Thanks to The Group literary arts magazine for putting up our (Ben & my) bibliophobia in the latest online edition. We join the esteemed company of Larry Buttrose, Sue Bond, Nike Bourke, Blazenka Brysha, BM Buttrose, Sam Cooney, Jack Feldstein, Matt Hetherington, Belinda Jeffrey, Kavita Jindal, Adair Jones, Mark Kovan, Angela Meyer, Mark Mordue and Billy Marshall Stoneking
(Image by OverTheMoon)
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A poem of mine which had its genesis in a junior high in Himeji two years ago has been recognised in the Australian Poetry Centre’s national poetry competition: ‘Making sense of it’. The competition was looking for poems which “show life from a totally unique perspective, from an author’s own sensory experience, allowing others an insight into this distinctive view of the world – how the author felt, observed and encountered it.”
The top five poems selected were
Lines written in Himeji, 2008 by rob walker,
Night Fires by Mercia Morton,
Now Hear This by Lerys Byrnes,
Talking Behind my Back by Julienne Juschke, and
autistic child with acute auditory processing disorder by Melinda Smith.
I was particularly pleased that my work received glowing comments from Chris Wallace-Crabbe and was read publicly at a ceremony at the Wheeler Centre (Melbourne) on May 7.
My poem was written with a regular rhythm but little rhyme. It was a stressful time for me. The poem was written is an almost dissociated state after I had seen Picasso’s Guernica hanging in a corridor while thinking about plate tectonics and Japan’s amazingly disconnected culture and my tiny place in it…
All five poems will be recorded, performed and released on the APC’s 3RRR poetry podcast Nothing Rhymes with RRR, and published on the Australian Poetry Centre’s website.
Congratulations to winning poet, Melinda Smith.
Read all 5 short-listed poems HERE.
iPlod. Hip-hop for the middle-aged. I didn’t forget the words to this one – it was a lot of fun. Ended up with 3rd place in this competition (Royce had a well-deserved 1st.) Thanks to Ivan for the sax-work which was totally impro.
RIP Tuxedo Cat…
How embarrassing. My first appearance at RebelSlam last week was the Adelaide Poetry Slam’s swansong at the Tuxedo Cat before the wrecking ball smites the old building in Synagogue Place. The hardest part was trying to look cool when I went to jelly internally at forgetting my lines. Knowing it was being videoed for Youtube didn’t help. Next time I take a prompt card!. This is the same poem I performed at Goolwa with Max_Mo (see the last post.) The better-remembered and better-produced version is HERE. Amazingly I survived the dries to make the second round!
There’s probably a way to embed this, but I haven’t figured it out – yet. Follow the link below:
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I’m really looking forward to our first live gig at the Salt on the Tongue poetry festival (which will be HUGE) at Goolwa this Sat night.
The poetry is hot and the music is cool. Max_mo is poets Amelia Walker, Mike Ladd & me and musos Steve Matters (bass), Andy Mills (drums) and Derek Pascoe (tenor sax). We’ve been rehearsing at the ABC studios over the last couple of weeks & we’re ready to roll. This will be something VERY new. Hope to see some of you there at the Brewery, Goolwa 10:30 pm April 24. Cost: FREE!