Poetry Monday: Radiance at the podcast

A few weeks ago, I featured Andy Kissane's Radiance here on Poetry Monday, and as a follow-on to that, I invited Andy to drop by The Compulsive Reader Talks to read from his book and chat to me about the poems. Rather than send you over the show, I thought I'd bring the show to you, so here it is.  I think you'll enjoy it. Andy was a charming guest, and his readings particularly vivid. 
 
If you'd like to read the full review of Radiance, you can check that out here: http://www.compulsivereader.com/2014/06/15/4812/

On Changing the World

I've just started Wesleyan University's How to Change the World course on Coursera.  Why?  Because I'm actually overloaded at my day job at the moment, in the midst of writing a difficult, troubled novel with a structural issue that needs resolving, working on a few long poems, and managing my family's busy, sometimes chaotic life (not always in that order).  Is that a good reason?  Probably not.  I should be cutting back, not taking more on, but you know, I think there's an argument in there about doing the counter-intuitive thing.  It's like taking time to meditate when you're so stressed and busy that brushing your hair seems like an unwarranted luxury.  I mean not everything I've been doing has been giving me emotional satisfaction, and thinking about the bigger picture and actually taking a little time to reflect always seems to improve my productivity.  Or maybe I'm just rationalising how easy it is to distract me at the moment.  


Actually I was about to press the "un-enroll" button when I decided to just have a quick look at the syllabus first, and before I knew it, I'd already gotten through the first 3 readings, watched the videos and become completely engrossed.  I'm ready to begin applying this kind of thinking to whatever else I'm doing - to energise me a little bit about all those other projects.  First topic is "Social Goods and the Commons".  This is a subject that holds endless fascination for me, both in terms of shared physical spaces (I have a few local ones in mind), and in terms of creative commons or collaborative work.  I'm excited about the very practical and relevant nature of the first assignment, and the way Michael S Roth, president of Wesleyan and also the course developer and primary teacher, has designed the course to allow the 200,000 (!) students taking it to align the notion of making a positive difference in the world with our own aesthetics and skills.  I've done this kind of thing (a MOOC if you like acronyms) before (notably ModPo - just look it up on my blog here for a week by week gush) and it's a perfect example of social goods and creative commons.  One of the readings which drew me straight in was this interview with the amazing Lewis Hyde, whose book The Gift moved me many years ago, and still provides a beautifully written treatise on what it means to create art (or as Atwood put it: "how to maintain yourself alive in a world of money, when the essential part of what you do cannot be bought or sold").  I can't swear that I'll do this course as fully as I'd like.  Depending on my workload I might dip in and out and just do the readings at night instead of reading a new novel (sorry to everyone who is waiting on a review...).  But what I will try to do is to share (pass on, as is appropriate for this kind of gift) the nuggets of insight that I might gain. 

Poetry Monday: Andy Kissane

I really wasn't intending on reading Andy Kissane's Radiance for a while.  I'm in the middle of a few other books (including quite a challenging poetry book that is absorbing my attention), but since Kissane queried me himself, and since the book was published by Puncher & Wattmann, a local house that I respect greatly, I thought I'd just give it a quick leaf through (something I often do with new books - almost a reflex action). Before I knew it I was hooked and pushed everything else aside. There are a few reasons for that.  The first is that the poetry is actually very easy to read and drew me in immediately.  I'm not saying that poetry necessarily should be easy - I'm  not afraid of a literary challenge, but it's been a particularly hard couple of weeks, I'm a little tired, and I found the ease in Radiance appealing, especially since the accessibility didn't diminish the depth or power of this work in any way.  Another reason is the humour.  This work is wry.  I was really smiling, especially since the humour didn't diminish the pathos.  Finally (not really finally, because there are lots more things to say...), the work was meta-poetic, self-referential, and modern without losing its link with a strong poetic tradition.  I particularly like the work in Section II (what I've taken to calling "Oatmeal" because of its epitaph), some of which collectively shortlisted for the 2011 Newcastle Poetry Prize.

So far I've been unable to resist reading out loud (to the poor folk who have to live with me) "The Lost Ode of John Keats", "The Catch", and "Three Visions of Virginia Woolf."  If you happen to be in my vicinity, "Political Fruit" is most likely going to come spouting out next.  Fair warning.  Here's a tiny taste from "Rhubarb", which won Kissane the 2012 Coriole National Wine Poetry Prize.  More soon. 

Stewed with apples you give life to cereal,
you populate pies, you fold through whipped
cream with the swirling intelligence of a fool.

Is that why when we've nothing to say,
when we need to fill the air with dramatic chatter,
we utter your name: rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb?

Compulsive Reader Newsletter out for June

In case it's still sitting in your spam box, or en route - it takes a day or two for all 10,000 of them to go out, the June Compulsive Reader newsletter has just gone out (mate, it's June here in Aus) and you can grab a copy from the archive here: 
http://www.compulsivereader.com/sendpress/eyJpZCI6NDc2OCwidmlldyI6ImVtYWlsIn0/

This month we've got a great batch of new reviews (and more still on site - I only include 10 in the newsletter but there are about 20 new ones since last month!), lots of literary news including the  Arthur C. Clarke Award winner, the RSL Ondaatje Prize finalists, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, and many others, 3 new book giveaways (I love giving away books, even my own dogeared favourites - for reasons I don't entirely understand), and a link to the new podcast interview with Carmel Macdonald Grahame (and yes, you can get there by just clicking on Carmel's name here).  If you're not a subscriber, well, just become one - it's free and pretty simple.  Just drop by www.compulsivereader.com and put your email and name in - I don't ask for any other details and don't use the email address for anything other than the monthly newsletters - no one else will get your details either and you can unsub anytime. 

Poetry Monday: Michael Brennan

I've been reading Michael Brennan's Autoethnographic.  It's a strange, somewhat confronting experience. These little prose poems pack a punch, taking me places I'm not always keen to go, and opening doors philosophically, linguistically, and at times, viscerally.  They're mini-stories that use fairly standard sentence structure, but break past that into what is often hallucinatory, forcing the reader to look under the skin, beneath the surface of dialogue, conflict, characterisation and plot, and find something a little more complex and rich.  Here's one example from "Authentic":

There is no one to save us from these microbes, the shuffling deck. So many points on/our horizon we could launch out from the/random mutation we share.  Onwards then, until we find each other ready-made and to order.

I've only just begin plunging into this book, which is as fun as it is intense.  The sensibility is very modern, moving between the joy and terror of the circus, to social networks, texting, global warming, Tag Hauer watches to the Dalai Lama. I've still got a a long way to go with the book, but I'm finding the reading quite exhilarating at this stage.  If you want more, here's a complete piece from the book titled "Who is Alibi Wednesday": http://redroomcompany.org/poem/michael-brennan/who-alibi-wednesday/  that takes a rather shocking (and moving) look at the migrant experience: "When you feel the blade's tongue lick your throat,/you are still giddily scratching surfaces, falling in love with the city."

Cognitive dissonance here we come. Autoethnographic is Brennan's third full length collection. He is a lecturer in the Faculty of Policy Studies, Chuo University, Tokyo, and is the director of Vagabond Press, and the Australian editor of Poetry International Web.

Poetry Monday: Poetry for Mother's Day (freebie)

This Mother's Day will be bittersweet for me.  Sweet, because I have three wonderful children and a terrific husband who will be celebrating the day with me.  Bitter, because it's the first Mother's Day ever where I am unable to phone my mother, send her a gift, or thank her for being wonderful.  I will, of course, spend the day, as I have done every day since she passed away on the 30th of January this year, thinking about her, missing her, and perhaps writing about her.

At my mother's memorial, I grabbed a copy of the poetry book Carolyn Howard-Johnson and I co-authored from her bookshelf, and read a poem from it about how I used to climb into her bed as a young child, and how safe it felt to me (my own children did the same when they were younger...).  I've reprinted that poem below. Of course, I'm not the only one in the world who has lost my mother.  She Wore Emerald Then was released the week of the death of Carolyn’s mother, so the book, which has always been tied to Mother's Day, has a certain poignancy for both of us.  Carolyn and I are going to be running another freebie this year at Amazon.  If you don't already have a copy of She Wore Emerald Then, which features beautiful photography from May Lattanzio, please go and grab a copy for free here:  http://www.amazon.com/She-Wore-Emerald-Then-Reflections-ebook/dp/B00BXPW2XO  anytime from the 5th to the 9th of May (US dates).


If you're a mother, or if you have a mother (and that's all of us, even those of us whose mother is no longer alive), please have a happy Mother's Day, even if that happiness is tinged with longing, because every beautiful moment has a kind of permanence to it, even as it disappears into the transience of time. 

Mother's Bed

In the restless night

when mortality lurks in every shadow

the blanket won’t cover your fear

and morning is a half-forgotten dream

vague and uncertain,

slink into my bed

the pillow holds a mother’s secret

whispered charm

you can sink your head into.

There are no demons here;

no whirlwind of memory and anticipation clouding sleep

only eternal warmth

a shared space

free from the ticking illusion

of time, motion, and change.

Here, where you are always welcome

nothing matters

except this peace

this place

containing every possible now.

New Compulsive Reader Newsletter for May

Just a quickie to let you know that The Compulsive Reader Newsletter for May has just gone out.  If you missed your copy, you can toddle over to our archive and grab a copy. We've got three fantastic giveaways this month of some very exciting new releases including Hamster Island by Joan Heartwell, Bunker Hill by Nathaniel Philbrick, and The Family Romanov by Candace Fleming. There are also the usual bevy of 10 new reviews, a ton of literary news (this section seemsto get bigger each month) including information about the 'hot-off-the-press' Stella Prize winner, and the 2014 International Prize for Arabic Fiction, both of which were announced yesterday.  Our giveaways are for subscribers only, so if you're not a subscriber, why not go and subscribe right now - it's free, it's quick, and we don't use your email for anything other than the monthly newsletter - just one per month.