Author: Tim Hamilton

See https://tshamilton.com/about/

Eulogy For The Heart

This is a new poem I read for the first time at my recent feature at La Mama Poetica.

The fifth poem (though not necessarily part 5) of my Eulogies for Dead Technology series.

The plan was simple. Give a spark of life by
an electric muscle twitch. To the body
and from the body, a fistful of blood for
so long as the rhythm can be kept.
 
Sometimes the beat does not go on and we
try to replicate what is broken. Yet while
we imagine this simple device to be made
of gold or glass or stone;
 
While we wear them on our sleeves and steal
others, we make new ones from plastic and
titanium and place them like a cuckoo’s egg
in the nest of our ribcage.
 
Sometimes it’s only the egg that breaks, and
this strange heart is accepted into
the fold but too often, it is treated like
an uninvited guest.
 
The new beat is one that
the body can’t dance to,
it longs for the simple plan
that failed and was abandoned.

Soundcloud recordings

I recently uploaded recordings of some of my poetry as it was recorded on 3PBS a little while ago. Check out tshamilton @ soundcloud. As a little tech experiment I might make individual posts just to see if I can post them online here too. I also plan to record some poetry as part of the Poetry Foundations stream on Soundcloud too.

My oh my…

I have been gone a little while haven’t I? Afraid that’s the way of it, I’ve been working very hard with the monetary job but have made a recent return to the creative grindstone as well!

On Monday night I had an excellent night featuring at Passionate Tongues. Michael Reynolds gave me quite an amazing introduction and I was glad for the reddish light because they saved my blushing. The crowd was relatively new to me and I managed to read the entire thing off an iPad! Being a tech geek FTW!

In further news, I will be making another feature at the magnificent Dan O’Connell on the first Saturday in August (the 6th, I think)! New posts coming soon.

Bookstore

Hello once again. The writing is actually going better right now than it was same time last year. Work is flat out and things are afoot personally that keep me busy (the joy of wearing more than one hat).

I’ve found a collection of poetic prompts that I’m slowly working my way through, in the absence of original ideas, I’m into week 2 at the moment (writing when time allows doesn’t allow me to write one poem a day). But my usual annual challenger of getting out 12 poems a year looks like it will be knocked over rather soon. Anyhow, this was from Day 4 of the prompts. Write a ‘containment’ poem. I started with being in a bookstore and went from there.

Here is the place I lost myself
and the reference section
that atlased me back home
 
Here is the poetry section with
its small and empty shelf telling me
the books aren’t going to write themselves.
 
Here is the where I fell to pieces
and the architecture guide
that blueprinted me again
 
Here is the sci-fi shelves who say
this is the future if you please
If not, who are you to the future anyway?
 
Here are the books written about music
and all the songs about writing.

Reading: “The Michael Palin Diaries: The Python Years”
Listening: “Ramona Was A Waitress” – Paul Dempsey

Tattooing The Surface Of The Moon

OK, so I’ve been a little on the quiet side, the good news is I’ve been writing and editing. The cogs are turning, but they’re well greased and thus not making a whole lot of noise.

In the absence of actual content from myself, I thought I would throw in something recently posted by Sean M. Whelan, he performed a bunch of his work recently with co-conspirator Andrew Watson. The link below will take you to a video of the two of them performing the title to Sean’s most recent and purchase-worthy book.

Click this link. You know you should!

Clearly my wife needs to travel more…

Because I'm always so well prepared, I bought a pen and notebook at the airport newsagent
New mini-moleskine notebook

…or I need to spend more time waiting for her to arrive from her travels. On Sunday Nicole, my wife, returned from Sydney after visiting the Sydney Vintage Fair. Being the nervous sort, I usually turn up to collect her from the airport far earlier than is necessary, preferring to be too early than too late.

In this instance, I was two and a half hours too early which then became three when her flight was delayed.

It’s National Poetry Month in the US and Robert Brewer has been attempting a Poem-A-Day challenge, publishing the results on his blog, Poetic Asides. Taking a look at the prompts he’s been posting, and armed with a large amount of time to kill, an internet accessible phone and a notebook, I had a shot at writing some poetry while I waited.

Total poems written to date in 2010: 2.
Total poems written in two hours: 5.

I can’t vouch for their quality. Yet. It’s five rough drafts, but I don’t recall ever being quite so productive in such a small amount of time. I’ll be posting them as they get a suitable amount of polish to them.

Reading: “Infinite City” – Alex Skovron
Listening: “Ramona Was A Waitress” – Paul Dempsey

Tim Hamilton @ The Spinning Room

It would appear I have been most slack in letting people know I’ll be appearing at the most marvellous Spinning Room!

What: The Spinning Room feat. Tim Hamilton
When: 8:00pm, 30th March
Where: ET Hotel, High St., Prahran
Why: Because the poetry is good! Because I’ll be featuring! Because poetry in Melbourne needs and loves your support!