Poetry Open Mic - 24th November

 As I near the end of my cafe poet residency with Australian Poetry I would like to thank Gilbert's of Mittagong and Australian Poetry for helping me to establish this residency and for supporting me throughout.

Rhiannon Hall - Poet

I would also like to thank all those who came to talk about poetry with me and that attended one of my events, particularly thank you to Anna Kerdijk Nicholson and Mark Tredinnick for attending round table discussions about their poetry.

Peter Carmody - Sound Tech

On Saturday the 24th of November Susan Pearce and Peter Carmody from Carmody Out of Ireland met me at Gilbert's of Mittagong for the last of my poetry open mics. Susan and Peter have been amazing during my residency, lending me a PA system and setting it up for me. It has also been a pleasure to hear Susan's poetry. Susan's poetry is an observation of the culture and people that surround her and includes some fabulous lines, such as: "...an upside down view of the world..." (from a poem about taking her cat to the preschool she teaches at) and "...black is the... chemical smell of newly laid tarmac..." (in a poem that describes colours to someone who is blind). 

Susan Pearce - Poet

Treva Taylor - Poet

All the way from Wollongong, Treva Taylor from the South Coast Writers Centre, made a trip to Mittagong to entertain and challenge us with his poetry, that ranged from funny poems about mobile phones to emotional poems about poverty, war and the death of a child. Thank you Treva for making the drive and inspiring us with lines like, "...cast iron around his head..." and "...my eyes are watching the flow of electrons...".

Jared Camilleri - Poet

Repeat offender Jared Camilleri, again surprised us with his poetic skill. Jared's works have a depth to them that is awe inspiring for me. Congratulations Jared for your recent poetry reading on the local radio and good luck for your future publications.

Gregory Tome - Poet

Gregory Tome's poetry is always well crafted. Thank you Greg for joining me on many of my Fridays at the cafe to talk about poetry and for attending so many of my cafe poet events. I hope to see some of the poems that Greg read on Saturday in publication soon. From a poem about a woman pegging out clothes to a poem about a woman handing out potatoes at Auschwitz Greg captures small actions in such delicate detail.

Lorne Johnson - Poet

It was so exciting to have so many promising emerging poets at this event, including Lorne Johnson. Lorne has been generously offering me advice on my poetry and publishing opportunities, drawing my attention to a new Perth magazine called Regime. Lorne has been published in various places, including Meanjin, Regime, Rabbit and the Red Room Company's phone app The Disappearing. I especially enjoyed Lorne's poem about artist Adam Cullen. It has been a treat to meet you Lorne.

John Brown - Poet

Thank you to John Brown for capturing this event with your photography expertise. It was brilliant to hear John read some of his own poetry this time around. For someone who has not been writing for long John has a skill for words, capturing everyday life in his writing. An example of John's craft can be found in this line, "...brotherhood unspoken, but lived...".

Kerry Miller - Poet

Kerry Miller's poetry is often philosophical and always captures an interesting and well thought out concept. At the open mic Kerry read an anti-Pastoral poem with some harrowing lines, such as, "...skeletons of drowned trees..." and "...in a bowl of liquid sky...". 'Liquid sky', what a beautiful description of rain and flood. Although the image 'liquid sky' may be beautiful the reality of flood, as dangerous and destructive, is also conveyed in Kerry's poem in the words 'skeletons' and 'bowl'. Nothing can escape the effects of flood, everything is caught in the 'bowl'.

Ceinwen Hall - Artist

Thank you to my sister, Ceinwen, for joining us, supporting us and for reading out one of our Dad's, Phillip Hall, poems.

Thank you to the South Coast Writers Centre, HighlandFM, Highlife, and Highlands Post for their support, advertising my residency and events.

Round Table with Mark Tredinnick

Mark Tredinnick - photo by John Brown

Thank you to everyone who joined Mark Tredinnick and I at Gilbert's of Mittagong on Saturday the 10th for a chat about "the emotions, ideas and madness" behind his poetry, to borrow his words.

Mark Tredinnick was the winner of the Montreal Poetry Prize (2011) and the Cardiff Poetry Prize (2012). He is the author of numerous works of prose and poetry, including The Blue Plateau and Fire Diary. Mark is a busy person, and I am very grateful that he donated his time to us.

Mark appreciates Charles Wright's endeavor to "...write language, landscape and the question of god" and seeks to explore these themes within his own poetry. Mark's father once told him that "all good faith includes doubt and if there is not doubt it is fundamentalism". Therefore, Mark likes to question the existence of god in his writing. A good example of a poem by Charles Wright that does this is 'Last Supper'. Tredinnick's poems ‘The Kingfisher’ and ‘Catching Fire; or, The Art of Sitting’ are also good examples of this. 'The Kingisher' was short-listed for the 2011 Montreal International Poetry Prize. These poems are canticles of the world, they sing the world, praising the world. Indeed, Mark asserted that "all good poetry is religious in the sense that it is a reconnection with place, with nature". Monica Donoso Markovina said "we are like ants... part of the world and the poet is about making that reconnection".

"We are a society that is addicted to happiness and speed and light" - Mark Tredinnick

John Brown asked Mark, "When you write a poem, if you keep adding do you find you over work it?". Mark explained that sometime this can happen, but that normally "the Capricorn in me comes out and I stubbornly make it work". Indeed, he does make his poems 'work'. 'Frost', in Fire Diary, would be one of my favorite of Mark's poems. It blurs the distinctions between the human and non-human world, as the animals take on human actions, but the reality of this is questionable, as suggested through the use of the soft colours in the first tercet, which allude to a dream-like state. 'Frost' establishes an idealised place, one characterised by the pleasant atmosphere of a country setting. This is constructed through the fantastical imagery of a place that is softly coloured with ‘catkins’ and ‘pinkblossoms’, where a horse ‘slips his coat’ and ‘bluewrens picnic’.

A photo by John Brown

Greg Tome asked Mark if he ever used rhyme in poetry. Mark asserted that end-stop rhyme, or rhyme at the end of the line is archaic and that "rhythm is the real god of poetry". In saying this, he did note that there are 21st Century poets who use rhyme and use it well, such as Stephen Edgar. Mark believes that "most people need to be freed from rhyme to be able to write a real poem, they might be writing verse", they might be conforming to the rules of verse, but not be writing a good poem.

Monica told us that poetry is about appealing to the senses: "it's a sense thing, painting a picture in your head and feeling the rhythm". Mark agreed, stating, "poetry is something about lyricism... a poem is like a leaf that tells the tree... a poem is about everything".

Mark reminded us that if you want to be writing poetry you need to be reading it. He recommended joining the mailing list of www.poets.org. This website emails daily poems, including classical and contemporary poetry. Another useful website to follow is www.americanlifeinpoetry.org. This site emails contemporary American poems weekly. Mark said that "you read it all and then you shake yourself up and then you don't think of it at all". What you read will influence your thinking and your writing.

"A poem is a window, it gives you the view and the viewer at once and the dance... but the poem is the glass, it orchestrates a relationship" - Mark Tredinnick

Mark told us about his friend Li, who noted that Mark has a gift for sadness. Mark's poem that won the Montreal Prize, 'Walking Underwater', and his poem 'Cleave' in Fire Diary capture a sadness. Li said that the sadness in her poetry is wet, like rain, but the sorrow Mark captures is frozen like the ice in China in the winter time.

A photo by John Brown

Mark told us that every line of a poem is a poem and this is why he capitalizes the first letter of the line in some of his poems, to stress the line as a poem. This can be seen in his poem 'The Child & Time', which includes lines like "... / The child’s the string that played those words, / ... / Now he’s the syntax of the broken phrases of his sleep". Each line does indeed stand alone as a poem, exploring language and imagery.

Judith Beveridge once said that "the words are the story in the poem, they may tell a story as well". Mark quoted this sentiment to us as a demonstration of the importance of language in a poem. A poem may tell a story, but it should also be concerned with the meaning that sound, visual layout and language convey.

It has been said that Mark's poetry is a geography, "it is what it is and it has depth and bird music". Frans Wright believes that a poem doesn't want to describe a place it wants to be a place. Mark has pondered over these kinds of sentiments in writing his poetry. He likes to think about the relationship between his poetry and place as a correspondence, whereby the poetry is a reflection of the place, as well as there being a communication between the poem and the place.

One of the poems that Mark shared with us was called 'Global Warming'. Monica commented that as readers we are being lead through this poem through the rhyme and structure. Mark told us that that is an important point, "if you want to keep someone in your work you need to keep reminding them of the theme, content and what it is all about".

One of the guests asked whether Mark should be using Australian flowers in his poetry, which is set in Australia. Mark said that he doesn't believe so. He believes that nationalism gets in the way. He prefers to think of himself as a poet who writes on the South East coast of a continent, thus acknowledging the local and the universal in his writing.

"Nature is the story we are just in it" - Mark Tredinnick

Mark told us that many of his poems have started off as notes in his iphone. When he is out walking and a phrase comes to mind he has to record it. He said that if it is a "core phrase and I think that's too good to use so I have to make a poem to use that". I am glad that Mark does this and I look forward to reading more of his poetry in the future.

Please check out Mark Tredinnick's website here.

You can purchase Fire Diary at http://spunc.com.au/members/puncher-wattmann/product/9781921450402/

Gilbert's of Mittagong - tea party

How one's mind wanders when it should be focused on writing an honours thesis.

I don't drink coffee so when I am in the cafe for my poet residency I sip on herbal teas, one of which is called tea party. I just wrote this today so as per usual, this is a first draft. Please offer any commentary you might have.

Tea party

            A party of tea

Tea discoing down my throat a do I look hot

                                    Shimmy giggling with the remnants

            Of tequila days past

                        Tea streamers tickling nostrils

Lingering come and get me and with a flick

                                                Of hair

                        Tea booty shakes in a flourish of teapot

And cup

                                    Action

Even the saucer gets a lick

Warm and giddy tea drums my mind – faster faster

Then

Slow – lights up after sex

cigarette plumes float in my belly

                        tea drunk I am spent but

tea tea parties on

Round Table with Anna Kerdijk Nicholson

Anna Kerdijk Nicholson, Greg Tome and Berlio 

Thank you to everyone who joined Anna Kerdijk Nicholson and I at Gilbert's of Mittagong yesterday for a chat about her poetry; the what, how and why.

Anna Kerdijk Nicholson currently holds a position on the Board of Directors of Australian Poetry and was previously an editor for Five Bells. Along with Anna's contributions to the Australian poetry writing community, she has published two books of poetry, the first of which, The Bundanon Cantos, was mentioned in the Sydney Morning Herald's Best Books of 2003. The collection of poems which became The Bundanon Cantos began in 1998 when Anna was Artist-in-Residence at Bundanon, near Nowra. Anna's second book, Possession, was published in 2010 and received the Wesley Michel Wright Prize, the Victorian Premier's Prize and was shortlisted for the NSW and ACT Premier's Prizes. Anna told us that the success of Possession was like 'having a child and watching them go off to uni and get a real job', she is amazed at how well received the book has been. Anna has also won the Arts Queensland Award for Unpublished Poetry and has been a prizewinner in The Society of Women Writers NSW Inc. National Poetry Prize.

The afternoon began with Anna reading three of her poems, one of which was 'Terra Australis ... land of the inmost heart'. This poem, like many of Anna's, carries a hard hitting message about the colonisation of Australia. Anna has written:
                       ....The mail-box names down the Dam Road are recent tributes
                       to us coming here to find, by digging the earth, what
                       in our hearts we sought: Eccles, Johnston, McWhirter,
                       Naidu.... (2010, p43).
Here Anna acknowledges that all who have migrated to Australia have come to find a home, a place where they can belong. Many of the poems within Possession, as Anna pointed out, are modern sonnets, this poem included. The modern sonnet holds to the 14 lines, but is not concerned with rhyme in the same way that a traditional sonnet is. It was remarked that within her collection Possession the use of the modern sonnet is a tool through which Anna is able to create a conversation between the ideals held during the time of Captain Cook and twenty-first century, postcolonial Australia. Anna commented that she was once asked if she viewed herself as a 'postcolonial' writer. In order to respond to this she researched the term and was thrilled to find that her writing could be described as postcolonial, but noted that she would not have described herself as postcolonial, as she does not think in those terms when she writes. Though, she does believe that a good poem should always carry some hard hitting message, the politics of the writer, underneath the imagery and beauty of the writing. She hopes that her poetry is able to draw a reader in through her use of language and description, but that they will come out the other end thinking about the political underlying message that is conveyed.

One poem that is perhaps a bit more hard hitting is 'Canto XX', which explicitly describes the inappropriateness of non-Indigenous Australians presence in Australia:
                       ....I look down on the lands

                       through my telescope -
                       armies are driving
                       across the plains
                       as I watch. I can see
                       spotted-brick encampments
                       and four-wheel drives... (2003, p49).
Our group discussed how the short lines of this poem echo the sound of marching. Discussion of the line divisions here, and of Anna's adoption of the modern sonnet, lead to a conversation about contemporary poetry in general and the forms of poetry that are most popular at the moment. Those present discussed what inspires them to write and Anna suggested other poets that we should be reading, poets who write on similar themes to what we explore ourselves. This is an important point, anyone who enjoys writing poetry, or any kind of literature for that matter, should be reading. Anna herself stated that she reads as widely as she can, with some particular favorites, such as Jill Jones, Peter Boyle and Alison Crogan.

Anna Kerdijk Nicholson deep in conversation with Ken Challenor

We moved on to an exploration of ekphrastic poetry, with Berlio reading Anna's poem 'Studies For a Nude'. The circularity of this poem was noted, with "...the very bare / soles of her feet..." appearing in the first stanza, followed by the repetition of souls in the last stanza, with "...toughness peeled to her / uninhibited, naked soles" (Meanjin, p216). Anna explained that the 'darker work' in the second stanza, asserting "...its alien qualities, andogynous / and defiant..." was a metaphor for herself. Anna discussed how interesting the process of writing from a painting can be, as well as writing from a journal, such as in many of her poems in Possession, which have been inspired by Captain Cook's journals, and some in The Bundanon Cantos, inspired by writings by Arthur Boyd. She told us how she will read a journal and take out the narrative, cutting the journal entry back to one core image, and then select lines from the journal which contain this image, randomly compile them to then gradually chop and build the words, lines and imagery that will become the final poem. This was a process that Ken Challenor was particularly interested in having recently experimented with writing an ekphrastic poem of his own. Ken and I will be reading our ekphrastic poems opening of an art exhibition, 'Zwischenräume - Spaces of Convergence', in the Faculty of Creative Arts gallery at Wollongong University on the 27th of July, from 12.30pm.

Greg tome expressed an admiration for Anna's use of imagery and the way that she is able to compact so many different ideas and meanings within one poem, but it is still able to flow and remain connected. Greg read Anna's poem 'Today the Distance Between the Threads of the Net':
                         Let us imagine it is the width of a chink of light
                         falling near a wife's foot as she passes her husband's door;
                         the worn dip in a butcher's block on the Mile End Road;
                         the width of a carriage rut in the mud in York;
                         the fatness of folded secret orders from the Admiralty;
                         or perhaps as thin as a goose's quill in an ink pot
                         on the St Lawrence River; but how shall it be measured
                         now, and how will we know when it is done? (2010, p51).
Within this poem there is an exploration of gender, colonisation and the passing of time. Jennifer D. Maree was interested in how Anna selects the right words for a poem, it is something that Jennifer struggles with, knowing if a word is to abstract and therefore readers will not be able to grasp the meaning. This interested Anna, who described this struggle as Jennifer's politics. Jennifer wants poetry to be for everyone, accessible for everyone. Personally, while I do think that poetry should be accessible for everyone I would like to stress that a word, if it appropriately captures the image, sound and texture of a poem should not be sacrificed. A reader will be able to learn through their reading, gaining a wider vocabulary, and these days with google it is so easy to look up an obscure word that might not be understood with a first reading. Though I do respect Jennifer's politics and I am interested to read some of her poetry as she informed me that she does have a self published book out.

You can purchase The Bundanon Cantos at http://books.google.com.au/books/about/The_Bundanon_Cantos.html?id=LW-tAAAACAAJ&redir_esc=y  and Possession at http://fiveislandspress.com/catalogue/possession

By the Estuary

Jonathan Bate writes that “[a] Romantic poem may be regarded as a model of a certain kind of being and of dwelling… the poem itself is an image of ecological wholeness which may grant to the attentive and receptive reader a sense of being-at-home-in-the-world” (2000, p109). In this sense Mark Miller’s poetry could be described as post-Romantic or a reconfiguration of Romanticism. Within his poetry Miller describes the natural world in such a way that the people who are featured in his poems are embedded in their surroundings. An example of this is his poem ‘By the Estuary’, a poem in four parts, where Miller paints images of the activity of one day, from morning till night: “Making the most of the failing light, / a flurry of gulls / scatters like flecks of silver / late children shriek and dive / from the pier into the herringed tide, / down into the lathing currents / before scurring home / with the salt-tang still on their skin /…” (2010). Within this poem the birds, a dead seadragon, moored fishing boats, swimming children and fruit bats are all described in such a way that they all, the human and nonhuman elements, appear natural and ingrained into that place. The majority of Miller’s poetry displays this ‘ecological wholeness’ that Bate discusses, exploring the majesty of life, both human and nonhuman, along the Shoalhaven River. As Mark Miller stated in an interview, “[a] lot of my poems are about place, and although they… don’t have that overtly environmental, or conservation message to them, it’s there inherently or implied through the impact of the environment on me and on my sensibilities” (2012, pers. comm. 1 June). This comment by Miller demonstrates his mission to create a sense of ‘dwelling’ within his poetry, where the reader may take away lessons of preservation through an experience of the majesty of nature, as Miller views it. 

You can buy Mark Miller's Conversing with Stones at http://books.google.com.au/books/about/Conversing_with_Stones.html?id=twpgAAAACAAJ&redir_esc=y

Slam Poetry

Friday the 15th of June at Gilbert's I was joined again by Gregory Tome to discuss Susan Stewart's poetry among others. Gregory introduced Stewart to me the week before, but though I enjoyed some of her poems as single pieces I struggled to read her book Red Rover in an entire sitting. This week I have also been reading Dennis McDermott and Peter Minter. These two poets are masters of imagery and language and I am afraid that Stewart's imagery of child hood games and nursery rhymes were obvious and repetitive compared with McDermott and Minter. It was great to talk to Greg about these poet's works and his own poetry.

FAW and SCWC member Ken Challenor and his wife came and had a coffee with me and discussed the process of writing in response to an artwork, as well as writing to a theme. It was lovely to meet Josephine and talk about the writing process with the two of them.

I have been thinking about attempting a slam poem for a while now, but yesterday, while attempting to write a poem on the theme 'Forgotten Days' for the FAW homework I found the perfect inspiration. Here is a first and very rough draft. I need to extend the poem and add some rhyme. My inspiration for this has come from Kasabian's song Days Are Forgotten. The lyrics for this song are absolutely the worst thing I have ever read, but a great starting point for a slam poem, hopefully!

Let’s set ourselves free with a helping of monkey brains

that’d be the way to go. Forgetting

days of our lives and the surfing couch

as we disappear under bleeding stars.

Kasabian get it,

we need to be free.

Put an end to black

too toos, tattoo sleeves

and bathroom tears, cos

we got blood lust

we’re going to live Twilight

8th of June Cafe Poet Residency

Another productive day at Gilbert's yesterday. I wrote a draft ekphrastic poem for an upcoming exhibition at the University of Wollongong Creative Arts Faculty gallery. I won't post the poem, just in case it is good enough to be published as part of the exhibition. But, let me share with you how I went about responding to Gela Samsonidse's artwork. He begins his art works with words and through his work explores the aesthetics of the word, rubbing the words back out. The piece that I have responded to is a charcoal and graphite rendering. I have tried to draw the words, emotions and concepts back out of his image, commenting on the sound of the words and how that relates to the meaning those words hold.

I also, had two people come in to workshop their poetry with me yesterday which was lovely. It was very enjoyable talking with some fellow writers, Berlio and her husband Ron, as well as Gregory Tome.

Yesterday I read a selection of Libby Hathorn's poetry from Talks with my Sakteboard (these can be found on a great blog 'An Australian Poem a Day'). This selection is written for children and is a great read. She uses rhyme and draws upon the everyday life of a school student to craft something, or multiple somethings, that is witty, clever and fun.

Finally, I began writing a poem on the theme of 'The Winter of our Discontent' for the second UOW literary Society Zine. I began by doing a twitter search of this quote and I rate the top tweet as: "now 'really' is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by cheesecake and fork" by @PresumptuousBug.

Fly

I didn't make into the cafe this week, as I was interviewing Shoalhaven poet Mark Miller about his work. I'll post some snip bits of this interview in a couple of weeks, when I have finished collating the wealth of information I gained.

Here is another poem that I wrote last week, to tied you over. It's a little silly, but it was fun. This piece was inspired by Craig Billingham's poem 'The Fan', from Going Down Swinging. A great little poem (Billingham's poem that is...)!

Fly

Can you fly?

What a wonder!
Please, let me ponder,
what it would be
to perch in a tree,
wind in my hair,
way up there,
to spread my arms
and prepare to charm,
as I whoop and hook
around for a loop-the-loop...


No, I said, Can you swat that fly?

I Remember

Week Two of my residency. This week I decided to use my time completing a homework task for a poetry workshop I am doing with Ron Pretty, through the South Coast Writers Centre. The task was to write a poem, where each line had thirteen syllables and each line was to begin "I remember...". So this is what I have written, and please note that this is a first, rough draft:

I remember shadow puppets acting resolute,
I remember the lustrous rainbow-like colour back drop,
I remember whizzing through the theater curtains
and discovering the destruction my journey brings.
I remember dark stumps strewn like forgotten stage props,
I remember the smoke machine haze clad skeletons,
I remember wishing the show would come to an end,
even the cost, four tonnes of CO2 per actor.
I remember necessity, the show must go on...

day one of my cafe poet residency

I've had a productive first day at Gilbert's of Mittagong. Here's a look at something I wrote today. Warning, this is a work in progress.

Your little fingers curl, biscuit crumbs speckle your mother's skirt. When I grow up I want to be a ballerina, you said. Playing with the delicate beads that adorn your mother's neck. Center of her gaze, pink jacketed, you smile. Capriole into the next scene. You no longer fit on your mother's knee; no longer care for the intricacy of her jewelery. You would rather shimmer into someone else's peripherals.

Hope to see some of you at the cafe next Friday.

Gilbert's Cafe, Mittagong

I am beginning my café poet residence at Gilbert’s café, in Mittagong, this Friday. Pop in, have a coffee and talk about writing with me (http://www.localstore.com.au/store/164163/gilberts/mittagong/). I will be at Gilbert’s every Friday for the next twelve months. I will be hosting open mics and poetry readings so keep an eye out for those. Follow this blog to stay up-to-date on the progress of my residency.

Happy writing and reading

Rhiannon.