rob walker poet

thanks Lee Marvin

admin — Thu, 23 May 2013 00:17:34 +0000

I always find it exciting hearing talented writers’ work for the first time. On Tuesday night I was privileged to hear new work by Aidan Coleman, Jelena Dinic, Amy Matthews and Jill Jones at Ken Bolton’s Lee Marvin readings. If you live in or near Adelaide and have any interest at all in new literature I recommend these evenings. Admission is only $5 and includes a glass of wine and food for your soul. Next month is the 4th Reading:

MAY 28th LEE MARVIN DOES THE CAMEL WALK with Irmina Van Niele, Ken Bolton, Greg Johns & Gretta Mitchell.

More here.

villanelle from Hell

admin — Thu, 09 May 2013 03:29:53 +0000

Back in the execrable era of Howard and Ruddock I wrote a poem named A Villanelle on Certain Provisions in Relation to a Bill concerning Anti-Terrorism. It’s being resurrected for a poeticA program (ABC Radio National May 11th at 3pm repeat following Thursday at 9pm) focussing on the resurgence of the villanelle in contemporary Australian poetry. It’s also available as a podcast HERE.

Also represented in the broadcast are Stephen Edgar, Melinda Smith, John Kinsella, Jordie Albiston, Suzanne Edgar, Michael Thorley, Jeri Kroll, Timoshenko Aslanides, Ian McBryde and Chris Wallace-Crabbe.

Thanks ABC for publishing my work.

A Villanelle on Certain Provisions in Relation

to a Bill concerning Anti-Terrorism

by the Hon. Phillip Ruddock

This legislation I most heartily endorse

Certain Persons are a risk to our Community.

These matters would be considered in due course..

Asylum seekers must be stemmed at Source

While other options there may well be

This legislation I most heartily endorse

The only point I’d make is… Force

Is always justified for Border Security.

These matters would be considered in due course…

We are obliged to examine each legal resource

In regard to this, it seems to me

This legislation I most heartily endorse

I’ve repeated this on occasion till I’m hoarse

It’s not a matter I can discuss publicly.

These matters would be considered in due course…

This is not a matter for feelings of remorse

The appropriate committee will put its position undoubtedly.

This legislation I most heartily endorse.

These matters would be considered in due course…

(from micromacro Seaview Press, Sept, 2006

ISBN 978-174-008-415-4)

cool old guys

admin — Tue, 07 May 2013 17:33:36 +0000

in short

admin — Sun, 05 May 2013 00:53:38 +0000

Four and Twenty is a short form poetry e-journal out of Oregon, US. All poems must be four lines or fewer in length and contain no more than twenty words. A new issue of the journal is released (free of charge) on the third Tuesday of each month.

This month’s edition publishes my “Blue Wren”, one of the briefest poems I’ve ever written.

Coincidentally fellow SA poet Max Merckenschlager also has a great little poem Pelican Patrol in the same edition.

You can see them HERE.

Internalized Russian dolls

admin — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 15:57:51 +0000

I really like this remix of my poem The Baboushkas Inside by schizophrend. It’s part of the ccmixter Prism:Identity Project. Thanks to schizophrend for the heavy dubstep treatment. (Click on the title under the graphic to hear it.)

Info

The_Baboushkas_inside-Schizophrend-ft-r… by schizophrend

The poem (originally titled as he wakes) was from my 2006 collection micromacro. It plays with the idea of Russian dolls and the concept that we contain all of the selves that we have ever been.

as he wakes

the baboushkas reassemble themselves. a frightened little boy at the core climbs

into the teenager with the painted-on angry face and permanent hard-on.

crawling into the ideals of some young teacher. each clothes himself

in another bodycasing, chrysalis reversed, until the final,

an ordinary middleaged man blinks,

wondering which if any

of the selves within

is him

(First published in micromacro, Seaview Press, South Australia, Sept, 2006

ISBN 978-174-008-415-4)

keeping it straight

admin — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 19:55:08 +0000

I have to say that my contribution to this very cool track by Jeris (aka V J Memes) is very modest, but it’s the best remix of one of my shakuhachi samples ever!

Thanks Jeris & ccmixter.org.

Info

Keep it straight by VJ_Memes

unknown unknowns

admin — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 12:23:43 +0000

A beautifully complex Wagnerian orchestration accompanying my poem “An accident waiting to happen” by annabloom. It’s entitled “The Uncertainty of Principles as Principle of Certainty about unknown Unknowns.” My thanks to annabloom for choosing my work to remix.

Info

The Uncertainty of Principles as Princi… by annabloom

And now if you can spare some time, listen to some of annabloom’s other wonderfully inspired Dadaist titles and compositions HERE.

simple things and beats

admin — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 01:35:19 +0000

Something to think about over your Easter break…

What began as my poetic response to Simple Things by Leza Boyland and Copperhead has been remixed seven times in diverse styles. ( see HERE)

This one by Wired Ant, the latest, has a driving beat and especially slick synthesizers.

Thanks Wired Ant and ccmixter.

“ There’s a time to fall, a time to rise. Be circumspect. Widen your eyes. The earth WILL turn. The sun WILL rise…

Crunch an apple straight off the tree. Eat a peach. Hear a baby laugh. Watch the petals fall. Clouds making white sculptures in a blue sky…

(an excerpt from Simplicity by rob walker, 2012)

Info

Simplicity (Beats) feat. Rob Walker by Wired_Ant

another mere pinpoint

admin — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 03:04:43 +0000

Another interpretation of my poem “present.” This one is minimalist experimental with hints of Indian music and zen. Thanks to DreamSynth and ccmixter.org. As usual, click on the title below to hear it.

Info

Present by DreamSynth

a mere moving pinpoint

admin — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 18:38:35 +0000

A few years back I was sitting in a conference centre in Goolwa, South Australia. A vast window pane looks onto Lake Alexandrina. I was thinking about a poem I’d just heard by Alex Skovron and another I’d read a few days earlier by Les Murray. Both were about the nature of time. The grey sky and lake were almost featureless until I saw a distant bird (possibly a very high pelican or lower-flying duck – difficult to say since it was just a dot.) Suddenly it seemed to me that this was the perfect trope for time itself; the infinite past and future and the present as an ever-moving point. A kind of geometrical representation of the fleeting nature of “now.” It’s a brief poem, but particularly dense. I named it “present.”

Now my ccmixter-colleague speck (ironic, desu ne?) has remixed the poem with the help of a constellation of talent:

speck – production

panu moon – bass, percussion, guitar and piano
Deb Matthews_Zott (aka debbizo) - synths and guitar
robwalkerpoet – vocal, shakuhachi
CSoul – cello, strings
@nop – bass, beat
KungFu – percussion
IDzeroNo – vocal.

Thanks speck and everyone else for this reinterpretation of “present.”
(Click on the title beneath to hear it.)

Info

rob walker poet

thanks Lee Marvin

villanelle from Hell

cool old guys

in short

Internalized Russian dolls

The_Baboushkas_inside-Schizophrend-ft-r… by schizophrend

keeping it straight

Keep it straight by VJ_Memes

unknown unknowns

The Uncertainty of Principles as Princi… by annabloom

simple things and beats

Simplicity (Beats) feat. Rob Walker by Wired_Ant

another mere pinpoint

Present by DreamSynth

a mere moving pinpoint

A Mere Moving Pinpoint by speck