Oz - Day 5

Good morning blog. I'm taking a quiet day to reflect and to write a couple of poems. I will make a cup of coffee and take my leisure. As I mentioned in the previous post it is winter here and raining for the second day in a row. More rain is forecast and I am going south at the weekend where it will be colder. I'm not complaining. I saw on the news yesterday that a mist had covered Sydney disrupting flights and commuting traffic.

There is a lot here to stimulate the imagination which is exciting for me. I visited the Queensland State Library where the Queensland Writers' Centre is based. I'm looking for a poetry event to attend but I may be out of luck as the Speedpoets open mic takes place on the first Saturday of the month and the Australian poetry slam Brisbane heat was last Thursday. I'll keep an eye out for something.

The Brisbane River is very wide. As I looked on the city skyline I noticed that there are lots of cranes. Remember when there were lots of cranes in Ireland during the Celtic Tiger?

Brisbane

I arrived on Saturday night local time. The flight was long; Dublin to Heathrow, Heathrow to Kuala Lumpur (12 hours) and KL to Brisbane (8 hours). On boarding the flight from KL I should have been going to bed so tiredness really kicked in. It was worth it!

Brisbane seems to be a vibrant thriving city on the up. It's winter here so it is dark by six o'clock. Yesterday I visited the largest shopping centre in Queensland in Chermside. I got a sim for a phone there so I'm mobile.

Today I visited the city centre and the area of South Bank on the River Brisbane. I went to the Museum of Modern Art which is celebrating Australian women at the moment. I took time to draw a breath in a room showing generations of aboriginal people and marvelled at incarnations of Australian dogs. There was a lot to take it and I should go back.

Below are just some pictures that caught my eye, mind and heart.

Drawn to the Light Chapbook Launch

It was a very well attended Boyne Readings and Open Mic last night. Approximately 25 people turned up and I was blessed among family, friends and fellow writers.

I have so say a huge thank you to Paddy Smith for being MC and to the Boyne Writers for their support. I really appreciated their attendance.

Honor Duff from Meath/Cavan lit lab and Frank Murphy of The Meath Writers' Circle participated in the Open Mic.

The Battle of the Books is next for the group. As for me, I will soon be off to Australia for a holiday! The photos below are from the lens of Paddy Smith.

Drawn to the Light

Of course the reading tonight is on my mind. I've made notes and I will briefly introduce each poem.

In trying to understand poetry more I found some quotes I like:

"Poetry must have something in it that is barbaric, vast and wild."

Denis Diderot

"Poetry is the one place where people can speak their original human mind. It is the outlet for people to say in public what is known in private."

Allen Ginsberg

And then there's this quote from Pablo Neruda who has a way of saying something that it would leave one breathless:

"I grew up in this town, my poetry was born between the hill and the river, it took its voice from the rain, and like the timber, it steeped itself in the forests."

A funny one about haiku from Roger McGough (I have one haiku in the chapbook):

"The only problem
with Haiku is that you just
get started and then"

It's a really wet, grey day and it's supposed to be the longest day of the year!

A Sneak Peek

I ran with it to the boot of my car in the rain. The ink smudges with rain! I'm fairly happy with it!

Drawn to the Light

My poetry chapbook Drawn to the Light is at the print shop and almost a reality.  It contains 13 poems which have appeared previously in Boyne Berries, Crannog, Revival, The Linnet's Wings, Wordlegs, The Sharp Review, The Stony Thursday Book, Shot Glass Journal, Outburst, thefirstcut, The Meath Chronicle and New Poems of Oriel.  This will be the first time that a selection of my poems will appear together as an entity.  I am grateful to The Boyne Writers' Group for giving me this opportunity.  Drawn to the Light is the third chapbook in The Boyne Writers' Group Chapbook Series.  Michael Farry published Ashes and Snow in 2009 and Brendan Carey Kinnane published Racket in the Air in 2009 also.  The 13 poems included cover a period of ten years of writing in my life, from when I was 23 to 33.  I am proud of the work. 

I made the chapbook over the last three months.  It has been a cautious process for me.  Only the other day I omitted two poems in favour of a longer poem.  I am nervous about reading the poems as I find it much easier to write the work than to recite it in public.  Nevertheless I am looking forward to the reading.  I hope a small group of people will be there on the night.

The June Boyne Readings and Open Mic will take place next Thursday night, the 21st of June (the summer solstice) at 8pm in the Knightsbridge Retirement Village Coffee Shop, Longwood Road, Trim, Co. Meath.  Paddy Smith, Chairman of Boyne Writers' Group, will be MC.  An open mic session will follow the launch of Drawn to the Light.  A copy of the chapbook will be available free of cost to those who attend. All are welcome to attend and read.  Admission will be 5 euro.  Tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided.

"If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,

That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear."

Puck, Act v scene i, A Midsummer Night's Dream

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

Jeanette Winterson will read at 8pm this Sunday in the Gate Theatre as part of Dublin Writers' Festival. She is the author of the Whitbread award winning "Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit", written when she was twenty five. Among other novels she wrote "Sexing the Cherry", "Written on the Body" and "The Passion".

Winterson's latest novel is called "Why be Happy When you Could be Normal?" It should be interesting to hear her speak.