Comments

Anyone is free to leave a comment, as long as it's constructive. However, using the comment link to simply post your submissions is not quite in the spirit of things. I think my submission guidelines are pretty straightforward. So please, run your poems by me first and I'll publish them under the bluepepper.

Lemon Shark

In Luke Beesley’s impressive debut, there seems to be an awful lot of two things – rain and cinema. Fitting, perhaps, for a native of Brisbane, to be a little pre-occupied with tropical lows. And the cinematic references (mostly in the form of dedications) strike me as fitting too, considering the vivid, rollicking intellect of this poet. I think I would like Luke Beesley were we to ever meet in person. His is a wry take on life, a little obtuse at times, but that’s OK. The times demand that of we poets to an extent, and anyway Luke Beesley is, as I say, a native of Brisbane where an entire movement is shaping up around a gun with a very crooked barrel.

Soi Modern Poets, an offshoot of Paul Hardacre’s Papertiger franchise, have done a sterling job with this book. It looks smart, and has been meticulously edited, no small thing in these days of the “publisher’s lunch”. It is one of three titles on offer in this first series, and I only chose it above the other two because I am already pretty familiar with the work of Brett Dionysius and Billy Jones, whereas I have until now only glimpsed compelling snatches of Luke Beesley’s work in journals and anthologies and was keen for more. This collection has certainly not disappointed.

The word English is wet. It has rained recently and it works
like a smashed grape; not wine but the lamp-light quality
of its flesh under sunlight. England is the seed.

(From “The Cliffs”)

I can open this book at pretty much any page and such treasures will come tumbling out. There are a few, such as “Milk Teeth” that passed me by somewhat, but often on first reading a poem can seem intended for someone else, an audience of one, and the poem in question possesses enough originality to carry it further, if perhaps read separately from the rest of the collection. This comment should in itself serve as testament to the strength of this debut by a young and promising poet. Visit the Papertiger Media website to snavel your copy and get a smart canvas bag thrown in! Just click on the post header.

Poetic Education

AUSTRALIAN WRITERS AND MUSCIANS FOR EDUCATION

Free Stuff for Northern Territory School Students


It's part of promoting the idea of Free Culture and education in Arts, Ethics and Literature in remote areas like the NT. Students write in and request the book/CD of their choice and I mail it out to them is what happens. :)
So far there is myself, The Cube and James Blundell looks like coming on board as well with his latest CD.

I am asking writers, musicians and bands if they might spare a few copies (say 5-10 or more) of their book, CD or single for this project? Postal Address: The Thylazine Foundation GPO Box 1480 Darwin NT 0801. Thanks!

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The Thylazine Foundation Pty Ltd: http://www.thylazine.org/
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Winners and Losers

As I continue to explore the incredible world of digital technology and the opportunities it opens up to small publishers like myself, it has occured to me that maybe Bluepepper should put out its own little quarterly hardcopy. I envisage its conents adhering to nominated themes and remaining quite separate from the contents of the blog. Let's say here and now the theme for the first (hypothetical) issue is "Winners and Losers" and take it from there. Same submission rules apply as for the blog. Check the guidelines on the top right under the bluepepper.

Call for Submissions

I seem to have to beg for poetry these days. I'm still waiting to hear from Pixi. Just click on the "email me" tag in the top right hand corner and submit anything up to five poems, a 1000 word comment or review in the body of the email. NO ATTACHMENTS PLEASE. I have a very good turnover time, and that applies to most things I do. Probably why I haven't got a girlfriend...Anyway, be that as it may I see no reason for not submitting something. The worse you will get is silence, as I won't comment on subs unless I can see some way of working with the author to make them more suitable for posting under the Bluepepper. There are no payments and thus no guidelines.

Calling cards

Peter Alexander at UNSW is in the midst of editing the correspondence of the "Bard from Bunyah", Les Murray and is looking for postcards, letters, old restaurant menus,anything to put in the book. I have already offered up my own little souveneir, but I'm sure many of you out there have far more significant contributions to make to this fine project. If so, feel free to contact Peter at p.alexander@unsw.edu.au

Two Poems by Nikhil Rajoo

Rhea's Court

Hours in the garden
Dandelion, lilacs
the sheaves of daffodils
the fallacy of seasons
easter harvest
My little girl eclipsing
the sun
with her arms full of yellow
her crimson bedroom
the heart's shivered core

- Nikhil Rajoo 2006



Aztec Legend

inching out
along the base of a sheer rock face
with Lake Superior crashing at my back
and on the pink rock
appearing beneath my fingers
the hunger-drunk spirit drawings in
faded red ochre
of two thousand year old medicine men
pictures of fish - canoes - snakes - animals- people
- and horned Misshepezhieu
who only moments before had lashed his tail
and brought the rain

- Nikhil Rajoo 2006


Nikhil lives and works in Vancouver and has been published in the South Ocean Review, Attic Magazine and the Taj Mahal Review to name but a few. "Rhea's Court" is a dedication to the poet's god daughter.

Urban Myth

John Tranter Urban Myths: 210 Poems: New and Selected

University of Queensland Press, 2006. 322 pages. ISBN-0-7022-3557-1.

To be launched in Sydney by Pam Brown at Gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Road,
Glebe NSW 2037, on Friday May 19, 2006. Time: 6 for 6.30pm. Cost: Free and
open to all. To reserve a place (or BUY the book!), visit Gleebooks.

http://www.gleebooks.com.au

Urban Myths: 210 Poems brings the best work to date from a poet considered one of the most original of his generation in Australia, together with a generous selection of new work. Smart, wry and very stylish, John Tranter's poems investigate the vagaries of perception and the ability of language to converge life, imagination and art so that we arrive, unexpectedly, at the deepest human mysteries.

Glass Poems

After many delays and fluffing about by editors, I have finally released the definitive collection of my poetry for the 21st century (so far). I decided to run it under my own imprint (ie Bluepepper) so that at least I knew the job would get done and done properly. The results are extremely gratifying, and the blurb by poet MTC Cronin a little humbling for yours truly. I am in the process of stocking it with the following book retailers:

Better Read than Dead (Newtown, NSW)
Gleebooks (Glebe, NSW)
Bookoccino (Avalon, NSW)
Ariel Booksellers (Darlinghurst, NSW)
Collected Works (Melbourne, VIC)

However, ask your nearest boutiquie bookseller for a copy and I'm sure they'll be able to track one down. It should be listed soon at Amazon and Barnes & Noble as well as on the Google Booksearch database. Failing that, contact me at www.bluepepper.blogspot.com and I'll see what I can do. At 135pp you really do get your money's worth.

To purchase on line, simply click the "BUY NOW" button in the right column under the bluepepper logo.

Poetry by Les Wicks

MY BRONTE BEACH

is the loudmouth in the waves singing Summertime.
It's actors, politicians
pensioners & the kids - minus all trappings -
no status beyond "animal with soul".

It is the dominance of birds
politely ignored by undercover dogs.

Someone known - just out of hospital -
totters back to the sea
like a great old turtle.
Cedars of lebanese legs copse around BBQs, 5 o'clock shadow.
A bum's washing dries on the memorial quartz beside
buffed girls laughing like lawn sprinklers.

Over the years it's become a community of friends,
the accretion of small tragedy that attends every understood life.
It's my wife, on a salt encrusted
wafer of towel, spiced
by utter quiet. The sun disinfects.

I write the words,
then a photographer captures me:
grey, round and affixed as the fence posts.
We don't own ourselves
but each one,
we all have separate Brontes.

The sand takes the shape of our need.


- Les Wicks 2006


OPPOSABLE THUMBS

Once I sang
I cool blueline
drenched in wonder.

But gave it away to the fingers, they
touched the bleak edge
of an unmoneyed future
& I saw it
like some untethered boat
react with a fingertip nudge
just float away
to the open sea of a stranger's way.
That was so simple.
What else?
Fingers wash
stroke
they fight, fuck up & fix.
We wait
as their batons rule the beat.

It's them who work the guns,
take us down from trees
to their shitty little thatch
on a beige savannah plain.

Glum
under the thumbcommute between fingerfoods
& a hand signed repossession order.
Our minds sit locked
in boxes made of muscle.



- Les Wicks 2006




LES WICKS' 7th book is "Stories of the Feet" (Five Islands, 2004).

The Late and the Great

I received this brief message this morning via the ever-reliable Coral Hull.

There is to be a program about my brother, John Anderson, broadcast on the Poetica Program (Radio National) Saturday 22 April at 3.05 pm. Mike Ladd has sent me a draft copy of the CD and I think it is a very good, although a slightly shorter version will go to air.

Roly Phillips
___________________________

John Anderson is a tragically under-read poet in this country. In fact, if it weren't for the efforts of poets such as Emma Lew and Coral Hull, his mss would probably still be gathering dust somewhere. I will see if I can arrange with Roly Phillips or John's publisher to post some of his work, as I believe his untimely death a few years back robbed us of a truly great talent.

Calling all Poets (sad refrain)

Perhaps I've only got myself to blame, but I'm still waiting for the flood gates to open. Am I really that scary? Ashlee, sorry, I mean Pixi, you were asking how to submit. Well, just click on the "email me" tag in the top right hand corner and submit anything up to five poems, a 1000 word comment or review in the body of the email. NO ATTACHMENTS PLEASE. I have a very good turnover time, and that applies to most things I do. Probably why I haven't got a girlfriend...Anyway, be that as it may I see no reason for not submitting something. The worse you will get is silence, as I won't comment on subs unless I can see some way of working with the author to make them more suitable for posting under the Bluepepper. There are no payments and thus no guidelines. I would like to see more snipes at me, too, as that's really what a blog like this should be all about. After all, if it gets too much I can just shut it down and join a monastery. I felt Pixi was holding back a little in her comments a few weeks back. Thoughts, though, not invective.

Quantum

Woke up bright and early this morning to frost on the ground and an email from Justin Lowe. That's right, there's a poet out there somewhere with my name, and it's not me! To cap it all off, he sent me a poem all about Quantum physics. I will spend the day trying to decide whether this fellow traveler is a help or a hindrance because I am like that. A little obsessive. Then I will probably decide there is absolutely nothing I can do about it other than warn the two or three out there who care that not all the words you read are mine.

TV Eyes

Johanna Featherstone has been quite the toast of Sydney literati this week, with at least three mentions in the mainstream press for her audacious and imaginative poetry projects. First was The Toilet Doors Project, about which Johanna informs me there was much tittering behind hands from a certain once proud daily, and secondly her venture into TV land with the launch of The Wordshed Wednesday nights on UHF-31 TV Sydney. It's not often you see a community tv show reviewed in the august pages of the Sydney Morning Herald Guide, but that's what I came across this morning. And guess what? NO TITTERING. Maybe because the first episode doesn't include any poets. Anyway, Johanna, congratulations and appreciations from all of us here in poetry land. Would the world were full of Johanna Featherstones. I know I'd be a much happier poet for one.

For those not in the catchment area of Johanna Featherstone, her Toilet Doors Project is displaying poetry and art on the backs of toilet doors in cinemas and airport lounges all over our vast island just west of New Zealand. I am informed by Johanna it took all her formidable reserves of self-belief to sit through hours with a bunch of CEO's picking over the merits of each piece of verse, but then who amongst us can boast of having sat in the boardroom talking poetry with the captains of industry? The woman relates such bizarre experiences with all the wide-eyed self-deprecation of a true poet, a quality I'm sure will translate perfectly to television. Remember, TV Sydney UHF-31. And no, as far as I know I don't appear in any of the episodes.

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.

Margie goes Festive

Congrats to Margie Cronin for having her outstanding collection, More or Less Than, shortlisted in the Adelaide Festival Award for Innovation. This is a relatively new award open to "published books which depart from conventional use of genre by borrowing elements from a number of genres such as fiction, non-fiction, biography, autobiography, poetry or cultural criticism." Despite their best efforts, however, the judges have failed to meet their own criteria, Margie's being the only work that seems to come close to fitting the bill. The criteria is not, by the way, particularly innovative, as any Capote fan or avid reader of Victorian novels could tell you, but what the hey! Margie's collection is well overdue for some accolades, as is the seemingly unstoppable author herself, a writer who has copped her fair share of nasty broadsides from they whose sins are multitude and whose one great vice is to teach. And while we're on the subject of dusty old things, it's good to see the Adelaide Festival making every effort to seem like something more than a trade fair.