20 posts tagged “poetry”

Today my work came out in Frame Lines, a funky new Melbourne alternative arts magazine. I am not only very happy to have my first Australian publishing credit - I am also really stoked about this magazine and what they are working to accomplish, and doing a hella job with! So without further adieu - Edition #3 ...

FRAME LINES

I am cross posting this from Inbetwixt :)



I am having a little wonder/ponder about things like familiarity and contempt in terms of writing and performance of poetry.

 We headed off on Friday evening to Pascalle Burton's book launch and it was quite interesting for a few reasons. One thing I noticed is that I have heard her perform quite a few times now, perhaps half a dozen - and so her poems are becoming 'old friends'. This is to say, I am now familiar with the words and the way Pascalle performs them.

 I don't feel 'bored' when I hear the individual poems - but I find myself listening less carefully, picking up on other things. Other aspects of the performance have greater significance as I am no longer trying to simply 'hear the poem'.

I think at this point in my listening, I am actually in a position to critique - and likely would not have been able to do so earlier -- I would have just been saying, "wow this is great!" Last night was also the first time I have seen Pascalle's poetry on the page as all the people who attended her book launch were given a copy of her book,  A Vast Laugh'. Does seeing the words on the page change things as well? Probably a little.

Ok, so this post isn't actually about critiquing Pascalle's work or performance  [tho for the record I do give her A+] its about poetry and presentation of it in general.

I notice things about using voice recording/reading/performing and poetry. For some people, the poem doesn't seem to 'click' until they hear it read. At the point voice is integrated, it is like the poem makes 'sense' and I listen to people talk about ah ha! moments when they 'listen' to the poem.

This is an interesting thing for me as I enjoy reading a poem off the page a great deal ... and it may well be for me, the poem doesn't feel 'complete' until I see it on a page.

So once people get into performance poetry - I wonder how their appreciation for 'just poetry' on a page changes? Do people get into a sort of jazzed poetry experience, and anything less, seems flat, or bland by comparison?

Is this simply down to the different way people enjoy poetry ... hell ... enjoy words in general ...  and does it have something to do with our limited range of opportunities to appreciate poetry in different ways? Does integrating new experience with 'poetic means' forever alter the way we approach poetry. [Consider as well, the recent information I posted: Contemporary Linguistically Innovative Poetry in respect to experimental and sound poetry].

At the point where we start to meet people at their needs for our work to be presented in a different way(s) at which point does this 'presentation process' start to actually drive the work, the writing, the poetry? Is it a 'good thing' that it does? If we start to use things like voice recording, an/or other media ie/ visual imagery, film, music, sounds ... does the majority of our creative focus move from writing a great poem, to actually keeping people interested in the presentation of it?

Ponderings ...

I am going to cross post this post, which was originally posted [Mar 6] in my Inbetwixt blog. I hope it will promote some discussion about using voice recordings for poetry.

   
To be seen
We go
Underneath, beneath,
Far below the dirt –
Where we eat
Modest deaths and great worms
And forget there was -
Choice.

We’re all insomniacs down here
Sharing the shameful bareness
Of our open heart surgeries,
Embellished by scalpel scars
(And other tools)
Of yesterday’s bruises –
Seen the way you never can
By light of day.

Cunningly defenseless
We woo it
Abuse it
Sometimes lose it
Strip like whores
Concealing nothing
Wanting something -
Naked.

[1]

Another thing I don’t know.

Were you restless? Is that why the multiple moves,
Marriages, addresses, phone numbers, schools –
Strangers masquerading as neighbors, family who
Are strangers, daughters who are shunned?

Were you restless? And if you were, was it in your blood
And is it contagious, or genetic, a cellular flaw, or!
Ok, maybe a secret strength - a cross you bore
Til it bored you, that I now bear -

Because you gave it to me –

And because you have given so little,
Must I treasure this
Uncertainty?

[2]

Of course, you are not uncertain at all.
And if you were restless
It has aged, petrified and
Become vintage bitter.

And this leads to other things I don’t know
But speculate about, wide awake -
in the dark
Studying constellations of emptiness
Between a mother and a daughter

I contemplate Legacies
And Accidents of Passing.
I think hard on these ‘gifts’
Because I must -
 
Because I have babies
Because I have given
Because blood tells.

A little update ....

I have found a home for three poems; Shadow Girl, Shadows Talk Back and Stripped, with a fresh, funky new art magazine in Melbourne - March edition!

I've sent away a flash fiction piece to Mslexia since they aren't accepting poetry submissions at the moment (I am however working on something for their poetry contest!)

I've sent away a couple proposals for arts conferences - one at the University of Sydney - one for a uni in Melbourne. I dunno what I'll do if my proposals actually get accepted!!

Last but not least, I am involved with some poetry workshops/performance heats in Feb/March for a performance poetry slot for the Queensland Poetry Festival in August. Again, this is new for me and I am definitely pushing my edges to do it - but I'm in!

Other than that, I continue to write, research homes for poems and hope to build up my poetry collection so I have plenty to keep circulating. The uni proposals are themed -  Memory, Meaning and the Poetic "I" (is my proposed theme) the other is:

Missing Persons seeks to examine and explore issues arising from loss and displacement, memory and forgetting, disappearance, erasures and caesuras, death and dying in artistic and creative production. In particular the conference will assess the artistic, cinematic, literary, moral, social, familial, (geo) political, philosophical, psychological and religious significance of these issues, both individually and together.

For those that have followed my blog/work for awhile - you'll know the above themes are near and dear to me -- so I am thrilled to start building a body of work around that theme.

Ok, so there we have it, my 'little update' AND a huge thank you for all of the "Wild Little Mothers" who continue to read, nurture, critique and support my poems.