Blackmail Press is an electronic poetry magazine based in New Zealand and edited by poet Doug Poole. This issue is guest edited by another New Zealand poet, Vaughan Rapatahana, and the theme is ‘marginalisation’. Interestingly it includes three poets from Canberra (myself, Sarah Rice and Paul Cliff) – a reflection on the peripheral flavour of life in our nation’s capital, perhaps ? Although mine and Paul’s poems were both about ‘difficult’ (and marginalised) children, while Sarah’s was about a different kind of margin altogether.

Anyway, if you’ve got a spare ten minutes, do have a flick through, there is a lot of really good, thought-provoking poetry on offer. Enjoy.

One of my poems has been selected for inclusion in the Best Australian Poems 2011. This anthology is produced annually by Black Inc. publishing, and is edited this year by the very distinguished John Tranter. The last time I was in it was back in 2005 when Les Murray was editor. It is well known that Mr Murray and Mr Tranter have almost diametrically opposite views on poetry (and on the world in general), so it is kind of cool to have been selected by both of them. Note however that I am not yet famous enough to be name-checked in the cover blurb…

Here is a sneak preview of the one of mine that is included in the collection.

The Best Australian Poems 2011 is available in all good bookshops (in Australia, that is) from mid November. Did someone say ‘gift list’ ?

sacred, meet profane

No, you are not in the wrong place. I just decided it was time for a new look for this blog. I will find some images to pretty it up. What do you think ?

Once upon a time on a happy occasion like this I would come to my blog and provide a link to the poem(s) on Quadrant Online. Alas, Quadrant Online is now behind a paywall, so this is no longer possible. If you would like to read my poems without going looking for the hard copy magazine, however, here they are:

• Confess
• Roadside memorials
• Wish list for autistic primary schooler (this is a link to my autism poetry blog CircleQuirk, where this poem has a slightly different title: ‘I prefer’)

That’s all for now – I will be blogging soon about the recent Australian Poetry Symposium at Newcastle (when I can summon the energy) so look out for that.  Til then, yours in naivete – M

PS Did I mention I am listed ON THE FRONT COVER next to Alan Gould, Jan Owen and John Whitworth? *happy dance*

Another kind of road sign, small but clear,
these plywood crosses twined with plastic flowers
 - and every Monday more of them appear.

 Stop and listen closely: you can hear
the screeching to a halt of days and hours.
Another kind of road sign, small but clear.

 Tied to a wheel that can no longer steer,
a tattered photo weathers sun and showers
- and every Monday more of them appear.

 The best mate sometimes visits with a beer
and sits and chats, observed by puzzled cows.
Another kind of road sign, small but clear.

 The younger cousins bring a teddy bear;
pull up the weeds and add some lego towers.
And every Monday more of them appear.

 ’It’s easier to feel him with us here,
the last place that he saw while he was ours’.
Another kind of road sign, small but clear.
And every Monday more of them appear.

 (c) Melinda Smith 2011

Published in Quadrant Magazine October 2011

Information wants to be free

Tell me
Tell the priest
Pent up. Repent. Released

We the jury have found
Tell a hole in the ground
Tell yourself

Stow the strongbox on the highest shelf
I won’t breathe a word
Tell a little bird

Tell one person at a time
Victim, weapon, motive, crime
Guilt by association

Tell the whole congregation
Tell Big Brother
Beg forgiveness from each other

When push comes to shove
Tell the one you love
Tell whoever’s in control

I promise not to tell a soul

(c) Melinda Smith 2011

Published in Quadrant Magazine, October 2011

Poetry appearing on this page was produced with the generous support of artsACT

This is a poem about the spiritual journey of Temple Grandin, a famous designer of humane livestock abbatoir technology who also happens to have autism.  She writes about the evolution of her faith at length in her book Thinking in Pictures. I have tried here to condense it to poetry – please comment if you think I have failed ( or even if you think I have succeeded ! ).

For structure I have used a quote from Albert Einstein ( a quote which Grandin also cites with approval in her book).  If you look carefully you’ll see that each stanza has one word of the quote in it somewhere ( in order, of course – this is an autism poem, after all   ).

The Hebrew word ‘Shechinah’ in the title means ‘the in-dwelling presence of God’.

I actually wrote this poem back in June, but entered it in a competition so couldn’t publish it (even on my blog) until the results were announced. It didn’t win, but I hope you enjoy it anyway…

Science without religion is lame.  Religion without science is blind.
                                  – Albert Einstein

Shechinah – or God meets Temple Grandin

I find Him first in logic: in the science of snowflakes;
in the patterns silver makes on platinum.

Then entropy terrifies me, chaos as telos.
Without order, I worry: where can He dwell ?

Perhaps if He keeps the gate, shepherding each atom
on its path from heat to cold ? In this image I remake my religion.

I discover Him also in libraries: my serene heavens of silence
and infinite shelving. My dearest wish is an afterlife of browsing,

tasting the bliss of the Great System - the halt and the lame reclining
in the silent reading corner; angels bringing them books.

Then: a swim in a dip tank drowns my religion,
organophosphates douse my pillar of flame.

The hangover leaves me without my wonder.  I am Dorothy, aching for awe,
raising the Wizard’s curtain, staring at the little old man.

At long last I find Him in science again, not in order but in the mystery
of entangled subatomic particles: their synchronised vibrations

span universes in an instant.  He is everywhere at once ! And again, after all my seeking
He comes to me where I am: He is with me in the slaughterhouses,

with me in the daily work of death. He blesses my sacred charge:
to ease each animal, calmly, with love, through the blind valley of the shadow.

(c) Melinda Smith 2011

Celebrate the joy of Australian poetry however you embrace it. This day should probably involve cake!

- @AusPoetry www.australianpoetry.org.au

How will you be celebrating today ? 

In a celebratory frame of mind, I would like to nominate, and reward, my favourite moment from National Poetry Week so far: 

• Poetic props (and virtual chocolate coated cake pops) to the anonymous teacher who got dozens of students so excited about National Poetry Week that he was actually mobbed in the school canteen. Awesome work ! For the full story check out Australian Poetry’s Facebook Page, or the National Poetry Week Facebook Page. 

I have another acrostic poem for you today – just a bit of enjoyable doggerel. The tone only turned out to be quietly celebratory though. The poem gives thanks in a way for the fact that poetry survives amidst all other distractions; that the still, small voice is there always if we care to listen. And it honours those who are willing to do the work of listening, however hard it gets.

  (with apologies to WH Auden) 

Cut off the box, and flush the mobile phone
Erect the tallest palings you can lift alone
Let nothing enter that you cannot touch
Except the talk of neighbours – and then, not much.
Be blind and blank to all electric waves
Revist beds and temples, campfires, graves
Allow your mind to follow like a bird
Try hefting the true weight of every word
Eventually the poem will be heard

So – today is the last themed day in National Poetry Week. The Week itself continues until Sunday September 11, but I will not be blogging here on the weekend as I have two developmentally challenged children to wrangle and a social life to pursue. So I guess for me this is goodbye #NPW2011. It has been quite a lot of fun. Right here on this blog we’ve been writing acrostic poems, stockpiling Australian poetry books against the coming bookshop apocalypse, touring the Australian Poetry Library and contemplating Seagull Poetics, among other things. Hope you had fun too. Let’s make it bigger and better next year !

  Be liberated to find poetry and the inspiration for poems in every part of life.

 @AusPoetry www.australianpoetry.org.au 

Seagull Poetics

At a poetry festival once, someone came up to me and posed a very interesting question. His friend, a weekend footballer, had recounted a particularly tough game to him and finished with: ‘Mate, when the whistle blew, we all just collapsed on the grass. We were breathing so hard we were suckin’ in the seagulls.’

My interlocutor asked me very earnestly now, was THAT poetry ? I said of course it was (mentally filing it away in the box in my mind marked STEAL FOR LATER). He seemed to want to argue the point with me and I honestly can’t remember much else about the discussion except that it went on until my sandwich order was ready. 

This was 18 months ago and I have been doing a lot of thinking about it since. Why was I so sure that statement was poetry, and why did the person who shared it with me have doubts ?  Now I need to preface this part of the discussion with a warning that I am NOT going to get all academic on yo’ asses. Please don’t click away yet ! Funny Jokes further down ! 

Rather than get way down into it, let me summarise the two points of view thus: 

Not Poetry: author not qualified – no higher degree in literary theory – had not sufficiently researched history and theory of seagulls, sucking, respiration, physical struggle or previous poetry touching thereon – did not intend as poetry – not performed in appropriately poetic setting (i.e. other humans present all awake even if some lying down) 

Poetry: Metaphor – compression – authenticity – vividness – unexpectedness – humour – connection with audience – memorable quality 

After wasting all those words getting here, I think it all boils down to this: poetry, like music, is all around if you listen. If you manage to catch some and write it down and put your name to it, it might then go down on the permanent record as poetry / music that came from you, and it will be capable of being re-performed / re-vived in a similar way each time by different readers / performers. But the stuff that doesn’t get captured that way is no less poetry or music for being ephemeral. 

(And I’ll let you in on a little secret – you don’t actually need to have studied English at postgraduate level to write (or catch) something that can be called a poem.  It might make you more efficient at it – but really all you need is a pulse, a reasonably operational brain, access to a public library, paper and a pencil. And perhaps a decent technical manual like Stephen Fry’s The Ode Less Travelled. But shh, don’t tell anyone I told you).

So as you go about your day today, listen to what is going on around you. Can you find something as good as ‘sucking in the seagulls’ ?  Enjoy it for itself – or steal it for later. Why not post it in the comments below ? (use a copyright symbol if you’re feeling vulnerable).

That’s me and my reflective mood for now. Tomorrow is CELEBRATE Australian Poetry Day. See you then !

Share the joy of Australian poetry in all its forms: at work, at home, at play, with friends, lovers, strangers, on a stage, in a library, on a train…

@AusPoetry www.australianpoetry.org.au

Realise I don’t wanna be a miser
…how come everybody wanna keep it like the Kaiser ?
Give it away, give it away, give it away now

 - Red Hot Chilli Peppers

My way of SHARE-ing Australian Poetry today is to remind you of (or introduce you to) the wonderful FREE resource that is the Australian Poetry Library. 

The Library has *tens of thousands* of poems. You can search by poet, by poem title, by phrase, by poet gender, by poetic form, and by THEME ! Want a love poem, an anniversary poem, a break-up poem ? Too easy.  Fancy an acrostic or an elegy ? Coming right up !

There is a wonderful range of older and newer poetry on the site, with lots of added extras to entice you in. Constantly changing featured podcasts, featured poets, featured poems, glossary terms, poetry reviews and more. You can even browse the library and save your selections for emailing or downloading to a .pdf file (downloading or emailing selections attracts a small fee but just reading online is free).

Of course there are some disappointing omissions – where are Gwen Harwood and Francis Webb ? – but this is because the current copyright holders have not agreed to make the works freely available online.

In the spirit of sharing, here is a link to the poetry library entry for one of my fave poets: Philip Hodgins. I forgot to put him on the ‘buy’ list yesterday but he is well worth buying as well.  Enjoy !

MORE National Poetry Week stuff happening :

• @Shell_C123 is writing twitter poems, as is @tinylittlepoems. Follow them or search on the hashtag #NPW2011;
• @TiggyJohnson is celebrating over at her blog.

See also Monday and Tuesday‘s posts for other NPW 2011 happenings and links.

I tried to do another acrostic for you today, but it kept turning out with …ahem…adult themes. I decided this was neither the time nor the place. It may be share day, but it is not *over*share day

Tomorrow (Thursday) is LIVE Australian Poetry Day. See you then.