In the shopping mall microclimate, noticing a lack of kigo.
Tag: melbourne
Happy Dance and Reminder
First off, apologies, dear reader, for being so slack on the updates. I’m focussing my time on the web on another project that will soon be launched. More news as I feel happy talking about it!
The Year of Poetry course is going swimmingly, one of my chief goals was to get myself into a position where I’m writing more than a poem a month on average. Today I had the second of six workshops with Peter Bakowski and really enjoyed it, the group discussions were good and the exercises gave me a pair of decent poems and another pair that need more work but make decent starts.
Don’t forget, I’ll be performing at Speaker’s Corner this coming noon-4pm on Sunday, 24th May as part of the Emerging Writers Festival. It takes place at the Federation Square Atrium. There will be me, Maxine Clark, Cha-Ya Clancy, Santo Cazzatti, Michelle Dabrowski, Dragonfly, Meg Dunn, Crazy Elf, Julez, Anthony O’Sullivan, Marc Testart, it will be made entirely of awesome!
Tim Hamilton @ Speakers Corner
I will be appearing in Speaker’s Corner, an event that is part of the Emerging Writer’s Festival.
It will be held in the Atrium of Federation Square on 24th of May, from 11am to 4pm.
The EWF’s Speakers Corner will be the major free public event for the 2009 Emerging Writers’ festival providing an opportunity for visitors to, and residents of, the City of Melbourne a chance to hear a variety of performance writers, experience and emerging present their works in a free forum. Inspired by the political soap boxing made famous in Hyde Park – London, Speakers Corner will combine spoken word, poetry, monologues, story telling, readings and opinion pieces in an innovative presentation of this work, breaking down the normal performer/ audience divide to a more dynamic blend of street theater and audience browsing.
Five soapboxes (podiums) will be set up within the atrium at Federation Square on the first Sunday of the Emerging Writers’ festival between 11 and 4 within which time the finest of Melbourne’s wordsmiths will take turns presenting their work to the passing public, trying to capture their attention and their imagination with their presentation of ideas, creativity and thoughts through their words. The public will drift between soap boxes either being captured by the performances or moving on to check out the next of the wordsmiths plying their trade.
Over the day up to 40 different writers will get a chance to present their work over five separate soap boxes providing a rare opportunity for these writers to present to new audiences as well as largely increase numbers of audience members they have performed to both outcomes which are core to the mission of the EWF.
So come along and see me and Maxine Clark, Cha-Ya Clancy, Santo Cazzatti, Michelle Dabrowski, Dragonfly, Meg Dunn, Crazy Elf, Julez, Anthony O’Sullivan, Marc Testart perform in public!
Reading: “All Of Us: The Collected Poems of Raymond Carver“
Listening: “Lua” – Amanda Palmer (Bright Eyes cover)
Eating: Pumpkin Lasagne
Thirteen Hours Into Summer
Went to Passionate Tongues last night and had a marvellous old time catching up with people and enjoying the work of the features Ian McBryde and Amelia Walker. The open stage was also a good opportunity to hear the work of poets I know from around the scene, but had yet to hear properly. Ben “I.Q.” Saunders and Jo Mundy spring to mind here.
This was written last week and is currently in the mid-polish state.
Thirteen Hours Into Summer
Melbourne. We are
thirteen hours into summer
and I have not seen the sun.
Have you lost it? Did you look?
The clouds rolling overhead are
too busy, too majestic to help find
what you are looking for.
Did you ask them? Did they respond?
We are running out of time.
We have only ninety days, eleven hours
but you seem unconcerned.
Aren’t you worried? Do you care?
Unemployed shadows are
jammed into cracks and corners.
Wait nervously for their cue
how long their wait? when can they breathe out?
Put your name on the sun, Melbourne,
when you find it. This time put it down
in the first place you would look,
not the last.
Reading: “Penguin Modern Poets 17: Gascoyne, Graham, Raine”
Listening: “Don’t Send Me Onions” – Miles Hunt
Moving Galleries Launch (+ photos)
On Tuesday I skived off work to make my merry way down to Flinders St. for the Moving Galleries launch. I bumped into a bunch of fellow poets, some who I’d not seen in a long time, some I only knew by name and reputation.
The project organisers and Lynn Kosky (State Minister for Transport and the Arts, a fortuitous combo of portfolios, no?) made with the speeches. I was pleased to hear this project will have funding to run bi-annually for the next three years.
Speeches over, we were shepherded down to Platform 14 to wander along the length of one of forty trains that will be bedecked in artwork and poetry. Naturally, every one went hunting for their part of the whole. Cameras were brandished as people posed beside their work (see right).
You Melbournians who catch the train on a regular basis, keep an eye out for the Moving Galleries project. Lots of lovely stuff to read and look at. If you happen to see my work on your train, please comment here, I’d love to know who sees it and when! Everyone received a copy of their artwork (text or visual), mine is sitting coiled in its cardboard tube, waiting for a trip to the framers.
Reading: Ian McBryde – The Shade of Angels
Listening: Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart
Moving Galleries Launch
Looking forward to the launch of the Moving Galleries project for 2007/8. Appropriately enough, it will be taking place at Flinders St. Station.
Very tickled by the idea that I might see my work in a train while on my way to work. Hopefully I shall have photos to share as well!
Reading: Roger McGough – Collected Poems
Listening: Something For Kate – Pinstripe
Good news, third…half.
It would seem my decision to make a whole bunch of submissions at once was a good move, I’ve been accepted by the Moving Galleries project. Any good public transport suffering Melbournian would have had a chance to see the poetry published in trains over the last few years. Well, my work will be part of the next wave of train travelling poetry!
Currently reading: “If I Can Dream” – The Blackeyed Susans
Melbourne Poets Union
A pleasant Friday night was spent at the Melbourne Poet’s Union. As well as appearances from Jennifer Compton and Paul Mitchell, the evening saw the launch of Carla de Goede’s “Those Hairy Letters”. This is the ninth chapbook to be released through the MPU’s Chapbook Series.
Kris Hemmensley’s speech about the importance of the chapbook in the world of poetry was stirring enough that I wound up writing another poem, I’ll post that here once it’s been polished a bit.
Technorati tags: events, poetry, melbourne poets union
Reading: “Those Hairy Letters” – Carla de Goede
Listening: “American Without Tears” – Elvis Costello (off the King Of America album)