and this is not a performance poem

can you feeeeeeel it
the difference tonight
this gap between page and stage
see these lights - our collective reality
this contrived gesture - this movement
this e-nun-ci-a-tion

yeah punters of the poem
get a dose of tactile delivery
vampires of the word
here stanzas are felt rhythmically
deliberately

approximately one hundred and twenty seconds
or less - of word - one after-the-other
after-the-other - after-the-other

i am syllables - units of rhythm
assonance - alliteration consummated
i am literally a metaphor snake
strike like a simile of the sonic
not like lee majors bionic
or remote fibre-vitiman-tonic
nor a sister of the sonnet
a munted rhyme for the seated gods

but, also this is not a fucking aabbc bbaac ccaab
bbaad rhyming pattern - un-uh - but just a word
on another word - piled on another word

now some anecdotal advice
about how i once trod barefoot
in my own hot morning shit - brown and yellow
its steaming rancid relevance - between my cold toes
and how i always - wear boots now
before a bush shit - and dig a hole

stacked here - these spoken words - this lullaby
an uttered semiotic sign - a list of the signifier, signified
a significance - a literary spin for you

and my soul - merely the width of this entire room
and the motherfuckers innit
there is repetition repetition repetition - and breath…

and words like foreskin and clitoris
and this is my voice inside you now -
resonating through yr ribs and limbs my pulse
as real as yrs
not binary, ink
or digitalised
or analog
but written read
and vocalised

see my veins run red - and bloody as yrs
and you can - by now
see the sheen of my sweat
in the red light of my brow

and the bass of this microphone
into and outta these speakers
and into you - into you
in - to - you

and this is not a performance poem
amongst the laundry lists
and rock-pose grandeur

these are words - just words
just words - on words…

EXPERIMENTAL WRITING WORKSHOP - DEC 5 - PCWC JOONDALUP

NO BORDERS - NO NOTIONS: AN EXPERIMENTAL CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOP with Allan Boyd (aka the antipoet) Saturday 5th December 2009 - 1-4pm Peter Cowan Writers Centre - ECU Joondalup

Experienced performance poet, experimental writer, artist, musician and Curtin University writing teacher - Allan Boyd (aka the antipoet) debunks the so-called "writers-block" myth in a three-hour workshop.

Allan will attempt to demystify the process of creative writing and encourage participants to take an explorative, experimental and radical approach to the process of creative writing.

The workshop provides exercises and examples to unearth new ideas, exposing processes that are often unconscious.

This workshop is suitable for both beginners and experienced writers, and involves challenging exercises and opportunities to develop their skills.

TO BOOK: Peter Cowan Writers Centre
Office hours Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10am-3pm
Phone/Fax: 9301 2282
E-Mail cowan05@bigpond.com
Web: www.pcwc.org.au

===

allan boyd (the antipoet)

Based in Perth, Western Australia, Allan Boyd has been delivering performance poetry at and organising dynamic poetry arts and music events since 1995.

He has performed his "difficult and acerbic words" as featured guest of the Queensland Poetry Festival; Melbourne Overload Poetry Festival; Newcastle This Is Not Art; Electrofringe and National Young Writers Festivals; the WA Poetry Festival; Artrage; Perth International Arts Festival; WA Fringe and others.

He is also singer/songwriter/guitarist for Perth original bands, MiteyKo and Blac Blocs - and creates music and soundscapes for film, theatre, tv and radio as well as live laptop sonics as Bozo.

Whilst studying creative writing at Curtin University he founded the popular Openmouth Poetry sessions at PICA Bar in Perth from 1996-2001, published a regular poetzine: Woodwork - as well as organised countless other poetry/music events since in WA, NSW and Melbourne.

His radical poetry and experimental short stories have been published in various journals and underground publications around Australia.

His Antipoet Manifesto, written as Emerging Writer in Residence at the Fellowship of Australian Writers WA in 2004, has been distributed across the planet.

Allan is a regular presenter/producer at Perth's largest community radio station RTRFM. He is also a web-designer/developer, administrator, graphic-artist, editor, activist, photographer and psuedo-journalistic hack.

Allan is the WA Poet Host for the Australian National Poetry Slam Perth heats.

Allan also facilitates workshops on performance poetry, experimental writing, zine-making, stencil-making and web-publishing.

He also teaches Creative Writing at Curtin University.

WA HEATS: Australian Poetry Slam

Australian Poetry Slam 2009

The search is on for Australia’s next poetry slam champion!

Speak, scream, howl, whisper or sing your original poem at the Australian Poetry Slam 09 – an electric live eventght where the audience is the judge! Slam heats are currently being held in city and regional venues across Australia until November 2009. Two finalists from each slam heat will compete in their state final.

http://australianpoetryslam.org

Perth Heats - 2009 National Poetry Slam

From the waslamheats.com website...

The Perth heats of the 2009 National Poetry Slam will be held at the 459 BAR of the ROSEMOUNT HOTEL, Cnr Angove and Fitzgerald Sts in North Perth.

Theres a map here, on the venue page.

PLEASE NOTE: We will not be accepting Heat registrations until early September 2009.

BUNBURY? there is also talk of a Heat in Bunbury! More details will be posted on this website when we have confirmed.

When are the Perth Heats?

• * HEAT 1: Friday 9th October
• * HEAT 2: Friday 16th October
• * HEAT 3: Friday 23rd October
• * HEAT 4: Friday 30th October
• * FINAL: Friday 6th November
  

Each night starts at 7.30PM

Its $5 Entry for Slam consumers - to be used to help cover costs of running the event and providing prizes for the winners.

If you wish to compete in the Slam heats, registration will cost you $5 - to be paid on the night of your heat.

REGISTER HERE (currently disabled) Please come back early September to stick things in boxes...

If you have any dramas please phone Allan Boyd - WA Slam Heats organiser on 0402 573 580 - Or use the Contact form here...

Thanks comrades... Werd!

From the waslamheats.com website...
--

Its just a slam ramble

From a thread on Perth Indymedia

Whilst its kinda interesting to read the analysis of a slam here on perth indy, the point of a slam is NOT the competition. At all.

The competition is an illusion, a delusion.

Slam events are purposely designed to produce random judges from the folks in the crowd, ie not literary judges, not high-brow poets, not beret-wearing snobs! Although if those are in the audience then they may get to be a judge.

Its random. Its open and transparent.

Slams began in the 80s in Chicago as an attempt to get more people along to poetry readings. And it works!

For me: having organised hundreds of poetry events since the mid-90s - including dozens of slams - the idea of a slam is to bring people to poetry events. Not for poets to compete with each other. The competition is certainly tongue-in-cheek and just a way of presenting new work to new audiences.

A slam event takes poetry to a higher place.

For poets: its an opportunity to perform your work in bite-sized chunks to a decent audience of people who may not necessarily be poets. Its a chance to perform quality work in a quality space. To be the best poet YOU can be - not the Winner of the comp!

For those that want to win a slam: Please don't enter it to win! Enter to hone your work, to take the opportunity to perform new stuff to new people. Refine and polish, rehearse and edit, craft and shape etc... Be the best poet you can be.

For the audience: its an opportunity to be entertained by contemporary and exciting poetry. The competition factor is a ruse. A joke. A ploy to get people in the venue. And it works. Every heat of this series was booked-out. We even needed a TV in the bar for those who couldn't fit in the theatre.

And the best bit about slams: I get to declare the next poet like they were a World Wrestling Federation superstar...

Nobody wins a slam. Everybody wins a slam.

:)
cheers,
al boyd
http://perthpoetryslam.com

From a thread on Perth Indimedia

Perth Poetry Slam 2009 FINAL - see hear touch taste and smell it

SLAM FINAL - Wednesday 4 March
These are the 12 finalists for the final of the inaugural Perth Poetry slam:

Belowsky
Karla Hart
Raageh Ismail
Gabby Everall
Mark Lloyd
Tiffany Ha
Paul Harrison
Elizabeth Tan
Stephanie Megatronn Low
Vivienne Glance
Jeremy Balius
Khin Myint

All welcome. Audience tickets are $5. The venue has limited capacity - so please book at the Blue Room website or phone the Blueroom on: 9227 7005

Perth Poetry Slam 2009

Perth Poetry Slam 2009

Full details coming soon...

Openmouth and The Blueroom present the inaugural "Perth Poetry Slam"

Starting Wednesday the 4th February 2009, the Perth Poetry Slam runs each Wednesday night until the 4th March - with up to 20 wordmongers will dazzle you in a battle to the death.

Five randomly chosen audience members will judge the performances to see who wins the final on the 4th March. Prizes etc to be announced soon...

And you're invited! Contact: email us here...

The Slam is part of the "25 nights of Summer" program at the Blue Room... 53 James Street, Northbridge in the Perth Cultural Centre. The Blue Room will become an artist club for members and friends to hang before heading out to a Festival show, rock up after a show, or head straight down and spend the evening witnessing any number of performances taking place throughout the venue.

Hosted by WA performance poet Allan Boyd - aka the antipoet

Find out more: perthpoetryslam.com - or phone 0402 573 580 to get involved.

Or email us here...

blac blocs at the bakery

Kalgoorlie Poem

(This one was written in about half-an-hour and then performed over the phone during a radio interview on ABC Goldfields - October 15, 2008 on the Morning Show with David Kennedy. They loved it! It's on their blog)

Kalgoorlie
Kalgoorlie
Kalgoorlie
Kalgoorlie
say it

a superpit* condition, a red yellow bowl of silky pear
a moon-sized, mass-mind hole in the ground, a nugget
going down town in the ripplin sun, my face an empty sky-mine
this easterly dust remembering all who trod this street
my economic reality, a hi-lux with the hubs in

Kalgoorlie
Kalgoorlie
Kalgoorlie
Kalgoorlie
say it

this is the place this is the town
heat the back o my head with the hay street nouns
waking up to the sound of a goldrush city
we follow the pipeline the pipeline the pipeline*
hey paddy* give us a drink o this
vanish to the vast, vastness this
wangai* country this

Kalgoorlie
Kalgoorlie
Kalgoorlie
Kalgoorlie
say it

Kal…

----
allan boyd - antipoet
October 15, 2008

---

Some references:

Wangai: is the name given by themselves to the 26 Aboriginal groups of the Goldfields of Western Australia. It comes from the word meaning "Speaker".

Paddy Hannan: was a gold prospector whose discovery on June 17 1893 near Kal set off a gold rush in the area.

Superpit: This renowned Kalgoorlie-Boulder landmark is currently 3.5 km long, 1.5 km wide and 360 m deep, and will eventually stretch 3.9 km long, 1.6 km wide and reach a depth exceeding 500 m.

Golden Pipeline: is perhaps the world's longest water main - stretching from Perth to Kal, some 580Ks.

Some Australian Poetry Slam History

Slam Poetry in Australia

I assembled this last year when I built the initial aussie poetry slam website: australianpoetryslam.org

May 2007 - This section is an attempt to document a history of Slam Poetry in Australia.

Whilst Poetry Slams have been happening, albeit in random and sporadic pockets across Australia for around a decade, over the last two years the notion of performance poetry has attracted the imagination of Australian audiences and media alike.

Poetry Slams have been hosted by the State Library of NSW, the Sydney Festival, the Melbourne Writer’s Festival, Queensland Poetry Festival, Woodford Folk Festival, at Openmouth in Perth as well as on ABC radio. In the US Slams have had popular appeal for over 20 years. (Stateline 2007) (Albany 07)

Below are some recent Australian events…

2007

Victorian poet, Marc Testart, won first national slam title. The Australian Poetry Slam grand final was held on 7th December… Slam heats were held in city centres and regional venues across Australia between June and November 2007. Two finalists from each slam heat traveled to compete in their state’s final, and the two top point scorers from each state final went to Sydney in December to battle it out for the national title at the State Library of NSW.

All contestants were given a mic, a live audience and just two minutes to impress the judges (selected at random at each heat) with their original spoken word, poetry, hip hop, monologues and stories…

2006

The 2006 ‘State Of Origin’ Team Poetry Slam -Thursday 25th May, 2006 - To an appreciative full house at the Bangarra Theatre on Thursday, 25th May 2006, NSW team Housecat Havoc and QLD team The OuTsideRS gave it their all - and that all-important little bit more - in the Sydney Writers’ Festival / WWF State Of Origin Team Poetry Slam. And it was NSW who hoisted the Shield on their shoulders, parading it through their hometown streets, with a 10 point margin making the decision decisive!

We thrilled to the delights and challenges of 2-up, 3-up and 4-up poetry, laughed ’til our ears all but fell off as Tug Dumbly anti-serenaded the PM pre-match, and Dr Plumb serenaded us all at half-time. We gasped at the kinetic wonders of synarcade’s live visuals and video scoreboard, and made the rafters of the Bangarra Theatre ring with applause at a wonderful night of poetry in motion. The final score:NSW 110 points QLD 100 points

The day before, Bravo and Citizen took on Ghostboy and Spiritgirl in a live to air triple j poetry slam, and again the Housecats took the line honours, as triple j’s national audience SMS’ed their votes (and some strange poetry of their own) into the studios… Word Wrestling Federation

2005

The State Library of NSW launched its inaugural competition – the Sydney Poetry Slam - in 2005 and was so successful it was expanded to include five venues from regional NSW in 2006 (NSW Poetry Slam 06). Slam heats were held in libraries and cultural spaces in Armidale, Wagga Wagga, Broken Hill, Newcastle, Wollongong, Sydney (Glebe and Newtown) and Parramatta.

Over 200 poetry enthusiasts and students attended workshops and participated in regional and metro poetry heats, and the NSW Slam Final in Sydney last year. At the Final the sell-out crowd was treated to over two hours of amazing entertainment, including a guest performance by Australia’s first poetry boy band, The Bracket Creeps. SLNSW teamed up with spoken-word artist Miles Merrill to co-organise, host and perform at both the Sydney and NSW Poetry Slams.

2004

Radio National’s daily arts and music program, the Deep End selected nine finalists to perform in Australia’s first national poetry slam. On Wednesday November 24 the slam came to radio audiences across Australia, when one writer from each state and territory performed a two-minute poem live on the Deep End. You had one week to decide the winner by lodging an online vote for your favourite performance.

The winner was Mitchell Joe from the ACT.The finalists were:Murray Jennings (WA), Mitchell Joe (ACT), Jayne Fenton Keane (Qld), Benny Walter (Tas), Pru Gell (NT), James W Dennison (SA), Jay Hambly Jones (Vic), Jess Cook (NSW), Klare Lanson (Wildcard) … Find out more and listen to the poems here

2003

etc…

READ MORE...

WA slam heat dates

I'm stoked to be MCi ng this event! 2008 Poetry Slam in Western Australia - 60 spoken word artists to compete across 3 Perth heats. The WA State winner and runner-up get $500 and $100 in prize money, and flown to Sydney in December to compete at the Sydney Opera House for the national Australian Poetry Slam 08 title and $5,000 cash. Highlights of slam heats and the Poetry Slam final will be broadcast on 720 ABC Perth: abc.net.au/perth

Participation is free. Attendance at Perth events is free.

PERTH METRO HEATS
BAKERY ARTRAGE COMPLEX
233 James St, Northbridge
8.00pm Thursday 2 October - winner Kate runnerup Bianca
8.00pm Thursday 9 October
8.00pm Thursday 23 October

WA STATE FINAL
BAKERY ARTRAGE COMPLEX
8.00pm 6 November

AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL FINAL
SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE
4 Dec 2008

Full details at: writingwa.org
Contact: writingWA @ E: info@writingWA.org or T: 08. 9228 9908

Audience Please... WA Slam heats start tonight!

audience please
and so the poetry is dead
but the werds in my head
keep tumbling,
tumbling
between us

audience - yet so much depends upon this: check
this microphone as a phallic expression
and with each generic layer of spit-sprayer aggression
we gather in hectic carbon clusters
we breed and muster like polite helicopters
to read and feed and kill each others post-teen angst

audience please - yet so much depends upon this: check
this toxic, clotted bowel movement at the station*
as the words pass around like a joint
at the back of a pub - in my head, this regret
an apparition of these bloated faces in the crowd
red rose petals on a wet, black bough*
a dead wheelbarrow* filled with white chickens and blackened swans
a potential depression glazed with daisy cutter rain
a CGI gesture resonating into the stars and back
at the planet - on the stage here tonight

audience please every
and he says: big bang - big bang - hadron collider- hadron collider*

yet still so much depends upon this: check
this collective battered noun of us all
in this glitter-ball room, speaking at a murder of poets
fully armed and ready to rumble
and here comes the stumble, the stumble, stum-ble, the stum-ble…

and so the poetry is dead
but the werds in my head keep tumbling, tumbling - between us:

audience please every minute
we breathe, breathe, breathe and sigh from geneva to northbridge
to receive a noble prize for my ambiplasmic peace convergence
my economic rastafarian cycle, my sonic puncture repair kit
and at this juncture

she says: they shoot atoms at us, in us - don't they
and he says: big bang - big bang - hadron collider- hadron collider

audience please every minute matters
like children so much depends upon petals and wheelbarrows
to fix fix fix with a rubber hammer
and a letter to queen victoria* and stalin stalin stalin*

but the werds in my head keep tumbling, tumbling… between us

audience please every minute matters

========


allan boyd: antipoet - 4 october 2008

this poem was performed as the "sacrificial poet" at the first WA heat of the 2008 australian poetry slam. audience please every minute matters is a line from a FOTL song. I've also played with William Carlos Williams' Red wheelbarrow; Ezra Pound's In a Station at the Metro; Banjo Patterson's Man From Snowy River, and sound poet Jas H Duke.

Perth Writers Festival Event

Words Are To Be Spoken - Panel Discussion: Is performing a viable alternative to publishing? What are the academics so afraid of? Miles Merrill, Vivienne Glance, Allan Boyd and Sharon Flindell discuss this thing called Slam...

WHEN: SUNDAY 24th FEBRUARY 2008 (12.30–1.30) as part of the PERTH WRITERS FESTIVAL 2008 Perth International Arts Festival in the Dolphin Theatre at UWA. This is a FREE event! MORE INFO...