There are more than two reasons to go out and pick yourself up a copy of Extempore, but the first two that come to mind are:
1. Paul Squires’ piece, Teardrop Tattoo appears (and an article by Gabrielle Bryden, in memory of Paul); and
2. It is the final issue of the magazine.
It is sad that Squires is not with us to share the joy of seeing his words in print, but I know for sure he is smiling down on us somewhere, wit and pencil, sharp as ever.
Long may the gingatao narrative live!
Filed under poetry & publishing
For many, the release of the legendary Witmark Demos is something of a goldmine… 47 tracks from a fledgling Dylan (1962 – 1964) that until now, have been the stuff of scrappy sounding bootlegs or legend.
To celebrate the release, Rolling Stone are featuring a track from the album, with an accompanying video. Watch Bob singing, Guess I’m Doing Fine.
This is Bob in full ‘mono’ glory.
For more information on the release (and it looks like it’s going to be a cracker), head to the Bob Dylan Website.
Filed under who listens to the radio?
On Wednesday night, The Church were inducted into the Aria Hall of Fame and I must say, never has a band been more deserving. The Church are one of those all too rare bands, that have remained vital over a 30 year period of writing, touring and recording. During this time they have released more than 25 albums and a vast number of eps, singles and other oddities, all to critical acclaim. Marty Willson-Piper & Peter Koppes’ spaced out, chiming guitars, Tim Powles’ driving rhythms combined with the rich mystery of Kilbey’s vocals and snaking basslines, have provided me (and countless others) with some of the musical highlights of my existence.
The enigmatic Mr. Kilbey took the stage with gusto on Wednesday night, delivering a sermon that I am most certain, the Aria’s will never see the likes of again. His razor wit and linguistic brilliance charmed the audience crazy…
So while you can, check out Kilbey’s acceptance speech in all its glory:
http://www.messandnoise.com/news/4104953#
And following that (and it’s a hard act to follow), why not check out what it is The Church do best… play live.
Filed under who listens to the radio?
The Brisbane International Film Festival program has now been released and it features two of the films I have been hotly anticipating for some time.
Howl, starring James Franco as Allen Ginsberg, which has been receiving rave reviews worldwide and William S. Burroughs: A Man Within, a feature length documentary featuring never before seen footage of Burroughs and interviews with Laurie Anderson, John Waters, David Cronenberg, Amiri Baraka, Anne Waldman, Diane DiPrima and a soundtrack by Patti Smith and Sonci Youth.
Definitely two great reasons to get along to this year’s festival… sadly, I will be away for the duration of the festival, so if like me, you can’t get along and catch these films, here’s a treat for you…
I recently came across the film Wholly Communion, Peter Whitehead’s documentary of the legendary Beat reading at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 1965. It was described as an evening of near-hallucinatory revelry and featured readings by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg, Alexander Trocchi, Adrian Mitchell & many others.
Here are the links to watch (the majority of) the film, so get yourself comfortable (drinks, nibbles, whatever takes you…) and take in a slice of literary history!
Filed under discussions, poetry & publishing
Ani Lin: The Journey of a Chinese Buddhist Nun, Pip Griffin. Pohutukawa Press, Leichhardt, N.S.W. 2040, Australia. pip.griffin@bigpond.com 2010. 144 pp. ISBN 9780980318425 (pbk). AUD20.00 + postage from the author. AUD27.95 + postage from gleebooks 49 Glebe Point Rd., Glebe, N.S.W. 2037, Australia. books@gleebooks.com.au www.gleebooks.com.au Overseas orders through gleebooks, please.
Reviewed by Patricia Prime
For the poet, the credo or doctrine is not the point of arrival but is, on the contrary, the point of departure for the metaphysical journey.
— Joseph Brodsky
An odd choice to introduce a review of the poem novel Ani Lin: The Journey of a Chinese Buddhist Nun, by Pip Griffin? Perhaps; perhaps not? The collection is about explorations and discoveries which are as much cerebral and metaphysical as geographical and physical. The path readers are taken on by Griffin has origins that are intriguing and transits that are stimulating.
As the dust jacket informs its readers: “In 1892, 18 year old Lin enters a mountain nunnery, where she begins a journey that will take her on a difficult spiritual and physical path. Her dream is to work for equality for women in the Buddhist world.” In her Afterword Griffin announces that this is an imaginary tale: “In 1874, my imaginary nun, Lin, was born in a village near Yunnanfu (capital of Yunnan Province and renamed Kunming in the 1920s). She died in 1939, the year I was born. Her story was conceived in 1985 when I first travelled to Guilin (Guangxi Province) and experienced feelings of déjà vu in the spectacular karst landscape.”
Griffin’s opening poem “Coming home from the market” exemplifies the ethos behind the poem novel as she introduces the young girl to her readers:
I ride my bicycle
on the bumpy road
through hazy landscape
patchwork gardens illuminated
by the setting sun
stacked mountains layered
against orange sky
This is a work laden with possibilities that result out of an engagement with people, places and landscape, real but also mythically-charged. Take the poem, “Life in the nunnery.” Here the reader is taken through a ‘rite of passage’ as the young woman enters the novitiate:
Rising before dawn
a splash of cold water
clears my mind
my body
will soon learn
to ignore discomfort
the big drum
calls us to the Shrine
The experience may not be familiar to many readers and yet it is subjective, a combination that ensures that our view of the unrecognizable and the intimate coalesce with one another.
The girl’s transformation hinges upon her memories – upon whether what is remembered is truthful, an accurate recollection of her experiences. In “An audience with the Abbess,” for example, her meditations reveal
that in another life
my husband was
a wealthy merchant.
Though privileged,
I was a second wife,
of value merely
by belonging to a man.
In “Ordination,” an evocation of taking her vows, Lin’s life is transformed into a meditation on the way in which she will live her life from now on:
I will respect all life
not take things not for me
keep chaste
neither speak untruth
nor become intoxicated
will never eat from noon
until the sunrise of the next new day
In “Leaving the nunnery,” meanwhile, it is time for her to begin her travels over the remote and mountainous Horse Tea Road that leads to Tibet, where she will teach in a village for six years. Her only possessions are her bamboo flute and the scrolls that Reverend Mother gives her: “precious texts on / scrolls of silk” with the prayer
Lord Buddha’s words
will guide you
and the girls
that you will teach
The journey is beautifully evoked by Griffin as the girl traverses rivers, mountains, sacred peaks, sanctuaries and a visit to the Mu household where, in the poem “Visiting the Mu household” “Prince Mu has asked us / to take tea with him.”
Griffin’s poem novel is activated by small moments unfolding from the fragments of daily minutiae: a sense of miracle, bliss is localized, transcendence is brief and raw, insight comes from focusing on the elements of Lin’s journey, the playing of her flute, wandering in the lamasery garden, meditating, eating and drinking. Noticing, honoring, entering the most ordinary experience is urged on us throughout the volume. For Griffin, the moment suffuses and suffices. For example, she concludes the poem “Dance of the Dongba.”
next morning
at the little shrine I’ve made
my flute sings
my prayers fly
to Kuan Yin:
Oh my Lady – you who
hears the cries of all the world –
my spirit has a home here.
It does not want to leave!
In another poem, “The courtship dance,” she takes us right into the midst of the dance:
In firelight
Zhema whirls
while men and women
dance a double circle
her many-coloured belts
swing wildly from her waist
The tension in many of the poems making up the poem novel is between the travelling and experiences, arising thoughts and meditation. In “Travelling the Horse Tea Road” Lin treads “with care on fallen / rhododendron petals”; turns “golden prayer wheels / with devout Tibetans” and shares a meal with monks. Lin is loaded with awareness, how at her journey’s end she will make “the village women happy / with my teaching.” Griffin paints delightful pictures of those met along the journey: the man at the border hut, the weary merchant, the boatman: “The Bhakor” evokes the sights and sounds of the market place in Lhasa:
yak bells goat bells
sing calling notes
dust rises
whirrs clangs bangs
shouts cries squawks
squeals bleats
hurt my head
In “An audience with the Dalai Lama,” Griffin wires her tense imagery on taut, honed lines that vibrate with currents of feeling. The potent tone of a meeting with the Dalai Lama in his beautiful palace is tenderly written. The narrative traces Lin’s day, from waking with the sparrows, to climbing “the Sacred Steps / of the Red Palace” to the meeting with His Holiness”:
a beautiful young man
chrysanthemum and saffron robed
he sits cross-legged
on blue-gold brocaded cushions
of his throne
Her life is now taken up with teaching the young women and the guidance of the young girl, Pema, whom she takes under her wing. The poem “Teaching” is where we first meet Pema:
her name is Pema Choki
‘lotus of the happy faith’
child of an artisan Yishe
whose wife is dead
though only ten years old
she cares for father
and five brothers
The years pass under Lin’s guidance until she decides that Pema, although only an ordinary girl, is ready to be trained for ordination. She consults the Rinpoche, who says:
Ani, you speak with fancy’s tongue!
There have been no female reincarnation
Here for many centuries. You know
Our practice precludes women’s ordination
Lin convinces Pema’s father and Jigme Trungpa Rinpoche (head of the gompa) that Pema should be allowed to become a novice, as we see in “Pema is allowed to become a novice”: “The Rinpoche is won over / Pema’s father yields.” Now Lin’s guide Lobsang goes off to war. The love and respect Lin feels for her guide Lobsang throughout her journey until his death in war is beautifully evoked. In the poem “Attachment” we see how the news of Lobsang’s death affects her, as she cries out
I have failed failed failed
failed Lord Buddha
failed to keep heart
free from attachment
In “Pema reveals esoteric knowledge,” the outstanding novice “has spoken / words she cannot know.” The lama resumes her lessons “with far stricter rules / she must chant texts for hours / keep eyes downcast / pray with humility / must not presume / to gainsay learned elders” and her story
tumbles
down steep hillside
like a spring thaw stream
Pema must be a Chosen One
could she be reincarnated
Princess Lhacham Pema Tsal
astonishing yogini
brought back to life
to Guru Rinpoche
entrusted with his precious
teachings centuries ago?
But gossip reaches the Rinpoche and it is decided that Pema must be sent far away to the Bekung Monastery. This decision forces Lin and Pema to decide to leave Tibet. In “Lin and Pema flee Lhato,” they find a young village man to guide them back to China. In “Return to Fanchu Si” they reach their destination where
these dear sisters
faces wet with tears
who hug first me
then Pema
take us to my old room
that’s quite unchanged
The poem novel ends with “Lin’s poem for Lobsang”:
Here’s peace
beneath our old azalea tree
now to reflect
to play my flute
and write:
In mountain stream, your face
in bamboo stems, your voice
in lotus flowers, your life –
live on in flute’s sweet notes
The details which make Griffin’s verses so memorable are samples of scenes from a receptive life, formed by emotion; minimal, muted, they nevertheless brim with beauty. Griffin’s poems are often spare, yet never neutral: there is heat and depth throughout. Understated, quietly reflecting the protagonist’s journey towards her destiny.
Filed under poetry & publishing
It has been a real blast to bring so many exciting voices to a new readership… so I hope you enjoy the words and wisdom of feature #14, Barbara Brown.
What excites you about poetry?
The brilliance and madness which co-exist within us all. Poetry sings outward, into & unto itself. I find it fascinating how peoples’ minds work; subject matter, creative process, interpretations & unravelling it (reminding me of being a child playing pass the parcel). I’m naturally drawn to mysteriousness, and poetry offers that to me. Poetry is many things to many people and discovering those reasons can be just as exciting. For me right now, it’s unleashing pent up ideas and attempting to create something magical that I can call my own, hopefully before they or I go rusty!
What are the themes that interest you / that you like to explore in your own writing?
I’m not sure if particular themes are making an appearance in my writing yet, because I’m experimenting with different themes, styles & settings as much as I can. Having said that, I enjoy dark fantasy, reflective, wit & sarcasm, love/sexual and generally try to play with words/phrases/concepts.
Charles Bukowski once said, ‘poetry is what happens when nothing else can.’ How does a poem happen for you?
To some it may seem an unlikely candidate but I love to pull random words and sentences, which I hear internally and spoken aloud and attempt to craft them into something altogether different from their first intent & purposes. Poetry can be extremely cathartic (when given the opportunity) – I sometimes find myself working through & reflecting on issues which may otherwise go unaddressed.
SWOLLEN FEARS
distant dreams stifled by swollen fears
plagued by city beasts, tall poppies and
concrete.
walking under cas-
cad-
ing
tears
herded by roaming sheep no longer black.
grappling with pens as if they were guns
firing words to a page
paper bleeding fiercely
the only wound is my own in the form of rsi
coupled with not knowing
if these actions
make
a difference
About Barbara:
I love arty & funky stuff and have always dreamed of doing something creative/artistic. Ideally, I would love to one day organise music festivals, art & theatre shows. I feel like there has been a slow burn in my hearth. But it needs more fuel. With the encouragement and support of my partner I am currently exploring and building my poetry writing (having dabbled in it since childhood) – I walked away from the Queensland Poetry Festival refreshed and inspired, a proud participant in the QPF open mic (my first) and am really enjoying the offerings of Speedpoets each month. As usual, my mind is busy contemplating ideas to hopefully put together a small performance, fundraising event and perhaps see what publishing opportunities lie ahead.
Filed under interviews/artist profiles, poetry & publishing
On Thursday night I went along to the second installment of the Cassette Project at The Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts, featuring Silver Screens, Ambrose Chapel & The Rational Academy. This would have to be one of the coolest live art experiences I have been to… the concept works something like this:
There is a stage, a mixing desk, a producer and a tape duplication centre. While each band is playing, the other two bands mix the set live then send it to the producer (Danny Ford), where he creates 2 x master tapes. Those masters are then taken over to the duplication site (it dubs at 1000x the live speed), where the audience hand over a blank tape (yep, you are issued with 3 x blank tapes on entry, how old school is that!) and ask for one of the mixes (eg. Silver Screens mixed by The Rational Academy) to take home.
Projects like this are incredibly inspirational as it is so much more than the live show. When I walked out the doors on Thursday night into the brisk Spring air, I was not only taking home a live music experience that was ear-splittingly good, I was taking home three different versions of the experience on tape and the feeling that I was part of the creative process.
I hope there are many future installments of Cassette Project. For more details you can check out their website here: http://cassetteproject.net/
And to give you a taste of what I experienced, here is a clip of The Rational Academy performing Yellow Pony.
Rock on!
Filed under events & opportunities, who listens to the radio?
