Tag: podcast

Recommended: Writing the long poem

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There seem to be those who regard the craft of poetry as an engaging and useful topic for discussion, and those who regard it as a somewhat contemptible and self-indulgent one. I’m among those who often find something insightful or useful in discussions about the practicalities of writing poetry, whether it’s via a writers’ festival, a radio interview, or a podcast. And the more practical the discussion is the better.

I recently watched a number of videos by poets.org, including a video in which American poet Ron Padgett talks about writing long poems. In particular, he suggests the following writing strategy:

‘I just made a dumb rule. I said, I’m going to write every day. I’m going to sit down at my desk every day and I’m going to write ten pages. And I don’t care if it’s good or bad, or indifferent, or if it’s notational or whatever. I’m going to write ten pages every day. And I did that for five or six days … I came up with about fifty or sixty pages of material and I put it away for a while. And I went and looked at it again later and a lot of it was dreck … But some of it was pretty good. I was surprised. So I did the obvious thing: I took out all the dreck and I stuck the other pieces together … It all fit together and made this long poem.’

The full video is available here:

Those familiar with Jim Jarmusch’s 2016 film Paterson may be aware that Padgett is the author of several of the poems supposedly written by the eponymous main character, played by Adam Driver:

Recommended: ‘Poetry Says’ podcasts

~ Thom Sullivan ~ 1 Comment

By and large, our experience of poetry is an active affair. Reading a poem well generally demands diligence and attention, which partially explains poetry’s neglect when compared to other artforms that are often experienced somewhat passively – from film to the visual arts, to music, to audiobooks, and even the novel, which generally relies less on an actively constructed meaning.

Of course, recordings of poems abound, and a recording of a poem can be experienced just as passively as an audiobook or piece of music. But there’s something to be said for Philip Larkin’s argument that ‘[h]earing a poem, as opposed to reading it on the page, means you miss so much – the shape, the punctuation, the italics, even knowing how far you are from the end.’

As someone who prefers to experience poems from the page, it’s a delight to have access to Alice Allan’s regular Poetry Says podcasts, a series of lively and engaging conversations about poetry. The podcasts are perfect for those moments in which reading poems from a book is impractical.

Over 100 episodes of Poetry Says are available, including episodes on Gertrude Stein, Adrienne Rich, Elizabeth Bishop, Sylvia Plath, Jack Gilbert, Ted Berrigan, Judith Wright, Jorie Graham, and contemporary Australian poets, such as Michael Farrell and Jill Jones. The episode on Plath’s bee poems is highly recommended. Invariably, an episode sends me back to a poet and their work with fresh insight and new regard.

Poetry Says website : Poetry Says on Twitter : Poetry Says on Facebook

Notes: August 2017

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Winter in Adelaide – Griffith Review’s State of Hope edition – Launch of Jill Jones’ Brink – Winter reading recommendations – Poetry reading at Halifax Café – Puncher & Wattmann’s Contemporary Australian Poetry, & the airbrushing of bush poetry – Poetry & the philosophy of wineIMG_20170909_005224

Winter’s on the wane in Adelaide, despite a dogged run of achingly cold days. Still, the daily drive to work has been sweetened in recent weeks by roadsides lined with early blossoms, particularly those of Manchurian pear trees (Pyrus ussuriensis), which have something distinctly bridal about them.

Early August was replete with opportunities to break the winter hibernation, including a night of readings from the Griffith Review’s South-Australian themed ‘State of Hope’ edition, at Matilda Bookshop, Stirling. The event, hosted by Patrick Allington, featured readings by Anna Goldsworthy, Jill Jones and Rebekah Clarkson, and an interview with photographer Annette Willis. It was a great complement to the session at Adelaide Writers Week this year, but in a more intimate setting. The following night, Jill Jones’ new book of poems, Brink (Five Islands Press, 2017), was launched at The Wheatsheaf Hotel. It’s an eagerly anticipated follow up to Jill’s highly regarded recent collections.

An ill-timed, mid-month head-cold gave me the chance to catch up on a few recent books of poetry, including Brink, Lachlan Brown’s Lunar Inheritance (Giramondo, 2017) and Afloat in Light (UWAP, 2017) by Adelaide poet David Adès. Apart from that, the two pieces of writing that’ve stayed with me are essays by South Australian writers: Shannon Burns’ personal and incisive ‘In Defence of the Bad, White Working Class’, also discussed on ABC Radio National’s Religion and Ethics Report, and Kathryn Hummel’s in-turns-familiar-and-exotic ‘Scented Memento’, both published in Meanjin, and both having some grounding in Adelaide’s western suburbs.

I shared a poetry reading with Peter Goldsworthy at the Halifax Café, Adelaide, on 30 August. The reading was well-attended and it was great to debut half-a-dozen or so new poems for a generous and attentive audience. The September reading will feature Ken Bolton and Cath Keneally.

David Campbell’s review of Contemporary Australian Poetry (Puncher & Wattmann, 2017), published in The Australian, provided some food for thought – in particular, his complaint that the anthology omits (“airbrush[es]”) “[t]raditional rhyming verse, often misleadingly referred to as “bush poetry””. Robert Wood’s response (Overland) also provoked debate (witness the comments section), proving there’s still plenty of fervour to the arguments about poetry, good poetry and good Australian poetry. I’ve had plenty to say about the issue in private, but my summary point is that the anthology has its omissions (individual poets), but is an accessible, well-considered and well-produced book, and an excellent starting point for anyone wanting a survey of (as the title suggests) contemporary Australian poetry. For a fuller consideration of the anthology, see Robert’s review in Westerly.

Another pause for thought was a program on ABC Radio National’s The Philosopher’s Zone, featuring Professor Barry Smith, philosopher and Director of the Institute of Philosophy at the University of London. The program (downloadable as a podcast) takes “the philosophy of wine” as its subject matter, but its thoughts on subjectivity and objectivity, personal preference, judgments of quality, developing critical competence, and experts are transferrable enough to an appreciation of poetry, and the arts more broadly.

In terms of “forthcomings”, I’m looking forward to new books of poems by Michael Farrell and Fiona Wright, which will be released by Giramondo on 1 November.

Finally, I’ve been on Twitter for a while, but you can now also find me on Facebook.

3 more South Australian poets, part 3/3

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Well, this is Part 3 of my three part series on South Australian poets who (I think) should be known, or better known, beyond the streets and suburbs of our State. Again, for each poet I’ve included details for recent publications, and references to poems that can be found online or in readily available anthologies.

And there are at least half a dozen poets I’ve kept in reserve for a later post or posts.

For those looking for a further entrée of South Australian poetry, the Adelaide Writers’ Week poetry reading on Monday, 6 March 2017, 5:00-6:00 pm, will feature a range of South Australian poets, from the established to the emerging: Steve Brock, Cath Kenneally, Jules Leigh Koch, Louise Nicholas, Jan Owen and Dominic Symes.

Writers’ Week will also feature well-known South Australian poets Ken Bolton and Mike Ladd, as well as Adam Aitken (NSW) and Adam Fitzgerald (USA).

Louise Nicholas, poet

‘The List of Last Remaining proves Louise Nicholas to be a poet of generosity, wit and wisdom. […] The pervasive humour and leaps of imagination are tempered by Louise’s emotional and verbal precision and her poised acknowledgment of loss as well as grace.’ – Jan Owen on The List of Last Remaining

Heather Taylor Johnson, poet and novelist

‘We’re drawn into an ecology where people really do give a damn about each other and the world their friends, lovers, children and animals inhabit.’ – Michael Sharkey on Meanwhile, the Oak

  • Letters to My Lover from a Small Mountain Town (Interactive Press, 2012) review
  • Meanwhile, the Oak (Five Island Press, 2016)
  • Jean Harley was Here (novel) (University of Queensland Press, forthcoming 2017)
  • Poetry editor for Transnational Literature
  • Poem: ‘Two Trees’ (Transnational Literature)
  • Poem: ‘Shovelling Snow’ (Mascara Literary Review)

Ian Gibbins, poet and neuroscientist

‘More than thirty years of experience in zoology, pharmacology and the human body spill out onto the pages of this focused and often quirky collection. Ian challenges his readers to open and expand their minds while delighting in new words, new creatures and new rhythms.’ – Heather Taylor Johnson on Urban Biology

3 more South Australian poets, part 2/3

~ Thom Sullivan ~ 1 Comment

As promised, this is Part 2 of my offering of South Australian poets who (I think) should be known, or better known, interstate. For each poet, I’ve included details for a couple of recent publications, as well as references to poems that can be found online or in readily available anthologies.

Part 3 will follow soon.

Kathryn Hummel, poet and ethnographer

‘Each poem lingers in the liminal spaces between the erotic and the exotic, the eclectic and the electric, the enigmatic and the energetic. These poems are from here, but they tirelessly interrogate the location of here…’ – Carl Leggo, Professor at the University of British Columbia, on Poems from Here

Rachael Mead, poet

‘Empathetic without sentimentality, Mead has found all the material she needs for poetry in her own vicinity: the mutability of life, the histories that have made us, and the responsibility we bear for what we’ve done to our places.’ – Jill Jones on The Sixth Creek

David Mortimer, poet

‘Reading Magic Logic is to listen to a musical mind at work. It is a journey of cadences, the everyday and the metaphysical, smaller soundscapes as valued as larger ones.’ – Patricia Sykes on Magic Logic

Update: July 2016

~ Thom Sullivan ~ 3 Comments

Thom Tom Sullivan Poet Poetry 2016

I’ve been away from the blog for a month or two, as I’ve been occupied with a few writing projects.

* * *

In mid-June, I was a featured writer at the Meet the Writers Festival, an annual festival for middle- and high-school students that’s been run by the South Australian English Teachers Association (SAETA) for the last 23 years. The festival, which was held at the Adelaide Convention Centre, gave hundreds of our State’s young readers and writers the opportunity to meet, listen to and ask questions of some wonderful local and interstate authors – much like our annual Writers’ Week. It’s an event that’s a great gift from our State’s English teachers.

This year the other featured writers were Janeen Brian, Phil Cummins, Archie Fusillo, Roseanne Hawke, Jack Heath, Don Henderson, Greg Holfeld, Christobel Mattingly, Ruth Starke and Claire Zorn – some of whom I read at school myself.

The four sessions I ran gave me a chance to talk to students about my own writing, offer some tips for writers and creators, and read a couple of poems. It was a fun day, and I especially enjoyed my conversations with young people who have the same enthusiasm for writing that I remember having as a high-school student.

You can find some very complimentary student reflections on the festival here.

* * *

Since then I’ve been editing a collection of poems for a friend and working through the final drafts (at this stage, at least) of what should become my first full length collection of poems. Once a final draft is done, the manuscript will be ushered out into the world in search of a home. And gladly – it’s long overdue (though the maturation time has been well worth it), and there’re a bunch of poems in there I’m looking forward to putting into people’s hands.

* * *

This week Australian Book Review released a set of podcasts for its national ‘States of Poetry’ project. Each podcast features an Australian poet talking about, then reading, one of their poems. You can listen to me read my poem ‘Suburban Panopticon’ here. And you can find the Adelaide Writer’s Week 2016 session featuring five of the six South Australian ‘States of Poetry’ poets here – that is, Aidan Coleman, Jelena Dinic, Jill Jones, Kate Llewellyn and me.

On the ABR site, you’ll also find new podcasts for some of my favourite contemporary Australian poets, including: Ken Bolton, Michael Farrell, Toby Fitch, Sarah Holland-Batt, Jill Jones, Nathan Shepherdson and Fiona Wright.

* * *

Finally, on 16 August I’ll be appearing as a guest at The Lee Marvin Readings here in Adelaide, along with Pam Brown (Sydney), Kent MacCarter (Melbourne) and Dominic Symes. The readings take place every Tuesday night in alternate months, at the Experimental Art Foundation’s Dark Horsey Bookshop. I well remember attending the readings when they were held at the De La Catessen Gallery in Anster Street, Adelaide, as early as 2007, so it’s been nice to become a somewhat regular guest in recent years. The readings feature the best of Adelaide’s new writing – poetry and prose. You can find the full program for the August readings here.

On the Adelaide Writers’ Week Poetry Podcast

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A podcast of the 2016 Adelaide Writers’ Week poetry reading is now available.

The Monday afternoon poetry reading is an enduring and eagerly anticipated tradition at Adelaide Writers’ Week. In past years, it has showcased interstate and international guests, however, this year poet and novelist Peter Goldsworthy chose five South Australian poets to read at the session, and appear in a complementary poetry feature for the March edition of Australian Book Review. The feature is part of ABR’s ‘States of Poetry’ project, a federally arranged project, funded by the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund, that will include poets from all states and territories.

Tom Thom Sullivan Poet Adelaide Writers Week Poetry Reading 1.jpg

I’m among the poets who were chosen to appear at the reading, along with Aidan Coleman, Jelena Dinic, Jill Jones and Kate Llewellyn. The reading, like all Writers’ Week sessions, was a free event and took place in the Pioneer Women’s Memorial Garden. The poetry reading is well attended year-after-year, but this year’s crowd was the largest I’ve seen. Details for the podcast are as follows:

Laura Kroetsch: Director’s introduction (0:00)

Peter Goldsworthy: Chair (0:17)

Aidan Coleman (2:40) @AidanColeman4

Jelena Dinic (17:06)

Jill Jones (28:48) @_jill_jones, blog

Kate Llewellyn (40:50)

Thom Sullivan (53:12)

One poem by each poet appears in the March 2016 print (“dead tree”) edition of ABR, along with a poem by Ken Bolton. A further four poems by each poet will be published on ABR’s website as part of the ‘States of Poetry’ project (forthcoming). ‘States of Poetry’ anthologies for the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), Victoria and Queensland are already accessible online.

Tom Thom Sullivan Poet Adelaide Writers Week Poetry Reading 2

I’m somewhat sympathetic to Philip Larkin’s view that “[h]earing a poem, as opposed to reading it on the page, means you miss so much – the shape, the punctuation, the italics, even knowing how far you are from the end.” With that in mind, I’m happy to indicate where the poems I read during the session can be found in print and/or online, including a poem by American poet AR Ammons (1926-2001):

“Homo Suburbiensis” (Cordite)

“Threshold” (forthcoming)

“Freehold” (The Best Australian Poems 2015, Black Inc, 2015)

“In Camera” (Australian Book Review, online and March 2016 print edition)

“The City Limits” (AR Ammons)

“Carte Blanche” (Cordite, The Best Australian Poems 2014, Black Inc, 2014)

“All Things Go” (Australian Book Review)

“Nothing Doing” (Australian Love Poems, Inkerman & Blunt, 2013)

As stated by Peter at the end of the session, South Australian poets and ABR’s ‘States of Poetry’ project will feature at Writers’ Week in future years. It’s an addition to a venerable tradition that’s well worth applauding.

Ref.