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John Mateer's new book of poems
has been published by Salt Publishing
Here's a poem from Elsewhere:
Takbiran
There is a night when all radios transmit like minarets,
when the chanting of engines and firecrackers
is as comprehensive as the space in any loved room.
It's the night when windows tremble like the walls of Jericho,
when unbelievers acquiesce to the silence of their wide-screen TVs.
That night is stalked by a fasting moon and its thirsty day,
and with vibrato and reverb is everywhere breeding voices
like engineered wheat or a mirage in an Arabian desert.
That night is pursued by the single-eyed sun who squints
at the field of newspapers where families have knelt,
and squints again at them on scooters speeding to their ancestors.
On that night all is awake to the sound of the one Name.
Publisher's blurb : Presenting John Mateer’s poems about South Africa, Sumatra, Japan, the United States and Mexico, Elsewhere is an exciting introduction to a poet whose work has been receiving international attention for the past decade. Elsewhere is a vision of today’s world, a moral accounting of the history of the past five hundred years of Western colonization in one person’s experience.
Main description: Presenting work that John Mateer has previously published in South Africa, Australia, Indonesia and Japan, Elsewhere is an introduction to a poet whose work has been steadily receiving international attention over the past decade.
Elsewhere is divided into three sections: “Azania”, “Medan and Zipangu” and “Americas”.
The poems of “Azania” describe the poet’s memories of South Africa and his impressions when he has revisited the land of his birth, encountering animals, ghosts, Zulu and Maori poets, goldminers, gambling ‘madams’ and the urban ruins left in the wake of immigration.
“Medan and Zipangu” contain work written and published in Sumatra and Japan. More metaphysical than the South African poems, these poems capture the spiritual turmoil of one who finds in the act of encounter the means of undoing the psychic violence of the past. Sensual and detailed, they are steps towards the healing of a traumatized psyche, the rebirth of a wandering ghost.
The section concluding the book, “Americas”, reframes Mateer’s world through reference to those other New Worlds that are actually Old Worlds: the United States and Mexico. More ironic than any of his other work, these poems are pointed and political – one about Ground Zero, another about a Slovene poet who, with the poet, seeks out a shrine dedicated to Saint Death – and some with a deft sense of humour and surprisingly sexiness.
Elsewhere will be launched in Melbourne by
Kris Hemensley
Wednesday, 2nd April, 2008
6.00 for 6.30pm
Collected Works Bookshop
Level 1,
Nicholas Building
37 Swanston Street,
Melbourne
RSVP to Natalie: marketing@inbooks.com.au
Things to do in March and April :Reminder for the Vagabond Press reading
at University of Sydney
on Wednesday March 19th at 6.15pm
Art Exhibition Opening 
Alone at the moviesViken Minassian and Kerry Kirk
Directors,
Hat Hill Gallery
Invite you to join them for the opening
of Andrew Ireland's latest exhibition,
with organic wines and olives provided by Rosnay Wines.
Hat Hill Gallery
3 Hat Hill Road
Blackheath
On Saturday 22nd March
6pm - 8pm
Boxing Day At Nobby's Beach
Click to Preview
Andrew Ireland’s diverse imagery focuses on the figurative in order to support his whimsical visual narratives; be they absurdist, ironic or quotidian observation. His paintings seek to weave a tale ... a tale layered in encrusted oil, wax and varnish. These essential elements have grown out of his early training and experimentation as a painter/printmaker. Alchemical reverse processes attract Ireland both in fable and in method. The paintings contain gently opposing forces; dream-like conundrums merge with observed realities, melancholia entwines with comedy and time drifts between the contemporary and the nostalgic.
Andrew Ireland was born and educated in Manchester, UK, undertook a Foundation Diploma in Fine Art at Salford Technical College and achieved a BA Honours Fine Art (1st Class) in Painting and Printmaking at Brighton Polytechnic. After extensive travel through Europe Andrew emigrated to Australia in 1985.
In 1986-1997 Ireland worked as an illustrator for the Sydney Morning Herald, Australian Financial Review, The Times on Sunday and The Australian. He was awarded The Bulletin's Black & White Artists’ “Best Humorous Illustrator Award” in 1990.
In 1991 Ireland successfully exhibited his paintings at Rex Irwin Gallery, Sydney (Solo Show). His work was purchased by private collectors and Art Bank Australia.
During 1991-92 Ireland travelled to live and work in Italy, where he exhibited at Gallerie E5 (Solo Show), Verona and Southern Gallery, Rome. He returned to Australia and continued to work as a painter/freelance illustrator. He was regularly involved and employed in art education; Sydney College of the Arts, University of Newcastle, Sydney Graphics College, Billy Blue Design School, UTS, UWS and Blue Mountains Grammar School. At present he teaches art at Korowal School, Leura, NSW.
Books Do Furnish A RoomThe exhibition continues until 13th April
Gallery hours : 10am - 4pm Thursday to Sunday
or by appointment (02) 4787 7033
Kerry Leves
Sydney independent publisher Puncher & Wattmann
will launch Kerry Leves’ new collection of poems
A Shrine to Lata Mangeshkar
at Benledi, Glebe Library
186 Glebe Point Road
Sunday 30th March
at 3.30pm
Any account of Indian playback music must start and end with Lata Mangeshkar. Born September 28, 1929 in Indore, Lata Mangeshkar has been active in all walks of Indian popular and light classical music having sung film songs, ghazals, bhajans and pop. She is the supreme voice of popular Indian music, an Indian Institution. Until the 1991 edition, when her entry disappeared, the Guinness Book of Records listed her as the most recorded artist in the world with not less than 30,000 solo, duet and chorus-backed songs recorded in 20 Indian languages between 1948 and 1987.
The Lee Marvin Readings begin again
on April Fool's Day in Adelaide.
Program details here
The Leichhardt Espresso Chorus
at St James Church, Sydney on April 5th 6pm
THE CHILDREN
Dear Europe
If I'd known that I'd see you there
I'd have dropped everything & come running
Poems by Philip Whalen; Photographs by Aram Saroyan:
Aram Saroyan took photos of children more or less his own age while travelling in Europe with his father. He sent them to Philip Whalen who wrote poems based on them.
Read Aram’s note on the project.
Read 'The Children'. Published online in Big Bridge
(This post, with the gracious permission of Aram Saroyan,
did beat Ron Silliman's blog by two days)
