New Poetry by Donna Williams

When Art Speaks


And art is simply what it is, it speaks directly to the soul.

And yes, it cuts through, with great clarity and simplicity,

And what is left is sadness, realism,

And a void one now must fill,

With all the precious moments that we have in the ticking of the clock.

There is no time for self punishment, for wars, for heirachy or overcomplication.

We 'are' and this is what we have to share,

Our beingness, diverse, quirky, equal,

However anyone else sees it.


- Donna Williams 2006


Donna Williams was born in Australia in 1963 and grew up in the inner city with more labels than a jam jar. Like many people born in the 1960’s and before, she was not diagnosed with Autism until adulthood. As well as being an artist, sculptor, composer and screenwriter, she is also an internationally best-selling author with 9 published books in the field of Autism including four text books and well known public speaker. Her first of four autobiographical works, Nobody Nowhere, sold over half a million copies worldwide. Her first book is currently under option by a Hollywood film company. After 13 years living in the UK she now lives back in Australia with her husband Chris.

New Poetry by Terry McArthur

The Sitting Room


The past is a house of artefacts

I dig them out of rooms so vast

That rivers flow between their walls

Arranging these relics like deckchairs to my seasons



I am alone and naked

Playing an old guitar

Singing lines from songs I cannot recall

But for the flutter of wings upon distant rooftops



I sit and write of life

This passing dream

This track of blood and bones


- Terry McArthur 2006




Who Among You


I hear paper thin breathing

The rasp of my grandfather’s ghost singing

A low and painful scrap of song



See me curled upon this bed

My life become a waiting room

All this hurry to arrive all this hurry to depart

Everyone of us will be

Unravelled

Everyone of us will be

Undone

Perhaps this afternoon

Perhaps tomorrow

Perhaps next year

In the fractured shadows of an unseen dawn

By the handsome hand of an unforgiving god

Who can know the moment

Who among you can foretell an old man’s death

Who among you can hear the thin scrapings of my old man’s breath

Harsh against the pillow


- Terry McArthur 2006




Terry McArthur is a Sydney based poet and songwriter. His poems have appeared in The New England Review, Thylazine, Stylus, The Tin Wash Dish ( ABC Books ) , and Holes In The Evening ( Fat Possum Press). He has published Upland, a selection of poems, with Arthur Chaffey and Wayne Von Nida ( University of New England Press) and The Exile ( Fat Possum Press). Walking Skin, his indy book of poems and lyrics will be published this May.

Terry’s songs have been recorded by John Farnham, James Blundell, Faze Action, and Felicity Urquart. In 2002 Terry formed the cube with his long term musical collaborator Phil Rigger as a way of “pushing the boundaries of spoken word”. The cube have released two singles and one album Permanent Scars which has been released in Australia, France and Germany – and is available at www.thecubeonline.com .

Best Foot Forward

The first seven Poetry and Culture columns written for Three Quarks Daily are now available through the Links section (click on post heading). Topics include irony in contemporary poetry, Federico Fellini and the television series Six Feet Under. Future subjects will cover Wagner, Larkin and Ern Malley.

In the Line of Fire

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Cordite Poetry Review seeks submissions of poetry for its 24th issue, on the theme of COMMON WEALTH.

Please note the following:

1. Send email submissions only to cordite@cordite.org.au with "Common Wealth" in the subject line;
2. Please send up to five poems;
3. Include a biography;

Read our submission guidelines for further details:

http://www.cordite.org.au/submit.html

SUBMISSIONS FOR THIS ISSUE CLOSE ON MAY 31 2006 .

Our guest poetry editor for this issue is Claire Gaskin.

Thanks to the funding of the Australia Council for the Arts, we are able to offer the following rates of payment for Australian contributors:

POEMS: $60
REVIEWS: $50
FEATURE ARTICLES: $100
AUDIO: $30

Cordite #24 will appear online in July 2006.

Issue #25 (on a theme yet to be announced) will appear online in December 2006.

Bob Goes to America

Coincidence, synchronicity or fate? Just the evening this post-punk boy is caught listening to a bit of Bob Dylan, I receive an email touting a new book by one of Australia's finest poets, Robert Adamson. I mention Bob Dylan because it was their Bob who turned our Bob onto poetry while serving time at Long Bay on what sounds like a pretty spurious charge in the early 60's. The details (with much thanks to another fine Aussie poet, Michael Farrell - post punk to the very core!) follow:

Robert Adamson has a new book with Flood Editions:

To order the book 'The Goldfinches of Baghdad':
http://floodeditions.com/new/index.html

More about Adamson: http://www.robertadamson.com/

For those in the U.S., tour dates follow:

The Australian poet Robert Adamson will be visiting the U.S. this month and
next for the first time, giving readings in support of his new book from
Flood Editions, The Goldfinches of Baghdad. He has long been recognized as
one of Australia's major poets, from his early writing as a poet maudit in
Sydney through twenty books of verse and prose. In more recent work, he has
explored the landscape of the Hawkesbury River, sounding its waters and
wildlife for psychological resonances.

His appearances include:

March 16 (Thursday). 4:30 pm. Reading at Poetry Center at San Francisco
State.

March 19 (Sunday). 2-5 pm. Talks/reading at the Lucid Art Foundation,
Inverness.

March 23 (Thursday). 7:30 pm. Reading at Naropa University, Boulder.
Lincoln Lecture Hall, 2130 Arapahoe Avenue.

March 27 (Monday). Reading at 7:30 pm. Notre Dame, Hospitality Room of
Reckers, South Dining Hall, followed by a reception.

March 30 (Thursday). 5:30 pm. Reading at University of Chicago, Rosenwald
405, 1101 E. 58th Street.

March 31 (Friday). 1:00 pm. Talk at University of Chicago, Rosenwald 405,
1101 E. 58th Street.

April 1 (Saturday). 1:00 pm. Reading at Chicago Poetry Project, downtown
public library, Chicago Author's Room.

April 2 (Sunday). 2:00 pm. Reading at Woodland Pattern Bookcenter,
Milwaukee.

April 6 (Thursday). 4:15 pm. Reading at "&Now" festival, Meyer Auditorium,
Lake Forest College.

April 11 (Tuesday). 4:30 pm. Reading at University of Georgia, Athens.

April 13 (Thursday). 7 pm. Reading at MIT in Boston, Rm 32-141, Stata
CEnter, 32 Vassar Street..

April 18 (Tuesday). Reading at David Rankin's Loft, New York City.