I am stoked to have three poems in October Quadrant Magazine. And (in case you were wondering) I do just read it for the poetry. And because the poetry editor is Les Murray, and he publishes my stuff, and I am proud that a truly great poet like Les Murray reads, likes and wants to print my poems (sorry if that seems a little defensive, I’ve just been at a poetry conference where it was made clear to me that publishing in Quadrant was a bad career move because it espouses the wrong kind of politics. I knew that already, but the naive artiste in me resents anything other than poetic criteria being applied to my output – or anyone’s output). Anyhoo…
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*
Melinda Smith's Mull and Fiddle 
Very well done. I’m a subscriber to Quadrant and I read your poems. I know how difficult it is to get published there, congratulations.
I too read your poems in the october Q last year. I’m not surprised to hear that your success in navigating the best poetry editor in Oz ( who actually writes comments about your poems in long hand script beside even rejected poems) was met with derision at a poetry conference (Newcastle Uni has been a hive of the totalitarian poetic left for two decades) – the same thing has been said to me on many occasions – and guess what – they will follow it up and eventually ban you from al the lefty lit mags (i.e. all the other lit mags in the country) – even if your work is brilliant – with no comments in the margins – Meanjin just will return the poem alone/ solitary in a plain white envelope.
Yet you have joined the real poets / the silent majority / those who write poetry because it is its own pleasure / those who see it as a vocation rather than a ‘career’ / those who do not think ‘networking’ and ‘submission writing’ are anything to do with the search for deep song.
You will be amongst the enlightened singing with joy.
I have enjoyed your poems in Quadrant – do keep submitting them. ‘I Prefer’ is very poignant – I work with children with ASD and thought your poem meditated well upon aspects of this.
Dear Paolo, Patrick and Dennis,
Your comments are immensely heartening, and almost the only evidence I have that my poems in Q are read by anyone who doesn’t know me personally. Thank you. Paolo, you and the families you work with may enjoy my autism poetry blog http://WWW.CircleQuirk.wordpress.com . If you prefer hard copy, the poems on that blog are about to become a chapbook called First… Then…, out in April from Ginninderra Press.