| POETRY CURRENTS | |
Greetings from Australia! We've a lot to catch up on since my last Museletter column....
QUEENSLAND POETRY FESTIVAL
The Queensland Poetry Festival, held in Brisbane during the last week of September 2002, was one of the best organised poetry festivals I’ve been to. It's large by most standards -- I didn’t catch anywhere near all of it as I was in Brisbane for only a day or so, because I’d just come back from Egypt (see below). The festival brought together an excellent array of interstate and local poets. One of the highlights was a double reading by poets Robert Adamson and Dorothy Porter. Queensland writers who inspired were Kristin Hannaford and Louise Waller and David Reiter from Interactive Press. Melbourne poet Ian McBryde put out a CD, The Still Company, which I discovered at the Queensland Festival and recommended in my holiday gift picks because it makes your mouth water. I was impressed by the Singaporean poet Yong Shu Hoong whose book dowhile is a neat artefact and a nice read.
CANBERRA POETRY FESTIVAL
The following week was the Canberra Poetry Festival where Kristin Henry from Melbourne, Jill Jones from Sydney and Sandra Thibodeaux from Darwin impressed. Thibodeaux did some lively performance work which made you want to buy her poetry/music CD. Steve Kelen from Canberra, Andrew Burke from Perth and Katherine Lyneham from Hobart also did excellent readings but the highlight for me was the launch of Paul Cliff’s new book The Impatient World – because many (many) moons ago Paul was in the very first workshop I ever ran. He seems to have overcome that obstacle, however, to produce some excellent work.
The feeling at Canberra’s festival was much closer and smaller than in Brisbane, even though there were a large number of readings and a fair amount of community interaction. At one stage there was a troupe of small children in flowery costumes in the foyer – I didn’t see what they were doing but I expect that it was something poetic. I was exhausted at that point and slumped in front of the coffee stall calling out for succour – or coffee at the very least. Rob Riel, who’s good value and who publishes the Picaro series of chapbooks, was there. We were on a panel with various people talking about the value of poetry or some such thing... this degenerated into a certain amount of dreary schools bashing (“Why can’t they teach poetry properly…, i.e., It’s not our fault”) which bored me but which seemed to cheer up a number of people on the panel and in the audience.
One thing I liked about the Canberra Festival was that at the big dinner in the Marquee in the Gardens they chose to feature Canberra poets living and dead. Local Canberra poets read work from their favourite poets associated with Canberra accompanied by their own work. It made the visitors appreciate the richness of the city’s poetic heritage. Canberra may well be our nation’s capital but it’s a new city and prone to be sniffed at by people who don’t know any better. This evening was a great idea well done. Present (and reading) was a living Canberra poetry icon in Rosemary Dobson. Her work has enriched a few generations of poets already and will no doubt continue to do so. Bruce Dawe from Toowoomba in Queensland also made one of his relatively rare appearances.
WRITERS' TOUR TO EGYPT
In September I went to Egypt to run workshops with a bunch of Australian writers while floating down the Nile on a cruise ship and visiting ancient sites. This is an excellent way to get to know writers, although it was almost impossible to find copies of contemporary Egyptian poetry books to bring home. It would help, of course, to be able to read Arabic. Poets Laurel Lamperd and Sue Clennell from Western Australia (who’ve recently published The Ink Drinkers) were among the writers who came along.
MOLLY BLOOM'S
I went down to Melbourne to read at the last of the Water Rat readings (these regular readings organised by the redoubtable Phil Ilton have now moved to Molly Bloom’s). The Water Rat was a great venue and this was an excellent reading. The format is one local plus one interstate reader (in this case it was me) and an open section. The open section was the best I’ve ever heard with quality poets like Phil Salom, John Jenkins, Robyn Rowland, Jennifer Harrison and a host of other Melbournites making for a great night. Ken Smeaton was there reading from his new book (Love Poet Live) and Kevin Brophy read from his excellent new book too. New readers included Ali Alizadeh whose book elixir: a story in poetry was launched soon after, though I bought an advance copy and was pleased I did. A bit of passion and a very good reading by a talent to watch I think. Melbourne has a habit of engendering and/or attracting interesting poets.
POETICA RADIO
If you’re over here you might keep your ear out for Poetica on ABC Radio National on Saturday afternoons. They’ve been doing wonderful work over the years (led by Mike Ladd, a poet himself of some repute). Programs are always themed in some way or another – coming up is a show featuring Northern Territory poets (among them Kaye Aldenhoven and Marian Devitt).
SHOALHAVEN POETRY FESTIVAL (AGAIN)
Planning is underway for the Shoalhaven Poetry Festival (aka “Festival on a Shoestring”). We’re going to float down the river and a few other things. Watch this space. We’ll want postcards too by the way: DL size on the theme of Love. You won’t get them back: it’s just for the fun. (Send your postcards to me at P.O. Box 94, Berry NSW 2535 Australia).
Good to be back!
