Author: PoetrySays

Robin Wallace-Crabbe describes himself as ‘a dear little old man’ but I’m sure you won’t be fooled by that for long. Welcome back to Poetry Says for 2017 and welcome to the world of Hartmann Wallis, poet and white lightning enthusiast.

Show notes

• Who said what, exactly by Hartmann Wallis (Finlay Lloyd, 2016) and Peter Keneally’s review
• Story of Australia’s People review: Geoffrey Blainey’s conservative populism by Clare Wright
• Our God, Our Help in Ages Past by Isaac Watts

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In my final episode before taking a Christmas break I invite you to be part of the show in 2017 and to check out this close reading of Charles Bernstein’s In a Restless World Like This is, recorded with the wonderful Eleanor Smagarinsky.

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A little more Maggie Nelson for you today to follow on from my chat with Tricia Dearborn. Molly Silverstein brings us The Mute Story of November, another beautiful poem from Something Bright, Then Holes (listen to Maggie reading the poem here). 

We chat about Buddhist and Whitmanian angles on the poem (yep, Molly is a new ModPo recruit!) and why November might be mute. Then we discuss the difficulty of translating images that are important to you into something that’s important to your readers.

Molly also tells us about her experience studying writing at uni in the US (some shades of Guy in your MFA) and, of course, we talk about fitting writing and reading time into your life.

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In today’s episode you get to hear how Judi Dench says the word ‘poetry’, Kelsey Grammer butchering Tennyson, everyone piling on e e cummings, William Carols Williams quoted by hackers and Eileen Myles being…Eileen Myles.

Today’s links:

• Ulysses by Tennyson
• anyone lived in a pretty how town by e e cummings
• The Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams
• I always put my pussy and School of Fish by Eileen Myles

You might also want to read about Jill Soloway and Eileen Myles or watch that Mike Myers clip. And if you’re wondering whether TV can inspire poetry, check out Leah Umansky who writes about Mad Men and Game of Thrones.

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Talking to Tricia Dearborn was a really good reality check for a stress bunny writer like myself. We covered everything from routine to writing last lines, along with Tricia’s connection to chemistry, favourite poets like Vicki Feaver, and definitions of ecopoetry.

Tricia brings us Maggie Nelson’s poem ‘Green’ from Something Bright, Then Holes (check out Maggie’s interview on creativity here). This links up with one of Tricia’s new poems that’s about to appear in Cordite’s Confession issue. Then we get a sneak preview of ‘Hydrogen’, forthcoming in The Canberra Times.

Towards the end we chat about two more poems – Mapping the Cactus and The Quiet House – and Tricia’s ideas on feedback, writers groups, and the potential of a nice, messy draft.

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