Monthly Archives: July 2010

Haunting the Lungs

I was the crow in tinsel,
you the eagle in red suede.
Together we were fruit tingles
fizzing on the moon’s swollen tongue.
We had missed our cue to exit
and were slipping deeper into a room
of burning books, their yellow wings
folding around us.

                                   *

This was not what I haunted,
it was not even where I was when I turned
the page, but here I am, sifting through
the aftermath of yesterday’s sky.

                                   *

Yes, I want to be there
inside the hills leading back to your voice;
the one that warmed me,
the one that gave my hands a place to rummage.

                                   *

The one that said, today, the how and why
applications will be denied. The windows
are on fire and the ladders are melting
outside in the rain.

                                   *

Who does one hear in voices? The ones
slipping through the grains of what was said.

                                   *

I want your hands to tie me open,
I want to penetrate the pages of smoke
between you and your mouth,
I want to break the earthen jar
where you store my bones,
the ones you use to beat
sunlight into stone.

                                   *

In here, a room has been erected
out of what we remember.
Together we sit on leaking chairs
preening the last of summer’s ash
from our feathers.

                                   *

In here, we bury our silhouettes in each other’s lungs.

                                   *

Someday the I and the you
will be taken down from the pyre,
a lightbulb will flicker its noisy questions
and we will stand at the window,
voices infiltrating the pockets of our existence.

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New Video for Grounded

 

Here is the first of several videos I have been working on this year as part of the Ocean Hearted Project, featuring the photography of Cindy Keong and of course the sounds of Sheish Money.

All up we have now completed six videos which will form a visual narrative for our performance at QPF 2010 (featuring myself, Sheish Money & Namedropper) on Saturday August 28 at The Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts (6:00pm – 7:00pm – alongside Emily XYZ).

Truly, it has been one of the most exciting projects I have ever worked on…

Enjoy and feel free to spread the word!

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The Question of Purpose – responses welcome

I am one of the lucky ones who has secured a spot in Emily XYZ’s 6-part workshop series starting this Tuesday. To say that I am looking forward to it is somewhat of an understatement…

Prior to the workshop, all participants have been given a few questions to ponder, one of which I would love to have many of you respond to, as I feel it is a question all artists need to consider (regularly).

That question is, ‘What am I trying to do as a poet?’

In posing this question Emily is quick to point out that this is not asking why we write, but asking us as poets to consider the idea of purpose.

Here’s what I have come up with so far…

1. To be authentic

2. To tell the truth (or at least my version of it – an imaginative truth I guess you could say)

3. To capture a sense of place and bring it to a wider geographical audience

4. To explore the natural world and the parallels within my own life and the lives of others

5. To stand up for poetry; to keep putting it out there in front of a new audience

6. To be an active agent in the development of a poetry community on a  local, national and global level

As I said, I would love for as many people as possible to respond to this question, as the process of sharing is essential to our development. Looking forward to the discussion…

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The London Poetry Game

Following on from yesterday’s post presenting some of the finest literary mags and journals coming out of the UK, I thought I would share this unique collaborative project: The London Poetry Game.

Poet, Ross Sutherland has written a 26 line poem titled Symphony, presented on screen in more than 15 languages. This is where the game begins… the organisers have put the call out to all Londoners to translate the poem which will be broadcast from the London National Theatre on Sunday July 11.

Using poetry in a public project to bring together people from diverse language backgrounds is a brilliant idea and this Lost Shark would love to see more of it. I know I will be checking into the site in approx 35hours to read the translated poem!

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The publishing game (part II)

A while back I posted details of a handful of literary magazines and journals currently publishing poetry in this fine country of ours. This time around I cast the net over the UK and bring you details of some of the hottest publishing opportunities currently on offer in that neck of the woods. Thanks to Ralph over at Currajah for sharing this great article: Notes from the Underground – a fresh breed of literary journals.

Some of magazines and journals well worth checking out in this article (+ a few others that I know are top shelf) are:

Popshot Magazine: Popshot is a poetry and illustration magazine gently intent on hoodwinking poetry back from the clammy hands of school anthologies and funeral readings.

Stingray Magazine: Stingray is a new bi-annual literary journal for both established and emerging writers from all over the world.  Each issue has a different theme, something very simple like ‘travel’ or ‘work.’  The content is then chosen for the writer’s unique and personal response.  Reading Stingray is like entering a conversation about a topic you thought was simple, and then realising that it’s not.  Fiction, reportage and illustration are all included – in fact, any style which gets the idea across.

Gutter: Gutter is a new, high quality, printed journal for fiction and poetry from writers born or living in Scotland. The editors believe there is a need for an energetic, ambitious magazine dedicated exclusively to the best in new Scottish creative writing.

Ambit:  Ambit is a quarterly, 96 page magazine which prints original poetry, short fiction, art and reviews. Ambit was started in 1959 by Martin Bax. Other editors include J.G. Ballard, Carol Ann Duffy, Michael Foreman, Henry Graham and Geoff Nicholson. Ambit is published in the UK and read internationally. It’s available through subscription and in selected bookshops and libraries worldwide.

Open Wide Magazine: First published in late 2001, Open Wide Magazine has gone on to become a highly regarded publication around the world. So far twenty-three issues of the magazine have been published. Issues one, two and three were print, then issues four to eleven online, with issues twelve to twenty in print. A hiatus occurred in 2009. But now back, and being published (for the time being) online, we hope to continue to stand out amongst the crowd, doing things a bit differently.

Agenda: Agenda is one of the best known and most highly respected poetry journals in the world, having been founded in 1959 by Ezra Pound and William Cookson. It is now edited by Patricia McCarthy, who co-edited the magazine with William Cookson for four years until his death in January 2003. She is continuing, as Seamus Heaney says, ‘to uphold the lofty standards of Agenda’. 

Hope these links help get your words some attention in the overseas market!

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Talking with the poets about QPF

QLD Poetry Festival 2010 is edging closer… and to help everyone get to know the artists better, the good folk at QPF have been conducting some exciting interviews.

The first two interviews posted on www.queenslandpoetryfestival.com are with Andrew Burke and Susan Hawthorne. They talk about their inspirations and influences, the importance of festivals, publishing and their own evolution as writers.

To find them just visit the site, run your cursor over the 2010 Festival button and click on Artist Interviews. Be sure to keep your eye on the site over the next few weeks as there are many more interviews to be posted!

Tickets for opening night are also now on sale… and believe me, you don’t want to miss this event aptly titled Rupture the Silence, featuring Andrew Taylor (WA), Jon Paul Fiorentino (Canada), August Kleinzahler (USA) & Emily XYZ w/ Myers Bartlett performing her dynamic works for two voices.

Details are:

Date: Friday August 27
Time: 7:30pm – 10:30pm
Venue: Performance Space, Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts
Tickets:
Full (Web/Phone/Door) $25 / Concession (Web/Phone/Door) $18
Groups of 5 or more (Web/Phone/Door) $18 / Concession (Web/ Phone/Door) $15
School Groups – Students $15 / Teachers $25 (one free teacher with every 10 students)
Booking: Phone 3872 9000 or online at http://www.jwcoca.qld.gov.au/02_cal/details.asp?ID=855

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Tune your dials to 4ZzZ

Tomorrow morning, this Lost Shark will be hitting the airwaves on 4ZzZ’s brand spanking spoken word show, Waxing Lyrical hosted by Fern Thompsett to talk about SpeedPoets, Ocean Hearted and all things poetry in Brisbane. So if you are in the area, tune your dials to Brisbane’s finest community radio station 4ZzZ – 102.1FM for a poetry hit between 9am and 12pm (I will be on first up between 9am and 9:45am). If you aren’t in the area and want to tune in, you can generally stream the station live online. Check out the 4ZzZ site for details.

Waxing Lyrical hosted by Fern is on 4ZzZ every Thursday between 9am – 12pm.

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Natural Language

i.

Read it simply:
the osprey as breath,
a rising thermal
disturbing the cirrus
dusk unlatching its blues

and on the mudflats
the fisherman running a knife
along an oyster’s lip
leaning in to twist
as if the shell had uttered.

ii.

Poetry is not firstly in the words;

the midday sun
holds mullet shoals’
to the sea-floor

that syllable in the blood
that quickens
without sound.

iii.

How they glitter – the hours
between ebb and incoming

pelicans breaking the mirror
between the islands

eyes like whetstones
so clear you could scull across.

iv.

Salt settles on the skin;
the fisherman lets his head fall forward
and the imprint of wind on water
says next to nothing.

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Kerouac & Ginsberg: The Letters

Letter writing is defintely a fading art… I know, I know, email is ‘like’ letter writing, but from my perspective, it doesn’t even come close. Finding the right pen, or pulling out the trusty typewriter; getting a few crisp sheets of paper; sitting down with your thoughts and really connecting with someone, wherever they may be… these are just some of the intense pleasures of writing a letter.

Two men who knew a great deal of these pleasures were Kerouac & Ginsberg and thankfully for us, 200 of their leters have been gathered together in a sweet little tome by Bill Morgan and David Stanford.

As Michael Miller wrote in the New York Observer, “the collection reads like a Dostoyevsky novel: It begins with a murder and ends, essentially, with a suicide (Kerouac’s death from cirrhosis of the liver in 1969). The authors are wild and unguarded, real-life protagonists that never quite made it into the Beat literature: Kerouac, stubborn, paranoid, hot-tempered, but in love with every person he meets; Ginsberg, the horny kid prone to hallucinations and consumed by poetry.”

Definitely a must have for this Lost Shark’s shelves.

And if like me you are kicking back enjoying the Sunday morning sun, you might just like to take in a bit of Kerouac & Ginsberg. So, for all you Allen lovers here’s a link to a short film (around an hour) – Allen’s Last Three Days on Earth as Spirit, a video diary of Ginsberg in the days immediately before and after his death by Jonas Mekas. And thanks to the good people at Ubuweb, on the same page there is also a great interview with Ginsberg from 1995 with Jeremy Isaacs.

And for the Jack lovers, why not kick back and listen to Clark Coolidge and Michael Gizzi read from Old Angel Midnight.

Or like me… why not take it all in.

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Poetry Collaboration

Cindy Keong and I have been working together this year on the Ocean Hearted Project, combining her stunning visuals with poetry from my latest collection and the music of Sheish Money. It has been a blast and I can’t wait to showcase our work live at QLD Poetry Festival 2010 (August 27 – 29). 

Along the way we have also been working on a few collaborative poetry projects. Cindy has just posted a response to my poem Roadside Grave on her site with images shot last weekend at Woongooroo Estate Winery, so head on over to clk photography and poetry to check it out.

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