Poetry Says

‘Work sucks. Do a PhD.’ So my big sister advised me, and I don’t think she was wrong (at least about the first part). In this episode I talk about grappling with work in poems, and chat with Dan Hogan about what it is to write against the backdrop of ‘multiple, overlapping crises’.

(If someone could explain the Horses thing to me I’d appreciate it.)

Show notes

• Dan’s poems No Alarms and everything will be ok for your landlord
• Subbed In, ‘a heaps small, heaps good literarararary publisher’
• Moxie by Melinda Bufton
• A Hunger by Petra White
• Admit the Joyous Passion of Revolt by Elena Gomez

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I went into this interview with Maxine Beneba Clarke with a bunch of very earnest questions. Our conversation reminded me that it’s ok to have fun, even in poetry. Even, or maybe especially, right now.

We also get into whether we need a poet laureate, what you can learn from bad poetry open mics, and whether publishing power structures are changing quickly enough.

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In my first interview for Red Room’s Poetry Month, I spoke with John Kinsella about why poetry needs many voices, the critical response to False Claims of Colonial Thieves, travel, how his thoughts on poetry and writing have changed, and finding empathy late in the game.

Show notes

• ‘Graphology Endgame 100: I am a dickhead’ by John Kinsella
• Tracy Ryan
• Liam Ferney reviews π.O.’s Heide in Rabbit 32
• Gig Ryan’s Heide review ‘Art requires, a long look’

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The podcast is coming from inside the radio! Throughout August, Poetry Says will become part of Red Room’s inaugural Poetry Month. Across four episodes broadcast around the country via the Community Radio Network, I’ll be talking to the Red Room team, and a selection of special guests…

In the meantime, if you miss your fortnightly Poetry Says updates, don’t forget you can always dive into podcasts like:

• Commonplace
• The Poetry Gods
• Sleerickets

For now, I’ll leave you with Andrew Scott, reading Derek Mahon’s ‘Everything is going to be alright’.

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A conversation with my friend and co-producer, Shane Henry, about white-knuckling it through poetry open mics, learning a new art form, building something from the ground up, waiting, and a 2003 indie rock album called The Meadowlands.

Find out more about Impossible Machine & Lost Weekend.

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Can’t pronounce their proper title, but here are my thoughts on what poems do and don’t do when they show up at weddings, with help from Sarah Jessica Parker and Cameron Diaz.

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It was a joy to speak with Thuy On about Turbulence, her 2020 collection from UWAP cataloguing heartbreak, passion, loss and pleasure. She talks about writing the book in a ‘wild gush’, the mechanics of getting it edited and published, how poets around her have supported her work, and what she really thinks when she opens up a contemporary Aussie literary journal.

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I’ve never been very good at sleeping. Luckily, there are plenty of poets who share this deficiency.

Show notes

• Robbie Coburn & I interview Jordie Albiston
• My interview with David Brooks
• Acquainted with the night: insomnia poems, edited by Lisa Russ Spaar
• Part of ‘Georgia‘ by Andrew Zawacki
• Part of ‘Insomnia at the Solstice‘ by Jane Kenyon
• ‘Another Lullaby for Insomniacs‘ by A E Stallings
• ‘On Insomnia‘ by Fran Lock

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Ella O’Keefe‘s poetry works with ‘the grit and offcuts we collect in the course of living’. With her new book Slowlier just out from Cordite Books, we talk about how she puts her poems together, whether experimental work can be fun and/or personal, how slowness is different from mindfulness, and what it was like to launch a book in Melbourne in early 2021.

Show notes

• alkaway, winner of the 2016 Judith Wright Poetry Prize
• Barbara Guest
• Sesame Street: Making Crayons

Bonus notes

Follow-up notes from Ella:

• HOW2 and HOW(ever): two journals that had a formative influence on Ella’s work
• Joanne Kyger’s poem Take It Easier
• How it’s made: Producing a London transport moquette

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For the past five weeks I’ve had the pleasure of studying the sonnet with a fabulous group of poets, led by Joshua Mehigan, in a weekly workshop through Brooklyn Poets. Here are some thoughts on the benefits (and challenges) of diving into a poetry workshop.

Show notes

• Poetry and Performance: Writing for the Stage and the Page through Writers Victoria
• ACT Writers masterclasses
• Writing Poetry through Writers NSW
• The 92Y events calendar
• Southbank Poetry’s online writing classes

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