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Top Ten Poetic Moments of 2011

The following is a list of my ten favourite moments in Australian poetry in the past year or so. I call it a list of moments because not all of these are poems; a few of them are discussions of poetry which I enjoyed for various reasons.

In a recent entry on my own blog entitled ‘Some Thoughts’ I made a few points about my sometimes awkward relationship with contemporary Australian poetry. I will refrain from quoting myself here but I will preface the following list by admitting that if permitted I would spend all my time reading books by my favourite poets and authors, almost all of whom are international and dead.

However, I will also admit that on occasion it proves a blessing to be forced to delve into contemporary Australian poetry and the following is a list of ten things that failed to make me wish I was born in another time and place: ... read more

Written by Tara Mokhtari on 14-12-2011, 3 user comments

Tearing down walls

KoralyDimitriadisBenJohnSmith

Sometimes I get so tired of words. They pour out of me. It is not words that I lack. It is the discipline to arrange the words in a way that best articulates what it is I am trying to say. I’m trying to tear down walls, layers and layers of walls. Emotional walls, cultural walls, female walls, writing and publishing industry walls. But sometimes it’s best just to shut up and say everything you want to say in a single photo. So I’m going to keep this post brief, and let the photo say the rest. ... read more

Written by Koraly Dimitriadis on 10-11-2011, 14 user comments

Subscriberthon: The poetry of subscribing

Folks, we have almost made it. It’s the second last day of Subscriberthon, which means we’ll soon stop bombarding you with emails and the blog will resume its daily publication of scintillating and debate-worthy posts.

Thank you to everyone who’s subscribed so far. But we still need even more support, because it takes a lot of resources and work to keep Overland on the literary map.

Take, as an example, poetry. Overland loves poetry. That’s why we run the annual Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize for New and Emerging Poets, which has a jaw-dropping first prize of $6000.

We recently asked some Overland writers why they think people should support Overland. Poet, academic and Meanland blogger Ali Alizadeh wrote: ... read more

Written by Editorial team on 8-11-2011, 5 user comments

God without borders

St Pauls

God Without Borders: an address to the ‘owners’ of St Paul’s...

St Paul’s, we will
Not let words fail
On your threshold,
Nor world be sold

Off to the rich
Who will entrench
In their towers
Of selfish prayers.

Witness the tents,
See homelessness,
Mark ‘industry’
In community!

St Paul’s, we will
Not let words fall
On your threshold,
Nor world be sold.

... read more

Written by John Kinsella on 1-11-2011, 8 user comments

Rebellion in poetry

ghazal games

Ghazal Games
Roger Sedarat
Ohio University Press

Experimenting with traditional poetic form is not a new concept. John Keats wrote his poem ‘On the Sonnet’ warning of the dangers of constraining the ‘muse’ to strict form. Imagist poets like Ezra Pound and Amy Lowell adapted the haiku form to English-language verse. Where there are rules, there are rebels.

But the act of experimenting with form is arguably less about rebellion and more about determining what said form is really capable of achieving by exaggerating its conventions. In hindsight it can be said that most poetry is to some degree a reaction against the poetry that came before it, but that the act of ‘reacting against’ is in itself a kind of homage. Poetry that deliberately sets out to experiment with form is the most transparent kind of poetic homage, validating the traditional form for its potential relevance to contemporary culture. ... read more

Written by Tara Mokhtari on 25-08-2011, 3 user comments

Meanland: Shocking encounters with the (virtual) Real

Slavoj Zizek in Liverpool – by Andy MiahIt would be safe to say that, thanks to the acknowledged horrors of cyberspace (see ‘Internet child pornography a growing problem’ or ‘Terrorists Take Recruitment Efforts Online’, for starters), our view of the wonders of the brave new world of the internet is becoming increasingly less sanguine. As the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek observed in an interview seven years ago, the digital world has ‘a radically ambiguous status’: ... read more

Written by Ali Alizadeh on 24-08-2011, 3 user comments

Poetry or pornography?

With the launch of my second poetry chapbook, Love and Fuck Poems, approaching, I thought it timely to write a post to hopefully generate some discussion about poetry and pornography, and the fine line between the two – or can they be the same thing? It’s a question that’s been dancing in my mind the last six months. Before that time the thought never crossed my mind to explore this kind of poetry. But then I was introduced to a poet named Ben John Smith, editor of Horror Sleaze Trash and suddenly my poetry world was expanded to new horizons.

Ben was featuring at Passionate Tongues Poetry readings at Brunswick Hotel the first time I was exposed to his poetry, and he invoked a strong response – people either loved or loathed him. Mention his name to some poets and they’ll reciprocate with a look of disgust. ‘His work isn’t literature!’ someone said to me, ‘he’s sexist, misogynistic – he’s a pornographer, that’s all he is.’ And I received more than a few complaints when I interviewed him on 3CR’s Spoken Word program a few weeks ago. I’m working with Ben to put together a show for my launch where we will be going head-to-head, poetry style, and I have to say, getting to know him as a person, he is a far stretch from the ‘sexist pig’ people label him to be. In fact, he has been in a loving relationship with his girlfriend for ten years, so what seems to be the problem here? ... read more

Written by Koraly Dimitriadis on 27-06-2011, 108 user comments

A Kerry Leves memorial

kerry at katoomba - Jenni Nixon

A Shrine To Lata Mangeshkar Puncher and Wattman, 2007 (Shortlisted for both the 2009 NSW Premiers Prize and Kenneth Slessor Poetry Prize)
Water Roars, Illusions Burn Vagabond Press, 2002
Territorial AnT Studios, 1996
Green, Poems 1971-78 Sea Cruise Books, 1978

It is with great sadness that we commemorate the death of Kerry Leves, poet, reviewer, man of great heart, spirit and intellect, and long-term friend and contributor to Overland.

In keeping with his open-hearted generosity, we have invited a few of Kerry’s closest friends to write here with their fondest personal memories and recollections. John Stephenson has kindly contributed an intimate and thoughtful obituary. ... read more

Written by Peter Minter on 22-06-2011, 17 user comments

Waltzing with Jack Dancer: a slow dance with cancer

'Waltzing with Jack Dancer' coverWaltzing with Jack Dancer: a slow dance with cancer
Poems by Geoff Goodfellow
Story by Grace Goodfellow
Wakefield Press

This review is dedicated to Guido Schivella, who lost to cancer in 2008, and to Charisse Mitchell, who will beat cancer in 2011.


Cancer is indiscriminate, picking its battles with seeming randomness. There are hypothesised causes: smoking, drinking, sun etc, but they are not definitive. Cancer picked the wrong fight when it tried to take on Geoff Goodfellow, the man HG Nelson describes as ‘tough nut’. Geoff’s boxing training, working-class background and teenage daughter were three things that cancer didn’t count on. ... read more

Written by Mark William Jackson on 11-05-2011, 15 user comments

You can only get so close on Google Earth

Cover of Ann Shenfield's bookYou Can Get Only So Close On Google Earth
Ann Shenfield
Arcadia

Ann Shenfield is recognised as an animation filmmaker and author-illustrator. You Can Get Only So Close on Google Earth is her debut poetry collection.
Poems within the collection have been recognised, winning such prizes as the Rosemary Dobson and Max Harris Poetry Awards in 2007 as well as publication in journals such as Visible Ink and Glass (2003).

A recurring theme is death; the death of a father when the poet was 5 years old, and the relatively recent death of a sister. Indeed, both traumatic experiences. I did, however, find the imagery used in the particular poems to be a bit flowery and assume the poet has reconciled the trauma of these events. ... read more

Written by Mark William Jackson on 6-05-2011, 14 user comments

Justin Clemens on two Dorothies, two Porters

Overland 202 contains Justin Clemens’ sparkling essay on Dorothy Porter, Peter Porter and Dorothy Hewett. It’s now online for your reading pleasure.

... read more

Written by Editorial team on 2-05-2011, No comments

Poetry Prize announcement & interview

mrobertsonfound-web-logoOverland and the Malcolm Robertson Foundation are thrilled to announce the winner of the  2010 Judith Wright Poetry Prize for New and Emerging Writers:

Runners up:

Thomas Denton – ‘The Pirouette’
Judy Durrant – ‘and day breaks’

Written by Editorial team on 30-03-2011, 6 user comments

Antithesis presents: words outside the wog box

As I’m typing this blog post, only a few kilometres away on Lonsdale Street in the city, the annual Antipodes festival is in full swing. There’s fairy floss, carnival rides, imported Greek singers, bouzouki, Greek dancing and, of course, souvlaki. The Antipodes festival has been running since 1987 and, according to their website and to many Greeks in Melbourne, it is ‘a celebration of all things Greek’. But surely there’s more to being Greek than Antipodes, or the collection of ‘wog boy’ films? Challenging the Greek stereotype isn’t the only reason a few prominent Greek-Australian artists came together and created Antithesis, it was also to expose the hidden underground art created by Greek-Australians that for some reason, isn’t pushing through to the mainstream. As the curator of the literature/

Written by Koraly Dimitriadis on 19-03-2011, 15 user comments

Review: Out of the Box: Contemporary Australian Gay and Lesbian Poets

2010-OUT-OF-THE-BOX-coverOut of the Box: Contemporary Australian Gay and Lesbian Poets
Michael Farrell and Jill Jones (eds)
Puncher & Wattman Poetry

I’ve put off reviewing this book. During the whole of 2010 I must have reviewed one too many collection of academic lyricism which clashed violently with my academic burnout. The result was that every contemporary poem I read – I’m sorry to say – sounded like it was written by one of the same two imaginary people: ‘Jane Masters’, the female lyric poet doing some kind of postgrad creative writing course and preoccupied with how to overwrite everything, and ‘Joe D’oh’, the punctuationally challenged experimentalist who can’t (or can’t be bothered) editing his stream of consciousness for the reader’s sake. ... read more

Written by Tara Mokhtari on 17-03-2011, 6 user comments

My (not so) secret poetic shame

I’ve heard so many writers wax lyrical about their early poetic influences and, indeed, I've done it myself in interviews. Musicality plays a great part in my poetry and some time ago, a young writer asked me what the first album I bought was. They might have been expecting Tracey Chapman, or perhaps even Gil Scott Heron, The Last Poets or Public Enemy – and indeed, they did come later. But here, ladies and gentlemen, for your viewing pleasure, is my ultimate secret shame.

bobby-brown-my-prerogative-239516In 1989, I bought my first ever cassette tape album: Bobby Brown’s gem Every Little Step I Take. It played on loop on my sunflower yellow boombox till the tape got twisted and Bobby began to sound chipmunk-like. Whitney Houston and Brown hadn’t hooked up yet and I knew deep down that somehow, Bobby and I were gonna marry someday. Bel Biv Devoe and Arrested Development were soon to follow suit, though none of them would steal my heart anywhere close to the way that skinny-legged black-shoulder-padded-tux-with-bare-chest-underneath Bobby did. ... read more

Written by Maxine Clarke on 9-03-2011, 6 user comments