New Year/New Poem – Queen Street

What are you up to this New Year? Check out what is happening in downtown New York… Now that is one hell of a way to celebrate the New Year!
http://www.poetryproject.com/calendar.php
So until 2009, here is a new poem, my last for 2008.
Happy celebrating!
 
Queen Street
The woman in the ragged
straw hat at the top end
of Queen Street, squints
over [...]

What the heron knows

is it takes effort
to stand still
silence is an elegy
for the dying light
and each breath
is a prayer
for those who move
along the stuttering
whiteness of flood-lit asphalt
away from the savannahs
of our origin
those smooth, descending
pastures to the sea.

3 haiku

lone goat
the paddock
eaten tidy
 
 
 
                                  deep river
                                  six black stones sink
                                  the unwanted litter
 
 
 
 
                                                                    waving goodbye
                                                                    last leaves
                                                                    on the willow

Jumping the Poetic Hurdle (part 2)

The first article generated some interesting discussion around the idea of collaboration and the ‘poetry reading’ as a way of connecting with audiences and breaking down the publication barrier. This brought to mind a quote by Les Murray:
“The public reading is the real hope of poetry at the moment. Far more people will come to [...]

Tryst

 
She walks by the window of the bar where you and a friend have been sitting for hours, discussing in some oblique way your definitions of love. It is past midnight and you’re both looking intently out the window, wondering what fragments of drama you might witness. You wave to her to come over and [...]

Music Lessons

 
You can make music
of anything, I am certain.
Leaves in the gutter,
the clay bowl with one
green apple inside
waiting to be bitten.
Even of silence;
the piano’s worn ivory
asleep in the tips
of your fingers.
Not knowing how to move,
I trace your lips
until a mouth exists.
My fingers, hammers
made, then broken
as you, half-remembering
you are not alone in this room
take me in your [...]

Lost Shark Interview #1 – Sean M. Whelan

Woodford Folk Festival is just days away and one of this year’s featured acts is Melbourne artist, Sean M. Whelan. This Lost Shark took some time to have a chat to Sean about his last shows with The Mime Set, Spoken Word and his plans for 2009.

Spoken Word is one of those terms that encompasses [...]

Desert(ed) Island Poems #1 – Ashley Capes

The concept of a Desert Island Disc is something that I have always loved. Which 10 songs would you take to a deserted island? Is it possible to take only 10!?
To take the concept into the world of poetry, this lost shark has asked some of his favourite poets to compile a list of of [...]

Who Listens To The Radio? part 2

Here are three more albums that have got these ears excited in 2008.
Forget the radio!
No One is Holding a Gun to Your Head (Songs To Run To): Bremen Town Musician
Bremen Town Musician are a three-piece experimental folk-blues freak-out. No One is Holding a Gun to Your Head (Songs To Run To) is the second album [...]

Sometimes blame breaks like faith to solitude

You stand at the mirror. You take your hair in one hand
and pull it to the side like a single, broken
wing. You cut the left side, then the right; clip
the back like a boys; a ragged line across the neck.
Maybe you find a man who admires your tattoos.
Maybe you have lunch with an old friend, [...]