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R D Wood spoke to me from his vantage point in Kerala about the idea of Australia, the house of poetry, the ethics of being a writer and whether politicians can be poetic (and poets Machiavellian). 

We also talk about his poem In the Desert – its creation and the response it received – along with Ted Strehlow’s Songs of Central Australia. There’s a lot to learn about Strehlow and Indigenous Australian song poetry, but Robert’s articles on Jacket2 are a great place to start.

Finally, Robert reads a poem from Oceania and talks about his decision to share his books Land Mass and Tidal Charts online.

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Reeling from the US election while in New York City, I reflect on the poems, books and poetic communities that suddenly became essential this week:

• Jaap Blonk’s What the president will say and do
• Jena Osman’s Dropping Leaflets
• My post-election call to the ModPo hotline (tissues at the ready!) at the Kelly Writers House
• Lou Carter’s tip on David Orr’s book Beautiful and Pointless
• Citizen by Claudia Rankine
• Shut Up, Shut Down by Mark Nowak
• The Dodge Poetry Festival
• Auden’s In Memory of W. B. Yeats
• Evil by Langston Hughes
• Keeping Quiet by Pablo Neruda

 

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Rob Wilson’s Free Will and the Clouds received plenty of love when it came out, for good reason. Today I chat with Rob about how he comes up with his bizarre titles, why he teaches The Red Wheelbarrow to prisoners, and what he does to support his writing.

We also listen to a poem by Rob’s friend Ben Frater – To kill the Prime Minister – and hear about the dark fairytale hidden inside Rob’s poem Superman goes crazy.

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Jill Jones describes herself as a ‘poet person living quietly in Adelaide‘. Today I look into her poem Back at work after the flu (from her 1993 book ‘Flagging Down Time’). What does it say about the work poets do and the way this work happens alongside an ever-present day job?

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A thought-provoking chat with R.A. Villanueva, author of Reliquaria, after we’d seen some fantastic readings at National Poetry Day Live.

We cover plenty of ground, starting off with the influence of slam, intentional vs accidental ways of becoming a writer and the idea of priming yourself to take advantage of opportunities.

Then we get into a great discussion of race and poetry, contrasting the volume of conversations in the UK and the US and the reactions of the ‘old guard’. 

Along with Ron’s reading of Aftermaths and Fish Heads, I have a few more links to keep you busy this week:

• Forward prize, backward reading: who grumbles if white writers win awards? by Salena Godden

• The Guardian’s count of people killed in the US by police

• A Brief for the Defense by Jack Gilbert and Ron’s reading for poets.org

• Kundiman: a space ‘dedicated to the creation and cultivation of Asian American literature’

If you’re not sure what we’re on about towards the end (when the conversation turns to video games and their relationship to poetry), check out Mario Level 1 compared to the very different worlds of Call of Duty and Journey.

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