(workshops conducted on behalf of what was then the Melbourne Branch of the Poets Union of Australia). © David A Nissen 2022 It's taken me 40 years to feel able to write about a brief but life-changing experience: running poetry workshops in Pentridge Prison, Melbourne, which no longer exists as a prison – having closed in 1997 and gradually being repurposed – but which, during its long life, was always notorious. Once I finally began to write this story, it poured out! It took me three months to get down the first draft, and it’s been three more of editing, tweaking, and seeking opinions from a small, trusted group of other writers, including some who were very much involved in those workshops too. It involved mentally re-living an experience which, at the time, was both traumatic and transformative. This process has been painful but also cathartic. And sometimes the memories were warming. Those were times not only of grimness and tragedy, but also of much fun and affection. I’m
How exciting! Two of my poems are going into the Lunar Codex, i.e. will be in a time capsule to be sent to the moon, on the initiative of my online friend and sometime mentor, Sam Peralta. (The person who taught me, among other things, not to be afraid of attempting sonnets – and then, the variety of sonnets one may attempt.) Further details of this project at the link below. The #LunarCodex inducts into the Polaris time capsule the authors of dVerse Poets Pub 's CHIAROSCURO anthology, edited by Björn Rudberg and Mary Grace Guevara Polaris is targeted for the 2023 SpaceX / Astrobotic Griffin lander / NASA VIPER rover mission, headed for the Lunar South Pole. * * Now indexed in https://www.lunarcodex.com/poetry * * My poems in the book are: At Mariner's Café We like to call in here on the way home from Kingscliff or even Tweed Heads (a detour) to catch up with our friend, the new manager – and the coffee’s good. So is the view of the river. In late afternoon sun, we sit bac