Poetry Says

Which poet is there for you when life gets particularly strange? Sorry Rumi, but it’s not you. Lately I’ve had cause to go back to  Gertrude Stein and her beautifully strange poem  Christian Bérard . Show notes Stein reading from Christian Bérard Let us describe A Carafe, that is a Blind Glass If I Told Him, A Completed Portrait of Pablo Picasso

Geraldine Burrowes came to poetry later in life from the world of visual art. We met in her beautiful apartment and talked about two poets who were influential in that transition – Michael Farrell and Claire Gaskin – along with what went into making her book  pick up half under , out from the Rabbit Poets series. A warning: Geraldine’s enthusiasm for writing is highly infectious.

It’s a good day when you get to sit around a table with some friends and write something surprising. Here’s what happened when we tried our hands at cut-ups , erasure and the villanelle . Show notes Inside a poetry workshop with Benjamin Dodds and Mran-Maree Laing. Bird by Bird by Annie Lamott

Anupama Pilbrow is co-editor at The Suburban Review and the author of Body Poems , just out from Vagabond Press. We recorded this conversation as Anupama was packing boxes on the eve of leaving Melbourne. Over tea we covered everything from her thoughts on moving to a new city to how poetry relates to pure mathematics,  Kamala Das and waiting for that Jack Spicer moment .

What happened when I had four days off and decided to try to write a long poem. Show notes The Ode Less Travelled by Stephen Fry How to write a sestina

Sitting at Claire Gaskin’s kitchen table, I finally got to thank her for the ideas and poems she shared at a reading at Some Velvet Morning back in 2013, including Gig Ryan’s If I Had a Gun . We also talked about specificity, gender in poetry, writing from emotion, and took a good long look at Gig’s poem Eurydice’s Suburb. Show notes Claire’s books a bud and Paperweight Jea...

Ern Malley continues to be a made up person. So why did we celebrate his birthday this week? And why do Australian poets keep talking about him? I take a run at our most infamous poetry hoax. Show notes Everything you could ever want to know about Ern in Jacket 17 .

I still remember buying a copy of Ali Alizadeh’s Ashes in the Air and the immediate effect the book had on me. In this interview Ali looks back on what it was like to write that book and talks about aspects of writing poetry in Australia today including power, influence, hype, popularity – and hope. Show notes Ashes in the Air Off Kilter Ali’s reading at Sporting Poets #26 The Last Day...

Time and I are not friends. Sometimes we have massive fights. Usually I don’t win. But poems help. Show notes The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot Five Bells by Kenneth Slessor Morgan Parker on Commonplace In Italy by Derek Walcott Antilamentation by Dorianne Laux

If you’re a fan of Chat 10 Looks 3 (which you should be) you’ll enjoy this episode. Prolific poet and reviewer Maggie Ball and I catch up to talk about what we read over the summer and what we hope to achieve writing-wise in 2018. We also casually start up a Michael Farrell reading circle. Show notes Fiona Wright’s Domestic Interior and Small Acts of Disappearance Maggie Nelson’s...

We’re back for 2018! I’m starting the year off by going way back to 19th Century Japan and Tachibana Akemi’s Poems of Solitary Delights , then following that thread over to Robert Creeley’s ‘Talking’:

Stuart Cooke’s Opera is one of those books that’s changed my understanding of what a poetry collection can do. (It also includes one of my favourite poems, An Overcast Day in Another Part of the World .) In this interview I get the chance to nerd out with Stuart about how he wrote Opera and the poetry that’s been important to him. Show notes Rachael Mead’s review of Opera C...

Talking with Ed Tato reminded me how many rooms there are to discover in the house of poetry. We go from Ulysses to Kansas to a workshop with Mary Karr, wondering about categorisation, why certain writing resonates, and returning to the fact that some poems demand to be spoken aloud. Show notes Early Occult Memory System of Lower Midwest: Poems by B.H Fairchild Indirect Objects by Louis Armand The...

After finally getting up to read at Owl and Cat, I was lucky enough to have Amanda Anastasi around to chat about all things open mic, the highs and lows of being a poetry gig convenor and her own approaches to getting something down on the page (in between gigs). Show notes The Owl and Cat readings The Silences by Amanda Anastasi and Robbie Coburn La Mama Poetica What It’s Like To Be A Poetry Gig...

Dave Drayton joins me to chat about his recent book P(oe)Ms , the role of constraint, productive and preventative barriers in writing, and some of the poets who inspired him to try new things when performing his work. We also get into the fraught area of ‘networking’ in the poetry community – is it all just about who you know? Show notes John K Samson The National Blue Dave’s rea...

I’ve gradually discovered that Great Uncle Jack Blight was a poet with something to say (and more than a few books under his belt). I delve into his 1965 lecture ‘The Shaping of a Contemporary Poet’, share his advice for other Australian poets (most of which still stands up) and take a few detours into family lore.

Set up your tea/biscuits/wine/other treats because this chat with Melinda Bufton is cosy and joyful. Within the first 10 minutes we’ve covered performance, lyrics, the page, the lyric I, rhyme, feminism and constraint. It gets even better from there. Show notes Melinda’s poem The Possible Dream (Buying Jeans Online) My interviews with UK poet and activist Sophie Mayer  and Overland poe...

This episode comes to you from a messy desk, sandwiched between items on a long to-do list and a mostly blocked out calendar. I’m sure you’re familiar with the feeling. Show notes Not writing by Jane Kenyon Antilamentation by Dorianne Laux

I’ve been trying to write a poem in response to Auden for about four years. It’s not going well. So I thought I’d talk to you about the ideas I’m trying to grapple with. Show notes W.H. Auden – Tell Me The Truth About Love ‘ People may really be what we first though them .’ E.M. Forster’s note in conclusion from his posthumous novel Maurice Since by W.H. A...

Past guest  Sean Wright joins us again this week to talk about the process of getting his first collection published (!) along with navigating the world of poetry journals. How do you know where to send work? What do you say when you do? We don’t have all the answers but these are our tips on making it out of the slush pile. Publishers and journals mentioned (by no means exhaustive): Kent Ma...

Ashbery’s poem ‘Your name here’ has been pinned up in my office for almost a decade now. Reading it again in light of his passing, I saw another element of the poem I’d never noticed before. Show notes A review of Your Name Here Sign up for ModPo 2017 on Coursera Al Filreis chats with Ashbery below:

Can poets learn something from the world of improv? After chatting with  Alistair Baldwin I’m more convinced than ever that the best elements of poetry and comedy are basically aligned. This episode is also for you if you’ve ever hit a wall writing that dreaded 100-word bio… Show notes ‘Disability Impressions Offensive’ Decrees Meryl Streep To Room Of Award-Winning Disability Imp...

Feeling a little sketchy, I went back to Joanne Kyger’s On Time , which led me to a poem about why calendars can be so very scary. Show notes I am afraid (the younger) I am afraid (the elder) I’m Very Busy Now So I Can’t Answer All Those Questions About Beat Women Poets

UK-based psychotherapist Steve Wasserman sees poetry as having a kind of medicinal power, especially when memorised. We chat about using memorisation to step outside the churn of the mind, then Steve recites the  very tricky Wallace Stevens poem  Final Soliloquy of the Interior Paramour  (newly memorised!). Show notes Steve’s podcast Poetry Pharmacy Steve reading Final Soliloquy and discussi...

Would you let a mic into your poetry workshop? Sydney poets  Benjamin Dodds and Mran-Maree Laing were brave enough to let me record while we workshopped three unpublished poems. We wanted to show what the workshop process can be like for those who might feel intimidated by the idea. I think the result is pretty representative of what a top-notch workshop can do for a poem. It was such a pleasure t...