isolated vocals, ghostly saxophone, this is the sonic terrain inhabited by Melbourne duo, Fabulous Diamonds. Their recent release II, is nothing short of hypnotic, blending extended, repetitive jams with shorter, surreal pop songs. This clip captures Fabulous Diamonds onstage creating a mesmerising soundscape that takes the boundary of pop music and unrelentingly stretches it.

Red Ants – Sonoi

Hailing from Chicago, sonoi are another band that are challenging the pop stereotype, with their warmly composed instrumentals, ambient collages and off-kilter rock. Red Ants opens their debut album and is one of the tracks that comes close to combining all of their styles. It is dreamlike in its construction, the melodic guitar line, floating keys and pulsing drum rhythms providing the perfect bed for Adam Busch’s heady vocals. Other highlights on the album are the perfectly crafted angular rock of Sherry Fall and the ambitious and album changing Anchor Tattoo.

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June 19, 2010 · 7:58 pm

A Million Bright Things – feat. Barbara Temperton

Reading back over the poems I have posted during the last few days has been a real thrill. Each of these poems, a highlight from what was (and remains) one of the best poetry readings I have ever attended – QPF 2009′s, A Million Bright Things. And the thrills don’t stop there, as each of these poems will be performed at the CD launch this coming Tuesday at Riverbend Books, either by the poet or by one of the QPF Committee. To round things out, here is the fifth and final poem I will feature from the soon to be launched A Million Bright Things CD, by WA poet, Barbara Temperton.

Barbara Temperton is an award-winning Western Australian writer. Her poems, song lyrics, short stories, reviews and articles have appeared in journals, newspapers, anthologies, have been performed live and broadcast on radio. Barbara lives in Geraldton where she is employed as Librarian and editor and moonlights as the poetry editor for Westerly. Barbara has also worked on community writing and theatre projects and as tutor in English and Creative Writing courses at the UWA – Albany Centre, Edith Cowan University and Curtin University in Perth. Southern Edge is her third collection of poetry, written for her MA at the University of Western Australia.

Barbara’s poem Purl, from her collection, Going Feral appears on A Million Bright Things.

Purl

If she wasn’t knitting, she says,
she’d be down the road measuring the level
of the muddy brown puddle her husband calls a dam.
And if she wasn’t knitting,
she’d be ironing a dress
for the CWA show she’s supposed to be going to,
pumping fuel by hand from a forty-four gallon drum
into the tank of the car for the long drive into town,
and she’d have to come home straight after,
has to hand-feed the horses, milk the goat.
If she wasn’t knitting, she’d be patrolling the farm
checking fences for breaks and tangled stock,
crow-struck lambs, fly-struck wethers,
inspecting gates
so plagues of emus and kangaroos
gathering at the boundary can’t get in,
watching the clear hot sky – no clouds,
paddocks burned bare by drought.
If she wasn’t knitting, she’d be down in the yards
where her husband and her daughter
are killing starving sheep with crowbars
because they can’t afford the bullets.
If she wasn’t knitting, she says.

A Million Bright Things will be launched at Riverbend Books on Tuesday June 22 so make sure you are there to experience what is sure to be one of the poetry events of the year. Doors open at 6pm for a 6:30pm start. Tickets are $10 and include a glass of wine and sushi nibbles. To book your ticket call Riverbend Books on (07) 3899 8555 or book online at www.riverbendbooks.com.au

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June 18, 2010 · 6:28 pm

A Million Bright Things – feat. Zenobia Frost

Here’s another dazzling local, featured on the soon to be launched CD – A Million Bright Things… ladies and gentlemen, Zenobia Frost!

Zenobia Frost writes poetry in cemeteries, articles at a desk in a backyard rainforest, and to-do lists on receipts, bits of paper, the back of her hand, and flatmates’ spare bits of skin. She writes, edits, and types for a living, and occasionally orchestrates cabaret events that are really an excuse to drink tea. Her work has appeared in Stylus, Mascara, Small Packages, Burdock (USA), Rave Magazine, Famous Reporter, and Voiceworks, and she has performed at the Queensland Poetry Festival, Tasmianian Poetry Festival, and around Australia with the Queensland Touring Poets Program. Her debut collection, The Voyage, was published by SweetWater Press in 2009.

Zenobia’s poem, Bathing with Gaiman is one of the sixteen poems featured on A Million Bright Things.

Bathing with Gaiman

Before reading in the bath,
I ease the book’s
jacket off. I

test
the steaming water with one toe
and shuffle off my own dust cover
to step
and slide
in and under,

holding the book above my head
like an umbrella. Then, spread
with my arms leaning on my legs,
I read, turning the pages

with the tip
of my tongue.

Later, while I scrub
idly
or shave my legs
with my right hand,

I realise I’ve gone
cover to cover (or nearly).

The fingers of my left arm sulk
and strain, and I must
balance the book on my head
to flex the lameness out (and again

till feeling returns).
Then I swap hands and finish
my story and scrubbing,

to step out clean and complete,
steeped in someone else’s
glistening words.

Zenobia will feature at the launch of A Million Bright Things at Riverbend Books on Tuesday June 22. Doors open at 6pm for a 6:30pm start. Tickets are $10 and include a glass of wine and sushi nibbles. To book tickets call Riverbend Books on (07) 3899 8555 or book online at www.riverbendbooks.com.au

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Monthly Archives: June 2010

Holding ‘Ocean Hearted’ in my hands

SpeedPoets feat. Emily XYZ

Great Ocean Road

Lunar Eclipses & Poeteevee

The Write Advice

spoken in one strange word

The Crying Light

The New Folk XV – Winter Sounds

A Million Bright Things – feat. Barbara Temperton

A Million Bright Things – feat. Zenobia Frost

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