It’s been a long time between drinks… Between the last post and this one I’ve returned to Australia and Christmas and New Year have come and gone. Sorry to put you through the gross picture again. An interesting artist named Destinazione Altrove has produced a very different version of my poem The Finger. The disturbing spoken word is accompanied by very mellow music, which somehow makes the words even creepier. Thanks for the remix, DA.
Wow. I’m sharing publication with some major Australian talent here:
‘I was struck … by just how many poems depended on the ancient devices of the storyteller … Many have a lyrical or meditative feel, but most have a story to tell, captured in a brief glimpse of the meaning of life, or a dramatic climax.’—JOHN TRANTER
In this impressive anthology John Tranter weaves many threads into a portrait of Australian poetry in 2012. Emerging poets sit alongside the celebrated, travelling from Lake Havasu City to Graz, and nursing homes to fairgrounds, with characters as diverse as David Bowie, Emily Dickinson and Rumpelstiltskin.The Best Australian Poems 2012 will satisfy a hunger for storytelling and a yearning for beauty.
The poets included in The Best Australian Poems 2012 are:
Adeeb Kamal Ad-Deen
Robert Adamson
Ali Alizadeh
Elizabeth Allen
Chris Andrews
Louis Armand
Cassandra Atherton
Luke Beesley
Craig Billingham
Rosemary Blake
Peter Boyle
David Brooks
Pam Brown
Sara Bruxner
Melinda Bufton
Andrew Burke
Joanne Burns
Larry Buttrose
David Campbell
Ashley Capes
Louise Carter
Bonny Cassidy
Ken Chau
Julie Chevalier
Jennifer Chrystie
Eva Collins
Jennifer Compton
Kate Crowcroft
Toby Davidson
Luke Davies
Bruce Dawe
Sarah Day
De Er He
Tricia Dearborn
Will Eaves
Suzanne Edgar
Diane Fahey
Jeltje Fanoy
Michael Farrell
Johanna Featherstone
Liam Ferney
Toby Fitch
John Frawley, AM
Katherine Gallagher
Angela Gardner
Carolyn Gerrish
Geoff Goodfellow
Lisa Gorton
Fran Graham
Stu Hatton
Matt Hetherington
Jack Hibberd
Sarah Holland-Batt
Gregory Horne
Duncan Hose
Darby Hudson
Andy Jackson
John Jenkins
Tiggy Johnson
Jill Jones
S. K. Kelen
Frank Kellaway
Richard King
John Kinsella
Andy Kissane
Karen Knight
Mike Ladd
Anthony Lawrence
Roland Leach
Geoffrey Lehmann
Emma Lew
Bella Li
Jennifer Liston
Cameron Lowe
Anthony Lynch
David McCooey
Rhyll McMaster
Jennifer Maiden
Caitlin Maling
Bronwen Manger
Emily Manger
Bronwyn Mehan
Kate Middleton
John Miles
Peter Minter
Meg Mooney
David Mortimer
Peter Murphy
Les Murray
David Musgrave
Jan Owen
Geoff Page
Christine Paice
John Pfitzner
A. D. Phatak
Greg Piko
Felicity Plunkett
Claire Potter
Craig Powell
Sarah Rice
Mark Roberts
Peter Rose
Josephine Rowe
Belinda Rule
Gig Ryan
Philip Salom
Andrew Sant
Jaya Savige
Michael Sharkey
Shu Cai
Shu Ting
Barnaby Smith
Vivian Smith
Pete Spence
Maria Takolander
Tim Thorne
Mark Tredinnick
Ann Vickery
Rob Walker
Chris Wallace-Crabbe
John Watson
Meredith Wattison
Alan Wearne
Jen Webb
Petra White
Jessica L. Wilkinson
Robin Wilkinson
Fiona Wright
Warrick Wynne
Mark Young
Thanks to the Red River Review for publishing my work again. This time it’s Original clichés, a sequence of an accident waiting to happen and the cliché antiverse. You can find the poem by going HERE, then opening the November 2012 edition. (I’m poem 61. Having a surname which begins with a W has its disadvantages!)
Red River Review is a 12 year-old pioneering all-electronic literary review from Texas, now in its 45th edition, although my first publication with them was crying at the poetry reading, only a year ago. This poem is currently being considered for a Best of the Net Award – thanks to RRR for my nomination.
Congratulations to fellow Adelaide Friendly Street poet David Adés who also has an excellent poem in the current edition.
This is the first print-publication of an accident waiting to happen which I first performed live with Max Mo in 2011.
You can hear the musical version HERE.
For some reason there’s been a great deal less text and a lot more new music lately. It might be because I’ve been spending most of my spare time on the shakuhachi… I just can’t say.
This one grew out of a nice guitar arpeggio in E minor by Javolenus. I added my own guitar embellishments and shakuhachi in spare time between lessons at school (“minor interruptions”!) over a period of weeks stealing odd minutes whenever I could. If there’s a message or theme in there I have no idea what it is! Thanks to Javo for the very nice sample. (Click on ‘Minor interruption’ below to hear it.)
Here’s another particularly beautiful version of my poem The Prisoner. Orchestration and production by onlymeith, guitar by Clarence Simpson. Click “The Unfinished Slaves” below hear it. Thanks to onlymeith from Madrid, Spain, for taking the time.
