Destructing the poem: Ern Malley goes to Sappho Books

Toby Fitch organised a celebration of Ern Malley's 99th birthday (14 March). There were many there. Sixteen poets, academics, and others read a poem each. The audience was vibrant. Judith Rodriguez was there, and David Malouf, Beate Josephi, Andrew Taylor and lots of others. Readers included, Joanne Burns, aj carruthers, Leif Mahoney (who had been bruiting this idea about for some time), me (Chris Mansell), Kate Middleton, Amanda Stewart, Richard Tipping (who brought the original Angry Penguins edition), John Tranter etc

           

Michele Seminara took this pic  

of this reading mid-action. 

Low light. Far away.

My allocated poem was Night Piece (alternative version). I'd originally been allocated Night Piece so I compared/edited/stripped down the two poems.

First Night Piece:

 And here is the alternative version (also by Ern of course):

Then I thought I'd see what the differences were and see if that made any sort of sense. I've left in the Track Changes/edit so you can see I did not cheat with this. Nymph was deleted and then inserted because it changed its position.

I read this - the alternative alternative version.

And then I wondered what the remainder looked like (extracted from the blue above):

The question then is do any of the versions seem better to a contemporary ear? When you read some of the other poems in the magazine of the time you can see why Max Harris might have leapt at these poems.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, go to Jacket: http://jacketmagazine.com/17/index.shtml
or more comprehensively Jacket2: https://www.jacket2.org/commentary/ern-malley

Definition of a quad by Chris Mansell

Here is a quad - a strict form I invented and which has appeared in two collections (Stung, and Stung More) to date.

Here is the first quad in the Stung collection:

What a quad is:

1. One quad comprises 4 interlinked squares, made up of 15 characters wide x 8 lines deep, exactly. (Obviously the font chosen is fixed width. They were originally composed on a manual typewriter.) 
2. There is no punctuation, at all, including apostrophes. 
3. There are no gaps at the ends of lines
4. There are words within words.
5. The black/red is not accidental. There must be some red characters on each line. 
6. The reds form a (subsidiary) poem in itself, particularly as a sound poem. 
7. The breaks and elisions in words, and the grammatical enjambment are not accidental and contribute to the meaning, imagery, rhythm etc 
8. Subject matter can be anything: straight imagist as here, though surrealism is good.
9. There are no titles, except for perhaps numbers.

AVES

AVES and VERGE form a pair, sometime soon to be joined by a third, small collections of poems. Whereas VERGE contains three small booklets, AVES contains three folders each with a poem on the subject of birds: The Secret Lives of Birds, [five n twenty], and, Aves and Fishes.

Verging on the new!

Here is the latest limited edition publication, Verge. Each copy has three booklet of poetry inside, Ulysses takes to Sea for the first time, The Movement to Spring, and The Question Arriving.
10.5cm x 10.5cm. It is the companion publication to Aves (see www.chrismansell.com)

Nice new book from Ken Bolton

This is a lovely new book from Ken Bolton published by Wakefield Press. Don't miss it. Bolton's sure and witty style will grab you again (? and fire you out of a can(n)on?).

Invitation to the launch of LETTERS

You're invited to the launch of Letters - my new book of poems published by Kardoorair Press in the Chocolate Shop in Berry at 6pm on 6 November: a Friday, so a good way to end the week.

At the same time you can have a look at the results of a photographic collaboration between Will Sturgess and Greg Forsyth - which involves televisions treated with various levels of dis/respect.

Jen Saunders, artist/musician/poet, will say some words and I'll read something, and perhaps put some video poems on the wall if I'm feeling brave enough.

Come, it's sure to be a good time - Nik Broadbridge and Poppy Richardson (owners of the Choc Shop) always make it a friendly place to be.

New out from Kardoorair

Here's the new book out from Kardoorair - more poems from yours truly:

PressPress Chapbook Award

It's hot where I am - though I've been getting news of those struggling with the snow elsewhere - and it looks as though the chapbook award is hotting up too. The entries are flowing in. This is good, rather than having a lot of administration at the last minute as people, naturally, fling things over the deadline (end of May 09).

It's exciting but all the entries have to wait so that they can go through the judging process together to allow fair comparison (they're all judged 'blind' ie without identifying the poet on the manuscript itself).





Response to Carolyn Fisher's winning chapbook has been very positive. She's organised a number of launches in Tasmania which I get reports about. After Carolyn's was published the long-awaited chapbook from Alison Thompson Slow Skipping came out.

Alison is from my own locality (ie boondocks) so I was very pleased about that. It's rare. Half of the titles originate from the Northern Territory or Tasmania.

In fact, one of the runners up for the Chapbook Award was also published - and was from the Northern Territory. This was Jennifer Mills with Treading Earth. I love this book. It has the qualities of the landscape it was written in. Have a look.

The next title will be different and is posing some production problems which might delay it. We shall overcome. There will also be another exciting opportunity in the second half of the year - but first, let us survive the 2009 Chapbook Award!

New PressPress title

Carolyn Fisher's The Unsuspecting Sky was the winner of the 2008 PressPress Chapbook Award.

There was a large and competitive field for this award and the competition was close. Fisher's poems are clear and present an accessible vision of the natural and social world around her. The poems in the chapbook have been written over a number of years when Fisher was a recipient of Australia Council and Arts Tasmania grants.

LAUNCHES:
October 2008: Tasmanian Poetry Festival, Launceston.
December 2008: The Republic, Hobart
January 2009: Poets Pub Night, Forth Pub, Forth

PressPress Chapbook Award 2008

This has just opened. If you could tell people, it would be good. I'm looking for really good material!

The PressPress Poetry Chapbook Award 2008 has opened for submissions. You need 30-40 pages of original poetry to enter.

The winning the Award will get you:
1. incalculable glory
2. $300AUD
3. Publication of a chapbook with PressPress.

Full guidelines and entry form on the PressPress site at www.presspress.com.au.


Many thanks
Chris

PVN Archived Stream - 60-Second Lectures

Now Scientific American does it, but go to PVN Archived Stream - 60-Second Lectures for lectures like:

Vijay Balasubramanian, Merriam Term Assistant Professor of Physics
"The Knowable Universe"
(0:01:44)

(an expanding universe perhaps since sixty seconds now takes 104 seconds...)

or


Charles Bernstein, professor of English, answers the question: "What Makes a Poem a Poem?"
(0:01:23)

JOGLARS \ crossmedia beliefware

JOGLARS \ crossmedia beliefware

Beowulf version

Here is a bilinguage rendering of Beowulf (modern and old English) for those who want to see how much the movie does not match the poem:

Beowulf, I. The Passing of Scyld

A little poem about god

Wisdom Publications :: Wisdom Anthology of North American Buddhist Poetry : : Andrew Schelling :

This could bw interestingWisdom Publications :: Wisdom Anthology of North American Buddhist Poetry : : Andrew Schelling :

Their blurb says:

Includes works by:

Diane di Prima o Lawrence Ferlinghetti o Norman Fischer o Sam Hamill o Jane Hirshfield o Mike O'Connor o Gary Snyder o Eliot Weinberger o Philip Whalen o Michael McClure o Leslie Scalapino o and more...

Playful, thoughtful, and important, the 28 poets found in The Wisdom Anthology of North American Buddhist Poetry offer innovations on traditional and time-honored Buddhist poetic forms.

Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay, Cardiff, south Wales

'In these stones horizons sing'a line from Gwyneth Lewis on the Millennium Centre, Cardiff, Wales.


Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay, Cardiff, south Wales.

Sonnet 138: When my love swears that she is made of truth

When my love swears that she is made of truth
I do believe her, though I know she lies,
That she might think me some untutored youth,
Unlearnèd in the world's false subtleties.
Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young,
Although she knows my days are past the best,
Simply I credit her false-speaking tongue;
On both sides thus is simple truth suppressed.
But wherefore says she not she is unjust?
And wherefore say not I that I am old?
O, love's best habit is in seeming trust,
And age in love, loves not to have years told.
Therefore I lie with her, and she with me,
And in our faults by lies we flattered be.

William Shakespeare

See the Voice site

Have a look at this site. Small videos of poets reading their work. Great idea from Gian Paolo Guerini - See the voice

Animation

Visit this Billy Collins poem: http://www.vimeo.com/clip:38358

Today