Poets Out Loud

They started with me! (Pardon my excitement.)

Enterprising young poet Sarah Temporal has just organised a new series of monthly poetry readings in Murwillumbah NSW where I live (and she lives). They began last Thursday with a varied and exciting program of two featured readers (me and Matt Hetherington) and lots of brilliance in the open sections. Here I am in full emote on the night:

And these are the poems I read, the first two from my book Secret Leopard, the second two much more recent. You can click the links for the individual poems, to read them on my poetry blogs, The Passionate Crone and Enheduanna's Dauggter.

The Day We Lost the Volkswagen

Vagabond

Sonnet Written Upon a Tim Tam

The Advantages of Poetry

Haiku Anthology

Oh, how exciting! I just got in the post the anthology "Jumble Box" edited by Michael Dylan Welch, drawn from last year's NaHaiWriMo (National Haiku Writing Month – which is actually international). That happens every February but there aren't always books resulting. I tend to wander away to other things between Februarys, so I was a bit late to realise it had been issued, but very glad to have it now. It looks and feels beautiful, with lovely artwork by fellow-Taswegian Ron Moss, and of course lots of excellent haiku. I'm especially chuffed that the three of mine included are all one-liners: a form I much admire and seldom even attempt myself.

Back in January 2007, just over 10 years ago, I decided to try and teach myself to write haiku. I discovered that I had a lot to learn!  It's wonderful to have come from those first clueless attempts to having work selected by a respected editor for an international collection such as this.

"Jumble Box" is available from Amazon, only in paperback – and this is one of the rare cases when I am delighted to have it in that form rather than ebook, because it is very easy to read, and the font and layout make it altogether a visual work of art. (Also, I must admit it's easier to show off a physical book to other people when I want to do some skiting.)
https://www.amazon.com/Jumble-Box-Senryu-Nati…/…/ref=sr_1_1…