Hello poets and readers, How do we read a poem? Do we analyse it, interpret it, critique it, or just feel and experience our way through it? Multiple readings trouble the idea that we can master a text, but not its potential for openness. Lucinda McKnight, Ruby Todd and myself (all poet-researchers) decided to conduct…
Hello poets and readers, At a time when the work of many artists is sidelined by COVID, the issue of earning a living from art is more glaring than ever. As a poet you know that very few poets earn a living from their work and have to do something else to survive. So why…
Hello poets and readers, Our podcast with Gomeroi poet and lawyer Alison Whittaker was full of insights. We introduced the podcast by quoting her comment about the similarity between the law and poetry, in terms of reducing things to essentials: “The logics of law and poetry boil meaning and power down to their barest components.”…
Hello poets and readers, Welcome to our guest blogpost by Cristina Savin:- At the heart of Baghiu’s poetry and process there exists a concept coined by the poet himself, chimerism. The concept encapsulates a tendency to escape everyday realities and to create a parallel universe, a counter-reality in which the poet lives. Baghiu remembers the…
Introducing our podcast with Filipino-Australian poet Merlinda Bobis, I mentioned her poem ‘siesta’, an innovative multilingual work. In the podcast, she spoke about her writing in Filipino and English, and the way in which it is mediated by her first language, Bikol. Thanks to Merlinda’s generosity, we are able to reprint her poem ‘siesta’ in…
Hello poets and readers, In our recent podcast with poet Merlinda Bobis, she notes that consciousness of process comes about after the fact. While writing, she is too busy leaping from one thought to another to allow for this kind of reflection. Something captures her and makes a poem possible. She describes the initial impetus…
Canberra’s Poetry on the Move is coming up soon: 17th-21st October! On Friday 18th from 1.00-2.15pm I’ll be hosting the panel ‘Poetry and Process’ at Gorman Arts Centre. This event is free, but you need to book because space is limited. I’ll be talking with national and international poets Angela Gardner, Judith Beveridge, Alvin Pang…
Christian acknowledges that his ten rules discussed in the podcast build on centuries of knowledge about writing, and he notes the particular contribution of Ezra Pound to this kind of schematic for poetry. Christian’s rules are concise, illuminating and full of great examples, some of them from his own students. It’s best not to take…
Hello poets and readers, In our recent podcast with experimental poet Christian Bök, I spoke with a poet who has a truly scientific approach to poetry, who ‘conducts experiments through language.’ He accepts that some experiments won’t work, but is committed to seeing them through, even if they represent decades of work through complex processes.…
Hello poets and readers, How does one become a poet? This perennial and intriguing question is in part answered by recent research in Australia. Interviewing 76 poets, Jen Webb, Paul Magee, Kevin Brophy and Michael Biggs isolated key factors which help to foster excellence in poetry. Although my research here emphasises process rather than end…
Poetry in Process 