In the excitement of winning the Open Your Mind poetry competition I forgot to mention the Mental Health Coalition’s other great initiatives. Jude Aquilina and Ken Vincent have edited a short-list of last year’s entries to produce an excellent anthology called Mindfields. (All the poets are listed HERE.) I have a piece in it called The Autistic Boy.

There’s also an excellent, diverse, mental health-related multimedia website called mindshare which I recommend you check out.

The Roman god Janus had two faces – one looking to the past and one to the future. I used this theme to write a poem about the power of self-talk in my life. The poem’s just won the Open section of Open Your Mind, the SA Mental Health Coalition’s poetry competition for Mental Health Week. The prize was a beautiful abstract painting by Sue Morrizi which has my poem forming part of the image. (The title is stolen from the 1963 Lou Christie hit!)
Thanks to the Coalition for my prize, but more especially for the work that it does for people coping with mental health issues and the many programs and events which help to destigmatise the whole mental health area.
The poem can be read a number of ways – choose you own way…

                                    two faces  have i

he lives in my skull                                         this two-faced Janus.

Self-Doubt.                                                         Self-Talk.

you’ve failed.                                                   you can improve.                                

Irrational                                                          Rational

you’re worthless.                                            you’re a good person.

this eternal conversation          between           two faces in my head.

one looks to the past                                        one to the future.

i’m not good enough                                       look what I’ve achieved.                      .

i’m an imposter.                                              celebrate success!                              

                                 Give yourself credit.

                                May the best man win.

Thanks again to Sandra Thibodeaux and all the other participants for the Finding the Poem  Masterclass at the South Australian Writers Centre on Wednesday night. The standard of the poems was very high and Sandra’s insights into improving structure were very valuable. If this workshop’s available in your city – just do it.

[photo credit:  Excursions into the World of Books]

My poem Clearing the caravan park has been shortlisted (with 8 others) for the 2011 Julie Lewis Biennial Literary Awards (Peter Cowan Writers Centre, Perth, Western Australia.) Even if it goes no further I’m honored to have reached the short-list stage from a national field of 220 poems. The other finalists are Amanda Anastasi, Karen Atkinson, Kate Case, Mikaela Castledine, Oliver Driscoll, Christopher Konrad, Roland Leach, Jan Price and  Edward Reilly.

My poet friend Julia Wakefield introduced me to the Peter Cowan Centre last year when she won second place in the alternate-year Trudy Graham Awards with her provocative poem Language/Caution.

I’ve also received a welcome email this week from editor Michelle Hartman to say that my poem crying at the poetry reading has been accepted for the US online literary journal Red River Review.

“The head of a Christian schools group has defended the practice of having students sing an additional religious verse to the national anthem.”

The neo-christian verse (courtesy of ABC news)  :

With Christ our head and cornerstone, we’ll build our nation’s might;
Whose way and truth and light alone, can guide our path aright;
Our lives a sacrifice of love, reflect our master’s care;
With faces turned to heav’n above, Advance Australia Fair;
In joyful strains then let us sing, Advance Australia Fair.

These church schools just don’t get it. Bad enough that taxpayers’ dollars fund these minority faiths. Now they want to turn our shared secular anthem into a Hymn. Listen guys. We may have once been a christian country. I accept that it’s part of our anglo/judeo/ christian heritage. But this isn’t a theocracy. It’s a multi-faith, multi-ethnic pluralistic democracy. So here’s my neo-humanist/atheist verse:

Now most of us are atheists who see Death as The End

But feel quite free to have a chat to your Imaginary Friend.

We take all creeds and races here from commonplace to rare

But Church and State we separate. Advance Australia Fair.

In joy, though strained, then let us sing Advance Australia Fair.

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