(Early) Tuesday poem: Interrobang
December 10, 2017
This one is via link to the Thunderbolt Prize, where it was highly commended. It’s about a bike being hit by a car, so prepare for seasonal cheerfulness! The other poems are well worth a look, too. The winning poem is by Jenny Blackford.
I also just had a poem published in Australian Poetry Journal, with a poem about work, and was a finalist in the New Millennium Monthly muse competition, on the subject of fear, but I’m going to hoard that poem for a while and get it published elsewhere. Those competitions are also well worth a look.
Australia is moving into Christmas shutdown mode as we speak. And by Australia I largely mean me…which is fairly arrogant, but there you go. I am not writing as much as usual, and drinking (even) more. Cheers.
Baseball, beer, Bega and ‘In the pub’
November 25, 2017
Very happy that my suggested name for a beer to be served at the baseball at the Canberra Cavalry’s matches was the winner of a poll by the brewery. Designated Bitter is the name, and I can’t wait to try it! Bentspoke will have the beer on tap at the ball park. You can read more about that here. Next to having a beer called Penelope’s Special, this is as good as it gets! Here’s the logo.
To celebrate, here’s a poem I first posted 5 years ago on this blog.
In the pub
Wedges of moon
float in my glass
sky lemon stings
Vodka ice glass
nine tenths hide below
Cold leg’s hard kick
Poker beeps
sour head nods in shame
beer swims laps
Salt chips taste
absent smoke feathers
long since flown
PS Cottier
That’s all a bit grim, really, but I’m too stuffed to write one about the joys of beer (and baseball) just now, as…
I returned from Bega an hour ago, a town just inland from the far south coast of NSW, where there was a launch of a new publication; a chapbook called Muse which will hopefully appear once every season. It is the sister publication to Mnesomnye, an online journal edited by a group of women on the south coast. It contains great photos by Jodie Dickinson.
Bega was a real surprise; a great bookshop where the launch was held (Candelo Books), a table raising money for Rohingya refugees, and a really nice shopping strip on Carp Street. I wish I could have spent more time there.
Driving back there was about a kilometre of highway with enormous cows grazing unconstrained on each side, so it wasn’t exactly like Braddon.
Tuesday poem: Senryu
November 14, 2017
camera catches
side-eye and grimace
‘say rictus!’
PS Cottier
Rictus makes a nice change from cheese, anyway. And here is a totally unrelated image, although it also uses the word ‘side’. A triumph of signage, and not a bad title for a poetry collection!
Tuesday Poem: Cactus
November 6, 2017
Cactus
Spiky camel hump, buried in sand.
Alien artichoke, Martian’s lunch.
I’m told to admire your
‘architectural qualities’. As if
we build houses of needles,
like one of those three little pigs
gone crazy, his brain curling,
dizzy, to match pale gimlet tail.
What huffing
fire-mouthed dragon
could blow you down?
Crooked eyes only, crave cacti.
Yet, every few years, you explode
into a neon gown of Brazilian hues
pulsating, pink or gold, as at Mardi Gras.
When poor become princes,
and thin desert blooms.
PS Cottier
An ancient poem this one, if ten years qualifies as ancient. My cactus just bloomed, hence my digging it (the poem) up.
***
I just had two poems published in issue 23 of Failed Haiku, which is a great name for a journal. It refers to senryu, which are like haiku but quirkier. The home page is definitely worth a visit, for links to information about senryu, and so you can download the issues. I won’t link to the PDF of issue 23 (November 2017) here, but it is easily accessed at the site. The editor, Mike Rehling, also makes some interesting comments about senryu that particularly caught his eye.
Tuesday poem: Lycium barbarum
November 2, 2017
Another linked poem, this time published in on-line journal Umbel & Panicle. I had to look both those words up, and they deal with the way flowers are arranged on plants.
The journal concerns itself with poetry on botanic themes, which change with every issue. The theme that attracted me was ‘Nightshade’. My speculative poem is concerned with werewolves and goji berries, and has a very naughty last line. Hope you enjoy it!
Take the time to read some of the other poetry too; I’m really pleased to see my humorous poem amongst some pieces of a totally different tone. A very beautiful journal to look at too. I was tossing up whether to go with a botanical or wolfy picture, and the lupine won out.
PS Cottier 