Monthly Archives: July 2010

July 30, 2010 · 11:04 pm

A Roomful of Love

Graham’s book came out in a roomful of love / the art of creating good vibes as fine a gift as uplifting a rainy night w/ poems

— emily xyz

These few words by Emily XYZ, so beautifully capture my experience of the first launch of Ocean Hearted at Confit Bistro on Wednesday night. The room was packed with family & friends and the words felt like they were singing inside of me.

Sheish opened proceedings with a set of songs that had the audience leaning in… his gift as a storyteller was front and centre throughout the set. He took us on a journey of his coming to Brisbane and the various abodes he has dwelled in; his playing (guitar and keys) as elegantly understated as I have ever seen it.

Next up Rob Morris opened his set of poems with a new piece that embodied one lost traveller and took the audience deep into the heart of the Valley. Rob continued to cast his spell throughout, finishing with one of my favourites, The Night Mike Furber Smiled Back At Me. The opening line:

They pulled down Christies the year cancer pulled down dad, remember?

still hits with a wild force every time I hear it.

And then there was a surprise appearance from James Griffin, who had phoned me earlier in the day to let me know he was in town and wanted to catch up. A real moment of synchronicity… James delivered a spoken version of Black Crow Road. It was dark and hypnotic…

On the crow road
I can hear the bottleneck slide
On the black crow road
Drifting down the darkening sky
Drifting down the sheltering sky

the perfect entry point for Sheish and I to take stage and deliver a set of poems from Ocean Hearted.

We performed seven poems from the book – Swimming with my Inner Child, Riversongs, Heyford St, Beneath the Ghost, Be Ready When He Comes, Pouring the Tea and Music Lessons. Sheish playing with the force of the ocean; the music rolling in waves, uplifting the words. It was a joy… and at the end I wasn’t quite ready to finish, so we did a spontaneous version of our collaborative piece Save Myself (Sheish) / Lessons (G.Nunn).

And then, like the words and music, the conversation flowed… Night’s like this come all to infrequently in a lifetime. Night’s when the room is alight with love and poetry.

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Tagged as Another Lost Shark, Black Crow Road, Black Crow Road - James Griffin, Book Launch - Ocean Hearted, Confit Bistro, Emily XYZ, Emily XYZ Poem, Graham Nunn, Graham Nunn & Sheish Money, James Griffin, Launch of Ocean Hearted, Launch of Ocean Hearted at Confit Bistro, Ocean Hearted, poetry, poetry events in Brisbane, Review of the launch of Ocean Hearted, Rob Morris, Rob Morris - poet, Sheish Money, The Night Mike Furber Smiled Back At Me

July 27, 2010 · 5:41 pm

Sleepers

salt-spray floats for days sweet &
heavy on black night winds

all along the beach washed-up
logs will lie like us trying to sleep

this is how it always is
this time of year

December days end with storms
as heaving waves soak

the orphanage of shore till you’re certain
your head is drowning

forget your troubles
I too cannot sleep

although I’ve been through many storms
tomorrow morning

I’ll take you for a long
walk round the bluff

you’ll find your troubles disappear
as I lead you toward the lookout

to watch the golden light of New Year
warm the sleeping logs

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Tagged as Another Lost Shark, Australian poetry, Contemporary Australian Poetry, Graham Nunn, Graham Nunn poetry, new poem, new poem - Sleepers, new poetry, new writing, poem, poetry, poetry of Graham Nunn, Sleepers, Sleepers poem, writing

July 26, 2010 · 5:04 pm

SpeedPoets team up with Page Seventeen

The first Sunday of the month is sacred in these waters… nothing (or let’s say next to nothing) comes between this Lost Shark and SpeedPoets. But the first Sunday in August is even a little more special than usual, as SpeedPoets, Brisbane’s longest running poety/spoken word event is teaming up with one of this country’s finest literary journals, Page Seventeen to offer one local writer the chance to have their work published in issue #8 as well as win a pretty cool little book package including back issues of Page Seventeen and a range of other quality journals and poetry collections.

What are we looking for? Poems that dance on page and stage. Poems that create their own music, that beat their own drum. Poems that beg to be heard again and again and again and… well you get the picture.

The rules of entry are simple:

1. Sign on for the Page Seventeen/SpeedPoets Open Mic Competition will commence at 2pm

2. Each poet will be given 3mins to perform/read their poem (without musical accompaniment). Each poem read must be the original work of the poet.

3. Each poet must place a typed/neatly handwritten copy of their poem in the judges box at the conclusion of their reading.

4. Judges will consider the poem in its oral and written form.

5. The winning poem will be published in issue #8 of Page Seventeen and the poet will receive a book/CD pack.

(NB. Judges decisions on the day will be final and no further corresspondence will be entered into)

The day will also host the launch of my fifth collection, Ocean Hearted, as well as live sounds from the SpeedPoets engine room of Sheish Money. There will also be free zines, the monthly raffle and much, much more…

So for your monthly poetry hit, get along to InSpire Gallery Bar, 71 Vulture St West End this Sunday, August 1 from 2pm. I wouldn’t be anywhere else!

SpeedPoets, Sunday August 1, 2:00pm – 5:00pm
InSpire Gallery Bar - 71 Vulture St. West End

featuring:

Graham Nunn & Sheish Money
performing poems from Ocean Hearted

SpeedPoets/Page Seventeen Open Mic Competition

Entry is a gold coin donation

Ocean Hearted pre-launch sale

Well, this Lost Shark is gearing up for a massive week…

My fifth collection, Ocean Hearted will be launched at two very special gigs. First up Sheish Money and I will be playing a set at Confit Bistro, 4/9 Doggett St, Fortitude Valley on Wednesday July 28. This launch event also features Sheish in solo, singer/songwriter mode and a special set from one of Brisbane’s true ‘Poetic Hipsters’, Rob Morris. Doors open for the launch at 6pm and entry is free!

Then we roll into SpeedPoets on Sunday August 1 at InSpire Gallery Bar, 71 Vulture St West End from 2pm, playing a special launch set as part of what is going to be an amazing day… but more details about SpeedPoets in a later post.

Copies of Ocean Hearted will be available at the launch price of $15 at both of these events, so please do come along and join in the celebrations and pick yourself up a copy.

And just for this next week (July 23 – August 1), I am happy to send out copies of Ocean Hearted to readers of Another Lost Shark at the launch price, and well, I’ll even pay the postage! So if you want to get your hands on a copy at the special price of $15 (incl. postage), email me at: geenunn@yahoo.com.au with the subject line: Ocean Hearted Order and I will arrange the best method of payment with you – Paypal, cheque/money order or direct debit. All copies will be signed!

Here’s what Australian poet, Kevin Gillam has to say about Ocean Hearted:

This is an intimate and deftly crafted collection of poems. Nunn writes with a photographic eye and painter’s sensibility – an elegant woman with “fingernails like jewel-bits of shattered windshield” (‘Gutter & Edge’), nightfall with its “soft desperation of moths” (‘Heyford Street’), a partner with “the piano’s worn ivory/ asleep in the tips/ of your fingers” (‘Music Lessons’). This is writing that embraces both the immediate and the remembered, the domestic emergencies of modern life, poems that leap “from the shade of the moment”.

Hope to see (or hear from) you real soon…

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Tagged as Another Lost Shark, Another Lost Shark Publications, Book Launch of Ocean Hearted, Confit Bistro, Graham Nunn, Graham Nunn & Sheish Money, Launch of Ocean Hearted at Confit Bistro, Launch of Ocean Hearted at SpeedPoets, Ocean Hearted, Ocean Hearted - Graham Nunn, Ocean Hearted - poems by Graham Nunn, Ocean Hearted Book Launch, Ocean Hearted Order, Ocean Hearted Pre-Launch Sale, Pre-Launch Sale of Ocean Hearted, Rob Morris, Sheish Money, SpeedPoets

July 23, 2010 · 8:41 pm

Throw your words in the river…

The good people over at Pool have put the call out to poets far and wide to submit poems about rivers. This is what they are looking for:

Rivers call to people’s souls. Managing rivers is a fine art, but essential to the survival of everything we know. So when the heart land rivers of a nation are sick, how does that affect us all? Tell us your memories of rivers loved and lost, loved and regained, your river dreams.

Contributions can be in any style, audio, text, or video/images.

Final entries need to be sent in by cob September 15, 2010. If you post soon you will get feedback on early drafts from producers and other contributors. Remember you can repost new drafts as often as you wish, so long as final drafts are in by the due date.

For full details visit the Pool Website.

I know this Lost Shark is going to throw a few words into the river… and here’s a glimpse of one of my favourite rivers, the mighty Brunswick River in Northern NSW. Believe me… it’s close to heaven!

photograph by Cindy Keong

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Tagged as ABC Pool, ABC Radio National, Another Lost Shark, Graham Nunn, multi-media poetry, poems about Rivers, poetry, poetry submissions, Pool, submit to the Rivers Project, Throw your words in the river, writing

July 22, 2010 · 5:04 pm

Legging It

the falcon was too slow
you insisted

so we walked
sharing breath

footsteps more resonant
than words

me with sick fascination
for rest & cappucino

you talking to beggars
coins pressed into palms

flashing siren smile
like a regular saint

possessing something
of the knowledge of god

(but leaving god out of it)

with big heart & feet
that never break down

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Tagged as Another Lost Shark, Contemporary Australian Poetry, Graham Nunn, Graham Nunn poetry, Legging It, Legging It by Graham Nunn, Legging It poem, new poem, new poem - Legging It, new poetry, new writing, poem, poetry, poetry of Graham Nunn, writing

July 21, 2010 · 8:22 pm

A Landing Place for Poems

Last night at the second of Emily XYZ’s workshops, we looked at our place on the cultural continuum, spoke about the artists/art/objects/places etc.. that have influenced us and then read a poem that demonstrated how we have taken those influences and shaped them into our own, original voice.

I read chapter 4 of Desolation Angels, a piece of writing that sings after countless reads; that still has the power to mesmerise, to light up my senses. Desolation Angels found me at a strange time of life, struggling with my own persoanl loneliness, so I was there on the Lookout with Jack, trying to find the truth in this world, just as he was. I then read the poem, January 29, 2009 (for John Martyn) to show how Kerouac’s spiritual connection with the land and ability to illuminate the ‘everydayness’ of living has greatly influenced my own work.

Emily talked often throughout the night about the importance of finding your tribe; to know that you are not alone and that there is a precedent for what you are trying to do. She also spoke about how poems come to us and that sometimed we are vessels, a landing place for poems. This really lit me up, as January 29, 2009 is the perfect example of a poem that landed on me. The appearance of the swallow coinciding with the news of John Martyn’s death wrote the poem, much more than I wrote the poem. For me, it was a matter of putting the words in the right order… the poem had as Emily said, landed on me.

This reminded me of the quote by Muriel Rukeyser:

“You only need be a scarecrow for poems to land on.”

and lead to this great article ‘The Poet is a Scarecrow’ by Melissa Broder. What struck me most about this article was Broder’s exploration of Barbara Guest’s theory that the poem is an active force exercising human imagination; is an entity capable of feelings. In Guest’s world, ‘a poem seeks out a certain type of artist; an artist who possesses the qualities of subjectivity or openness.’

I totally recommend reading this article… it certainly spoke to me. These workshops are proving to be the highlight of my week and are opening both me and my writing up to new trains of thought.

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Tagged as a landing place for poems, a vessel for poems, Another Lost Shark, artistic references, Barbara Guest, cultural influences, Desolation Angels, finding your tribe, Graham Nunn, Graham Nunn poetry, Jack Kerouac, January 29 2009, John Martyn, Muriel Rukeyser, Poem - January 29 2009, poems as an active force, poetic influences, poetry of Graham Nunn, RIP John Martyn, The Poet is a Scarecrow

July 19, 2010 · 6:14 pm

The Question of Culture – responses welcome!

Workshop #1 with Emily XYZ hit the mark, with each of the participants selecting a poem that they believed worked well to read to the group. The voices were diverse in style, content and experience which made for some really interesting discussion and Emily brought the group together superbly, creating an atmosphere for honest critique to be given and received.

As part of the group, it was a real pleasure to have three uninterrupted hours to just talk poetry, the purpose it fulfills and how our aesthetic choices can advance this purpose or hinder it. I am now looking forward to tomorrow night’s class where we discuss the question of culture. Some of the questions Emily has raised include:

Where do you fit in as an artist?
What historical precedents do you recognise in your own work?
Who do you most admire/relate to?
What influences, if any, can you see in your work?
What are you obsessed with, what are the recurring themes in your work?

So in preparation, I thought I would share my responses… and just like last week, I would love to have you join me in the sharing process, after all, as poets, we’re all in this together.

Where do you fit in as an artist?

As an artist, I see myself as having a strong connection to the aesthetic of some of The Beat Generation poets - Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder & Philip Whalen are names that spring immediately to mind. For me, these writers have a strong, spiritual connection to the land and their place in time, much like many of the Asian voices who influenced them (and continue to influence me); writers such as Basho, Li Po & Ko Un. Their spare, simplicity is something that I will always use as an artistic beacon. As Kerouac said… ‘one day I will find the right words and they will be simple.’

What historical precedents do you recognise in your own work?

There are two moments that I go back to… two moments in my life that drew me to the path of poetry.

At the age of 13 I heard Bob Dylan’s ‘Jokerman’ for the very first time… it was like a spell, I simply couldn’t listen to it enough. That first verse spoke to me on the deepest level:

Standing on the water, casting your bread
While the eyes of the idol with the iron head are glowing
Distant ships sailing into the mist
You were born with a snake in both of your fists
while a hurricane was blowing
Freedom just around the corner for you
But with truth so far off, what good will it do.

And 26 years later, I go back to this song and regularly draw from its wisdom… for me, its gift is bottomless.

The other moment was aged 27 when I picked up a copy of Desolation Angels by Jack Kerouac. I had read On the Road and Lonesome Traveller (and really enjoyed them both) but this hit me like nothing else… the haunting loneliness, the longing, the confusion… I felt I was right beside Jack when he wrote:

on Starvation Ridge
little sticks
are trying to grow

Who do you most admire/relate to?

First and foremost… Dylan. I never stray too far from his work.

More recently, I feel a deep connection with the work of Robert Adamson (another Dylan fan). His obsession with The Hawkesbury River is something I can really relate to…

What influences, if any, can you see in your work?

Adamson has definitely influenced my own writing as have poets like Sam Hunt, Basho & Kerouac… writers who have a deep respect for the natural world are the ones I keep coming back to.

What are you obsessed with, what are the recurring themes in your work?

The ocean… I once wrote that each year I go there to measure the depth of my nature… and I continue to. Nowhere on earth do I feel more at home than standing at land’s edge, with nothing but the ocean to seduce me.

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Tagged as Another Lost Shark, artistic beacons, artistic influences, artistic obsessions, bob Dylan, Desolation Angels by Jack Kerouac, Emily XYZ, Emily XYZ Workshops, Graham Nunn, Historical precendents, Jack Kerouac, Jokerman by Bob Dylan, obsessions in art, poetic influences, Robert Adamson, The Question of Culture, Where do you fit as an artist?

July 17, 2010 · 5:55 pm

all these sudden triangles

                                                        all these sudden triangles
                                                        Hokusai’s wave crashes
                                                        to the floor

                                                        skipping stones
                                                        my wife’s reflection
                                                        cubed by the ripple

                                                        at dusk
                                                        the river throws back
                                                        the heron’s stillness

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Tagged as all these sudden triangles, Another Lost Shark, at dusk, Contemporary Australian Haiku, Contemporary Australian Poetry, Graham Nunn, Graham Nunn haiku, Graham Nunn poetry, haiku, haiku of Graham Nunn, Hokusai's wave, new haiku, new poetry, new writing, poetry, poetry of Graham Nunn, skipping stones, writing

July 16, 2010 · 7:18 pm

Another hole in the ‘Beat Fabric’

Beat Poet, Bohemian, Activist, Founding Fug and self-confessed ‘Worlds Oldest Rock Star’, Tuli Kupferberg passed away on July 12 aged 86, tearing another hole in the Beat Fabric… With the recent deaths of artists such as Peter Orlovsky and Lenore Kandel, members of the sprawling group, immortalised as ‘The Beats’ are getting thin on the ground.

Kupferberg himself was immortalised in Ginsberg’s groundbreaking poem, ‘Howl’ as the man who threw himself off the Brooklyn Bridge and was one of the driving forces behind incendiary underground act The Fugs, alongside Ed Sanders. His work as a poet/artist and with The Fugs was staunchly anti-war. Songs such as Kill For Peace & CIA Man and his legendary publication, 1001 Ways to Beat the Draft published by Grove Press are classic examples.

As a publisher he was also at the cutting edge, releasing 9 issues of Yeah in the early 60′s and contributing to the periodical Birth, Swing.

His work remained vibrant until the very end, railing against the decay of literature (check out Tuli sticking it to the literary elite with his dozen little known anti-literary facts) and recording his daily Perverbs (check out two of Tuli’s Perverbs – They Who Go Down To The Sea & He Who Fights and Runs Away).

Artists like Tuli are once in a lifetime…

So to send you on your Friday night, here’s The Fugs ripping through I Couldn’t Get High. Float on Tuli, float on…

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Tagged as A Dozen Little Known Anti-Literary Facts, Allen Ginsberg, Allen Ginsberg Howl, Another Hole in The Beat Fabric, Another Lost Shark, Beat Poets, Ed Sanders, Graham Nunn, I Couldn't Get High, Perverbs, RIP Tuli Kupferberg, The Beat Generation, The Fugs, The Fugs - I Couldn't Get High, Tuli Kupferberg, Tuli Kupferberg Dead at 86, Tuli Kupferberg passes on, Tuli Kupferberg's Perverbs, Yeah Magazine

Monthly Archives: July 2010

A Roomful of Love

Sleepers

SpeedPoets team up with Page Seventeen

Ocean Hearted pre-launch sale

Throw your words in the river…

Legging It

A Landing Place for Poems

The Question of Culture – responses welcome!

all these sudden triangles

Another hole in the ‘Beat Fabric’

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