Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Poets on the Internet
If the truth be known, not all poetry on the internet is a challenge to the reader. On occasions, however, one does come across great poetry and so this post highlights my discovering the British poet, Graham Mort.
His latest collection is called Visibility and he has won the Bridport Prize for short fiction in 2007. He is a humanitarian (helping in Africa) and lectures at Lancaster University. View some of his work at these sites.

Graham Mort
Poetry Society UK

The Sunday Poem: The Alchemist Next Door
by Graham Mort

What he does, you wonder, hearing
him clatter quietly to his wheelie bin
on dark mornings, fumbling with black bags
when the sky is pure frozen sleep.
All night his house lights burn and you
picture him at a table etching crystals
from dull stone, their brilliance ringing
his eyes with amethyst.
Or when the bags squelch see him
butchering body parts, hands bloody,
his bedroom an abattoir, his fridge a
skull-house, backlit and grinning.
On cold days his starter-motor rasps
abraded splines, starts at the third try
when he drives off to some kind of work,
wiping the windscreen with a rag.
Or never works, but parks to watch
the windows of a certain house where
a woman drowns her face in silvered glass
and hums the cadence in his head.
You couldn't draw his face from memory
yet at weekends greet him, amiably
scooping the sundae of a frozen rose bed,
astonished by the paleness of his hands.
He watches you watching him alone,
the way your eyes absent themselves,
searching his soil for sharp serifs,
its sanskrit of fallen petals or of bone.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Ghosts of Christmas
 
There are ghosts in this house,
a factory turkey, paper stockings,
a machine gun, boiled fruit cake,
an old Santa without raiment,
sculling back a skinful.

If you unearthed these boards
you'd find presents from a wishlist;
a Christmas tree; my son climbing
with a star, the wild scent of pine
filling every room.

And on Christmas morning,
the crush of paper underfoot;
trucks working the berber from the rug,
the throaty roar of crackers,
machines and gadgets spilling their noise
into a five am quiet.

Our children moved on small bicycles
that fitted in the backyard shed.
They circled their energy on paths,
fought, played, snuck back under
sheets, to rise like eerie ku-klux men.

These little things keep returning,
an unopened chemistry set,
gifts for the Salvos
ghosts of the big picture
haunting me again.
Resource for DOROTHY PORTER writings
Plenty to read and marvel at from Dorothy Porter at
http://www.austlit.com/a/porter-d/index.html
John Kinsella & Tracy Ryan

Three new sites for these two West Australian Poets

Mutually Said: http://poetsvegananarchistpacifist.blogspot.com/

Tracy Ryan: http://www.geocities.com/tracy_ryan

John Kinsella: www.johnkinsella.org/



Thursday, December 11, 2008

Vale
Dorothy Porter died in Melbourne this morning of 10th December from complications due to cancer. She was 54. A writer at the height of her powers, Dorothy's most recent publication was EL DORADO, her fifth verse novel. It was shortlisted for the Dinny O'Hearn Poetry Prize (Age Book of the Year Award), the Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature, the Prime Minister's Literary Award for fiction, and Best Fiction in the Ned Kelly Awards and the Australian Book Review described it thus: …this mature and accomplished work…puts her at the top of the distinguished class of contemporary Australian poets when it comes to livres composés.Four months ago Dot was diagnosed with metastasized breast cancer. She has been in treatment since. She was very positive - and wanted to keep this to herself as she was sure she would defeat it. Unfortunately there have been complications and she was admitted to hospital 2 weeks ago and ICU 10 days ago.Dorothy was the most passionate of people who gave her all to everything she engaged with. We cannot imagine the world without her.

I was fortunate to meet Dorothy when I invited her to the 2007 Perth Spring Poetry Festival. She gave a wonderful talk about her work & was so generous with her time. There was no hint of her being unwell. Three of us had a great conversation with her in the Art Gallery coffee shop. She was off to Africa after the festival and enthusiastic about her libretto being published as a movie. She talked about our own work, giving us tips, such as never give up!

Dorothy we will miss you!

Bounty

Bounty
Prose Poetry

The Five Lives of Ms Bennett

The Five Lives of Ms Bennett
A Family Saga

The Ozone Cafe

The Ozone Cafe
White Collar Crime

The Last Asbestos Town

The Last Asbestos Town
Available from Amazon

Evangelyne

Evangelyne
Published by Australian Poetry Centre, Melbourne

of Arc & Shadow

of Arc & Shadow
Published by Sunline Press, WA

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