Wine and reading at The Gods
April 7, 2012
Wine
Kaleidoscope of dreams opens
with a quick twist or gentle pop!
of cork, that dearest birth of joy.
Let us go down paths that wind
and never stop their winding.
Spin with me, webs to catch grief,
then let go the delicate and fine
who may flutter on to others.
Crimson measure in crystal,
I raise you to the sky and see
the world made kinder through
flickering, red-coloured glasses.
P.S. Cottier
And on the other hand, let this photograph be a warning to you all:
a little tired and emotional
I am reading at The Gods, Australian National University campus, at 8pm on Tuesday 10th (meals from 6.30). The cover charge for the reading itself is $10 waged and $5 unwaged. What a bargain! Because this is the day after the night that I usually post my Tuesday poem, I may not get to it this week. If so, please regard this poem, posted on Saturday, as a Tuesday poem. Have a glass of wine and that Will All Make Sense.
The other poets are the excellent Melinda Smith, previously featured on this very blog, who also has a book launch on the Wednesday at Smith’s Books (her book of autism poems), and Russell Erwin, whose work I do not yet know. Hopefully I will be in a state to remember it, should I be lucky enough to read first, and therefore liberated to have ‘a drink or two’ afterwards as I listen to Russell and Melinda.
There seems to be a pattern emerging…
PS Cottier 
Best of luck for the reading, Penelope (and fellow readers)!
Here in poor but honest Kiwiland (emphasis in this case on the “poor”), there are not usually cover charges on poetry readings. Are cover charges usual in Australia, and if so, do some of the proceeds from the cover charge go to the poets?
(If this is an indelicate question, feel free to ignore it!)
There is often some type of small charge, depending on the type of event. The Gods readings used to be $5 for everyone, but the amount for waged people (a very strange phrase that has replaced workers) went up recently due to the withdrawal of some government funding this year. The poets do get paid a small set amount, that does not depend on attendance numbers, and the rest goes to administration costs such as travel expenses for non-Canberra poets, I believe. Some readings are free, but the poets may not be paid.
At poetry slams, there is a very small fee to attend some of them unless you are reading. But this varies.
Hope this information from your ‘rich’ relatives is of use to you.
Great poem 🙂
Cheers!