My son Matt invited me to see a Hiptones “Cobra” performance at the Wheatsheaf last night when I told him about the Max_Mo work I’d been doing with Derek Pascoe. It was my first experience of Cobra and I loved it. It seems like Cobra is to music as TheatreSports is to drama. And the Keith Johstone of Cobra is Zorn. Anyway, it’s quite exciting watching talented musicians (Stephen Whittington – Prompter & misc instruments, Derek Pascoe – Tenor saxophone, Chris Martin – Piano, Hilary Kleinig – Cello, Adam Ritchie – Guitar/Laptop & Jarrad Payne- Drums ) virtually composing as they play and leaving space for the others. Like TheatreSports, the real skill seems to lie in accepting others’ offers, rather than trying to be the prima donna. It was great to see Hilary who told me that on Sunday at the same venue Zephyr Quartet had actually played Belinda Gehlert’s dunes, which was based on my poem dunes: perlubie beach. Funny place, Adelaide!

"Origin" by Martina Angela Müller

I’m very gratified to have work published in the US literary magazine Cortland Review. The Review, which includes poetry, short fiction and reviews, is published solely online out of Cortland, New York and includes recorded audio versions (read by the poets themselves.)
The Darkening Eucalyptic is an homage (in title only) to the great Ern Malley. It was written a couple of years back when I was experimenting with block-text and run-on sentences as poetry. At the time it seemed to be a factual poem about cutting up a tree. Looking back, it seems to be another poem about death.
It’s a strange thing, but often I don’t discover the underlying meaning of my poems until years later.
I share publication in Issue 44 of this fine journal with Julia Alter, Kurt Brown, Alex Dimitrov, Gregory Lawless, Austin MacRae, Kirby Olson, Simon Perchik, Marvyn Petrucci, Dan Veach, Ryan Vine, Hilde Weisert, Marjory Wentworth, Ross White, Michael Wynn, Haley Carrollhach, Mariko Nagai, an interview with Dan Brown by David M. Katz and David Rigsbee’s book review of “Divine Comedy: Journeys through a Regional Geography, Three New Works” by John Kinsella.

The latest Max_Mo track uploaded is “Small Stuff” (klik HEAR.) I wrote this poem as Sesquipedalophobia (such a long word for ‘the fear of long words’ – and a cruel one for sesquipedalophobics…) I gave myself the challenge of constructing a poem of single syllables, from a phobic’s POV. It was part of my 2007 phobiaphobia collection.
But now the Max_Mo boys have given it a whole new dimension. I love it.

(bodyless Steve and headless Amelia)

Recently I’ve been involved in an innovative words & beats collaboration with local poets Amelia Walker and Mike Ladd and musos Steve Matters (composer, multi-instrumentalist, programming/mixing), Andy Mills (drums) and Derek Pascoe (tenor sax). We have no idea yet where this cooperative might lead, but I’m pretty excited by the results so far:

( to hear any title, click HERE)

Intimate Talk (Mike Ladd)
Re-Union and Botanic (Amelia Walker)
Tupperware and Plympton gopher (rob walker)

More tracks and background on the musos later…

This minibeast (that looks like a preying mantis designed by a committee) is a native of Australia, yet I’d never seen one until a few years ago. I was so amazed by this creature that I wrote a poem about it. The poem was re-drafted many times over several years. I submitted it all over the place but couldn’t find a willing publisher. Ironically it was eventually accepted by Divan (one of Australia’s first online poetry journals) where I’ve been trying unsuccessfully to publish my work for years! Have a peek HERE.

I’m proud to join the following poets in Divan edition 7: J Alice, Louis Armand, Janine Baker, Connie Barber, Catherine Bateson, Kevin Bonnett, Janice Bostok, Pam Brown, Sam Byfield, Sherryl Clark, MTC Cronin, Athena Dennis, Alison Eastley, Kevin Gillam, Jeff Guess, Libby Hart, Lia Hills, Jill Jones, Paula Jones, Jayne Fenton Keane, Geoff Lemon, Debbie Lim, Ray Liversidge, Earl Livings, Kent MacCarter, Julie Maclean, Marlene Marburg, Ian McBryde, J R McRae, Dianne Millett, Mark Miller, Rebecca Page, Michael Riley, Tracey Rolfe, Robyn Rowland, Philip Salom, Carla Sari, Barry Scott, Andrea Semeniuk, Lorraine Sim, Alex Skovron, Ken Smeaton, Ian C Smith, Marian Spires, Vicki Thorton, Miles Trench, Julie Waugh, John West, Irene Wilkie, Fiona Wright and Ouyang Yu.

Thanks to editor Dr Earl Livings for acknowledging my work.
(photo courtesy of Wikipedia)