Month: December 2022

what seemed maybe the dorsal fin of a sunfish

I was reading The Guardian’s story today of how ‘Yeah Baby’ was forced out of the Sydney to Hobart yatch race after a collision with a sunfish.

As crew member Louis Ryckmans describes it,

The boat was fantastic in the conditions and we were looking forward to the stronger conditions thinking that the boat is really going to perform, and we had an impact where my immediate thought, was we hit a reef – it was that powerful.

I think the name is incorrect. It’s a sun leviathan, it’s a sun monster, it’s no fish.

And I found myself returning to Anthony Lawrence’s recollection of the time he’d taken a leisurely half-hour dip in the ocean in the company (when he discovered its presence nearby) of what he took initially to be a sunfish.

‘We found our boat surrounded by a school of dolphins. There were at least fifty of them, swimming, diving all around us. They were everywhere. I couldn’t help myself, I stripped and joined them and spent an amazing half an hour in their presence. It was truly memorable.

‘Suddenly, they were gone. Just … took off, disappeared. I didn’t know what to make of it. I began shivering. Felt cold. I swam back to the boat. “Help me in Richard”. “My god mate, you’re white as a sheet, what’s the matter?” “I don’t know.”

‘But we turned to see, a little behind us, what seemed maybe the dorsal fin of a sunfish. “Let’s take a look.’ It was this great white pointer, four or five metres, just lolling there languid. As big as the boat. He wasn’t hungry, no threat at all. But I felt weak, thinking how I’d been treading water twenty-five feet away from a big white. No wonder the dolphins left, they weren’t taking any chances.’

New episode of PoemTalk: on Armand Schwerner with Jerome Rothenberg, Pierre Joris & Charles Bernstein


From left: Jerome Rothenberg, Pierre Joris, and Charles Bernstein in the garden of the Kelly Writers House. Photo by Al Filreis.

LISTEN TO THE SHOW

Al Filreis gathered together Jerome Rothenberg, Charles Bernstein, and Pierre Joris to talk about two poems by Armand Schwerner. The first was written near the end of Schwerner’s life, for his major series titled The Tablets. The poem discussed here is “Tablet XXV” [TEXT; AUDIO] and, along with all the other sections, it can be found in the complete edition published by the National Poetry Foundation in 1999. The second poem is an earlier one, “‘daddy, can you staple these two stars together to make an airplane?’” [TEXT; AUDIO] originally published in Seaweed and available on page 50 of Selected Shorter Poems (Junction Press, 1999). Our recordings of these poems come from PennSound’s Armand Schwerner author page. “Tablet XXV” was recorded by the National Poetry Foundation in the mid-1990s. Our recording of “‘daddy, can you staple …’” was made by Paul Blackburn during Schwerner’s public reading at the Poetry Project, at St. Mark’s Church, in New York, on January 18, 1967, and is made available through the remarkable Blackburn collection housed at the University of California at San Diego.

SCAP Writers, featuring Irish poet Kevin Higgins—Sept 2022

Sep 17, 2022

This SCAP writers on Zoom is introduced by Donna Campbell and Linda Jackson and features the writing of Rachel McJury, Katharine McFarlane, Jo Gilbert, David Stakes and the master poet of satire, Kevin Higgins. 

Kevin Higgins

“… death arrives, impeccably dressed.”

(Poem ends)

“I spent yesterday” (Kevin continues conversationally), ‘in the Accident & emergency Department in Galway with an issue, and we were saying—a group of us sitting and waiting to be seen—”It’s quite like prison, really: what are you in for now that you’ve made it this far down the corridor? It’s not something small…. “

 

Melbourne Poetry Map

A note from Indrani Perera’s newsletter ‘The Poet’s Express’, (November 2022 issue) exploring Eleanor Jackson’s creation, the Melbourne Poetry Map.

Take a walking tour around the city of Naarm (Melbourne, Australia) courtesy of some of the city’s finest poets. Curated  by poet and performer, Eleanor Jackson, the Melbourne Poetry Map is a brilliant way to discover a city.

About

The Melbourne Poetry Map: Audio Graffiti is an archive of ten “poetry journeys”, each of which will take between 20 – 45 mins to complete, depending on how fast you travel, how well you know the city and how long you want to spend at each location. That said, it’s nice not to do things in a hurry.

The Map is curated and produced by Eleanor Jackson, and has been supported by the Queen Victoria Women’s Centre, Peril Magazine, Melbourne’s UNESCO City of Literature Office, Overload Poetry Festival and City of Melbourne.

It was created in 2010, with new journeys added in 2011-2012, and again in 2019.

Each journey exists as a map of directions and a playlist of audio tracks designed to be listened to in their corresponding locations. Sometimes the location of the poem is quite specific, sometimes it’s a little bit vague – don’t get het up if you’re not in the right place at the right time. Poetry is all about being in the wrong place at the right time.

If you do find you’re getting a bit lost, why not ask a local Melburnian for some helpful directions! Apparently, they’ll be the ones dressed in all black.

We hope you’ll love exploring the psychogeography of this incredible city. As snapshots in time, some poets pay tribute to places that are no longer there, or places that have changed in their use and designation. We say, just roll with it.

Good luck!