Wagga Wagga

I'm enjoying my time up here in Wagga. Got to talk to 80 school kids the other day about poetry, ghosts, and how we go about generating ideas...

One of the kids came up to me afterwards and said... will you write about us?" hmmm...

Now check out the posts below for links of what workshops/readings I'm doing up here and when. About to head down to the Write Around the Murray Fest" tomorrow. Should be fun.

Booranga

Looking forward now to my residency at the Booranga Writers Centre which kicks off on the 28th of July until the 11th August. I’ve just done an interview with a journo from the Daily Advertiser in Wagga, which is good publicity for the reading and the workshops I’m running. Hope to meet lots of Waggarians. Or is it Waggarites?

http://www.csu.edu.au/faculty/arts/humss/booranga/index.html

And the Write around the Murray Festival will be fun in Albury. I’m doing a workshop on Performance Poetry at the Albury Library/Museum. See the link below…

http://www.writearoundthemurray.org.au/

My interview on ABC’s the Book Show must be coming up soon too. So tune in at 10am... you just might hear me yacking. They aired the interview with emerging writer Kate Mulvany the other day, so it won’t be long before I am on. I’ll post the link for you here soon…

Now before I fly out to Wagga I’ll be getting to the launch of the latest Blue Dog which is publishing my poem Anxiety. That will be at the Australian Poetry Centre at Glenfern, St Kilda on the 27th … so come along if you are in the area. It goes from 5:30 to 6:30pm.

Catch you later... I'm going for a bodyboard now in the rain cause I'm writing a poem about surfers/surfing. New writing territory for me. I'm lovin it.

Plus, Go Cadel!! Hold your nerve in those Alps.

welcome/the homecoming

Well here it is.

Finally ditched the Telstra blog. Was doing my head in. Couldn't handle it any longer.

A friend of mine just bought me a hardcover copy of The Homecoming by Ray Bradbury, illustrated by Dave McKean. It’s a beautiful book about Halloween/a haunting. How come I didn’t know about this before? I’ve read it through once and will need to sit with it for a while now. There is a strangeness to the language which is not easy to swallow but altogether captivating, the reason I will keep coming back to it.

Short stories are built (among other things) upon language use and the art of revelation. It’s as simple and as difficult as that. If you’ve got those two working for you then you’re on your way I reckon. Singing My Sister Down by Margo Lanagan comes to mind here… one of my all time favourites.

I’ve had a few short stories published but plays and poems have been my strength to date. I can see the time coming though when I get back there… tempted by prose amid a desert of sales!

Some lines from The Homecoming…

Silently she stood stiff as a great loaf of nile bread…

Their laughter was a cave of winds…

Uncle Einar, last of all, kettledrummed the air as he descended, laughing at some half-remembered death, perhaps his own, until he lay in the longest box of all…

Home from Port Arthur

Just home from my night at Port Arthur.

Well what a crazy week. It was kicked off with my night in the Parsonage, a vacant building with nothing but a locked piano and steep staircase; two things I did not want to hear from in the middle of the night. As it was I remained awake listening to every little noise outside my door. It was a wet and windy night and the house certainly let me know it. But I managed to tough it out and am quite proud of the fact that I have endured the night in full at each of the ten sites.

If this spiel is sounding familiar it’s probably because I finished the week doing interviews with ABC radio all over the country. News of my adventures hit the right channels and I was inundated. Most of the interviews took place in my car on the side of the road, juggling my mobile phone as the trucks went by. Some of these interviews went smoother than others, but I am doing my best to sound sharp, articulate and just interesting I guess.

The Bush Telegraph, Radio National, is now producing a show on the project which is really exciting. Stay tune for details on that.

Other news is that one my ghost poems recently won the ‘open poetry’ category of the Bauhinia Literary Awards. So a big ‘yay’ on that one! It’s encouraging to know the work is being received well already.

Now if you would like to hear me read I am performing as part of National Poetry Week at the Bush Inn Hotel, Geelong, Sept 8, 2-5pm. Alongside Diane Fahey, Katherine Gallagher and Susan Russell.

I am in Port Fairy the following day (Sept 9) reading at the Ex Libris Book Fair: Victoria Hotel Dining Room, 12.30-2.30 with Paul Mitchell and James Griffin among others.

But keep in touch because I have a lot more to tell you, news on upcoming plays with Melb Writers theatre, Defector Art and Short and Sweet.

www.melborn.melbwriters.org.au

http://www.defectorart.com

http://assets.theartscentre.net.au/shortandsweet/

Port Arthur

Here it is people.
I don’t want to do it but I have to do it.

Nine months into it, nine haunted sites down, and with 72 poems written, it has all finally lead to this: a night at Australia’s no. 1 haunted location, Port Arthur.

It’s been one hell of a great adventure but let me share a few things I have discovered along the way.

1. It is possible to feel incredibly lucky/privileged and sick with nerves at the same time. (Something I learnt one night amid the moonlit ruins of Norfolk Island.)

2. You are allowed to pass through an airport metal detector while eating a chicken salad. (as long as your fork is plastic!)

3. A hearse can get pretty uncomfortable.

4. Good ideas/poems come from sheer hard work. Even when you are sure you are out of good ideas/poems.

But let’s talk about Port Arthur. Of course we all know it was a hell-on-earth convict settlement back in the 1800s, a place of unimaginable cruelty. Now it is a hive for tourists and ghost hunters, with ghost tours being conducted every night. Reports of paranormal activity are legion, and people are scared witless as they are taken through buildings such as the Commandant’s Cottage, Jetty Cottage and Tower Cottage.

I am staying the night in one of Port Arthur’s most ‘haunted’ : the Parsonage.

Weird activity associated with this building includes, moaning noises, bright lights, the smell of rotting flesh, knocking noises, footsteps, ghostly figures ie. a little girl and the ‘lady in blue’.

All right… starting to scare myself now! But read more about what I’m in for at the links below. And wish me luck!

http://vt.essortment.com/ghostsportarth_rnas.htm

http://www.abc.net.au/gnt/history/Transcripts/s1114833.htm

http://www.paranormalaustralia.com/tours/revportarthur.html

Norfolk/Passionate Tongues

Just home from Norfolk Island where I got to spend the night in the pier store, its most ‘haunted’ building.

Built by convicts, it is said that a grey figure appeared one night, walked down the front stairs, out onto the pier and disappeared into the ocean. The witness of this was so alarmed that he went straight to the authorities and reported it. Since then there have been other accounts of strange noises and sightings.

Now converted into a museum, I was allowed to sleep upstairs among the relics of the Bounty. My buddy for the night was one of the original cannons salvaged from the ship that Fletcher Christian and the other mutineers burnt at Pitcairn Island.

Check out the gallery for pics of ruins, pines and the cemetery of this incredible place. Thanks to Brian Hubble, Maev Hitch and others who introduced me to the local history and Norfolk language (a cross between Tahitian and Old English.)

My final ghost-poetry stay is coming up at Australia’s most haunted location: Port Arthur. So keep in touch.

And why not come and see me perform at Passionate Tongues in Melb, 6th August, 8pm. $5. (Noise Bar, 291 Albert St, Brunswick) I am featuring with Kevin Brophy, Paul Mitchell and James Waller. Fine poetry by some of Melbourne’s best.

Norfolk Island (Ghost Poetry)

My ninth stay on the ghost poetry project is the picturesque Norfolk Island. With 1800 residents, a third of whom are direct descendants of Fletcher Christian from Pitcairn Island, it sits two and half hours from the Queensland Coast, a jewel in the Pacific, a living museum.

Yet Norfolk Island was once an isolated penal colony, perhaps the most brutal every established. Many place names on the island give a hint to its gruesome past: Bloody Bridge, Ghost Corner, Gallows Gate and Cemetery Bay. Some claim it has more ghosts per square kilometre than any other region of Australia.

It looks like I will be staying the night at the Kingston Pier Store. The pier and storehouse were built by convicts, and is said to be haunted by the ghost of one that drowned (presumable during its construction). Check out the links below for more info on the island. Aren’t I lucky to go to all of these cool places? The only downside is the terror!

http://www.forpeaceofmind.com.au/Vol3/historic.cfm

http://www.gonorfolkisland.com/norfolkhistory.html

Also
Judith Rodriguez will be launching a new book of poems, Mr Wittgenstein’s Lion, written by that other sensei of mine, Kevin Brophy. Sunday 29th July, 5 for 5.30pm, Glenfern (417 Inkerman St, East St Kilda, Melbourne). So pop that into your diary. We are all looking forward to it.