I’m pleased that my poem ‘Shards of Colour’ has found a published home in the latest edition of Transnational Literature.
There’s plenty of great reading in this issue and includes poems from my talented fellow poets and friends Mike Hopkins and Ian Gibbins, as well as book reviews by Mandy Treagus, Jennifer Osborn and Gay Lynch.
Many thanks to Heather Taylor Johnson, the journal’s Poetry Editor.
A few months ago I met Aisling, a lovely English and Geography teacher from St Mary’s Secondary School in Mallow (Co Cork, Ireland). We chatted about literature and writing in general, and poetry in particular. Aisling asked if she could introduce my poetry to her fifth year English class. Of course I said yes.
They selected my poem ‘Disconnection’ (you can read it here) to discuss in class and Aisling offered them some options to respond to the poem.
Aisling forwarded me a selection of the responses; I was blown away by how creative they were.
For example, there were three very different movies, an artwork, a ‘storyboard’ of the poem, two poems that were written using only the words from ‘Disconnection’ and a couple of fake twitter pages of the young woman who walked into the pole (one student decided it was Kim Kardashian who walked into the pole).
Another student created a fake Facebook profile online for the young woman who walked into the pole.
Some students did without their mobile phone for 24 hours and wrote a diary entry about the experience. One girl cooked a Sunday dinner for her family and went for a long walk as she felt she had nothing else to do when she didn’t have her phone.
I was thrilled to ‘connect’ with this class via poetry, and very moved by the funny and diverse responses. It is such a privilege when someone takes the time and effort to read and consider what I write, so to the talented fifth year girls and Aisling O’Connor of St Mary’s Secondary School, Mallow: congratulations on your enthusiasm and spirit, and a heartfelt thank you.
A shiny new website about my rescued poetry is now live over here.
You can read sample rescued poems there and read about how I came up with the idea. I will be adding rescued poems regularly.
You are most welcome to visit and comment!
Images from The Found Poetry Review website.
I’m delighted that my ‘found’ poem, ‘The Smoothest Place is Right Here’, sourced from Chapter 18 of James Joyce’s Ulysses, has been published in The Found Poetry Review’s special Bloomsday edition.
You can read it over here.
Happy Bloomsday!
I’ll be reading some of my poems with super-talented poet Louise McKenna at 5.30 pm next Wednesday 20th November at the State Library of South Australia, North Terrace, Adelaide.
‘Words @ the Wall’ is a joint Friendly Street Poets and State Library event and is a lovely, unique kind of poetry reading. The library is a beautiful setting and the event itself – two poets reading for no longer than 45 minutes – gives the audience no time to get bored.
And it’s free.
Letter.Box.Stamp.Collect. is an installation by Pascalle Burton for the Queensland Poetry Festival 2013, which will be held from 23-25 August.
I’m delighted that my poem, ‘yesterday’s images’, is published as part of the circular poetry featured here.
You can read here about the ‘letterboxing’ concept, which dates back to the 19th century.
Poetic geocaching, anyone?
What a feast of poetry performances, book launches and readings over the past few months. (See what I’m doing here? Heading towards the excuse ‘I’ve been too busy to update my website’ which, as we all know, is just that: an excuse.)
Alison Flett and I had great fun as guest readers – of the celtic kind – at Poets’ Corner in January.
I went to the moving launch of the book Too afraid to cry by Ali Cobby Eckermann.
One great performance at the Adelaide Fringe Festival was Anthropoetry by Ben Mellor. Ben was also a guest at Friendly Street earlier this week.
‘Breathing spaces’ was an interesting performance at Greenaway Art Gallery by poets Cecilia White, Mike Ladd, Jill Jones, Juan Garrido-Salgado, Jude Aquilina and Andre Lawrence who were accompanied by musician Nick Tsavios and projected landscape images by Annette Willis.
This week we’re in the thick of Adelaide Writers’ Week. Yesterday I went to see/hear five poets read: Cath Kenneally, Karen Solie, Kurt Heinzelman, Harry Ricketts and John Tranter.
It’s also been a sad time, with the unexpected passing in January of a fine poet and friend, John Pfitzner, RIP. The evening before, he had been at the Poets’ Corner event at which Alison and I were reading. At the end of the evening, I touched his arm lightly and said ‘See you at such-and-such’. With a big grin he replied that he was looking forward to it. Later I wondered why these final words were not weighted with the gravitas of ‘adieu’ rather than the light certainty of ‘see you later’. You can read a lovely tribute to him here.
I haven’t been writing very much lately, but this will change as I start to schedule my days to incorporate writing and research. I intend to post more poems here soon, so keep revisiting, okay?
I just received my two copies of The Best Australian Poems 2012 edited by John Tranter.
I’m honoured to have one of my poems, ‘Sampling Lily’, included.
You can read more and buy The Best Australian Poems 2012 here.
I’m one of a number of South Australian poets who have written poems inspired by the renowned stained glass in St. Bart’s, one of Adelaide’s oldest churches.
We will be reading the poems at Light and Glorie: an evening of stained glass and poetry on Saturday 10 November (10:11:12).
Light and Glorie, a book featuring a selection of the poems and colour images of the windows, will be available for purchase on the night.
All proceeds from the event will go towards the work of the Magdalene Centre. Drinks and nibbles provided.
Come along and listen to some poetry for the soul!
I’m thrilled to see my poem ‘Duality’ published in Cordite Poetry Review Issue 40.0: Interlocutor.
And I’m in the company of talented South Australian poets Rachael Mead, Heather Taylor Johnson and David Ades.
Hop on over there now for some fine poem-y goodness.