Poetry Month and Displacement Exhibition

August is Poetry Month – a national celebration of Australian Poetry! An initiative of Red Room Poetry launched in 2021, Poetry Month aims to increase access, awareness and visibility of poetry in all its forms and for all audiences.

To celebrate the month here’s my poem, The Universal Orchestra, published in the Romanian-Australian anthology – Street Musician.

The Universal Orchestra

When the streets of their towns closed
and audiences ordered to stay home,
the musicians lay their instruments aside
and asked –
Is this the day the music died?

But the woodwind’s whisper
strings’ zing
percussion’s persistence
brass’s bellow
sounded as invisible lips kissed
bows glided
unseen fingers beat and
breath blew
creating melodies
crossing continents and oceans.

And at the sound
each musician rose from
their disheartened couch,
picked up their beloved and
played to a tiny camera.
Frame by frame
they joined each other
to be as one –
a universal orchestra.

In their homes, the people unmasked
rose from their sunken couches and
one then another and another
liked and shared until
hundreds then thousands then millions
threw open their windows and doors
to share the experience with those
with no device to listen.

At the end of the performance
the musicians bowed to each other
then frame by frame
disappeared from the screen,
stood in stillness
holding close those they loved.

Then the millions, the thousands, the hundreds
returned not to their couches
but reached out
to touch the starry notes
floating
through the streets of their towns.

You can read more about Poetry month here.

Displacement Exhibition Hyphen Wodonga 11 August to 3 October 2023

Artist talk: 12.30 pm – 1.30 pm Friday 8 September, Hyphen Wodonga

From April to June this year artist, Vernon Bartlett and I were artists in residence in the Creative Studio at Hyphen, Wodonga’s Library Gallery. It was an amazing space to create in and to chat to people about our practice during our three Open Studios and at other times when we were there.  Our main project was working in an Ekphrasis reverse Ekphrasis style with me responding to Vern’s work and Vern responding to my prose, we also worked on some of our own projects and had a fun time running a workshop (more like a play space) for Co Create in June.

In our exhibition Displacement our images and words capture scenes of the humanly engineered displacement of nature and people. The exhibition includes Vern’s work that continues his ongoing exploration of nature’s alchemy and power without human intervention.

In other news …

My short prose piece, The Dance of Puff and Little Jackie Paper will be published in the next Romanian Australian anthology, Dancing Dragons. Publication and launch date to be advised.

Thanks to Booranga Writers for the opportunity to be their guest author at The Curious Rabbit last month. It was such a treat to share some of my writing from the past 20 years.