2008 Archive
NEWS - 2008
December
26 Dec
I have been writing a poem a day over the last couple of weeks, so much poetry is being written, and so little heard.
4 Dec
Tracking the Tank Stream’, video, first prize (joint), GOYA, (not yet loaded)
1 Dec
First day of summer - I pull more frogspawn from the pond to the bucket and pinch and punch my way through morning - I have to explain to my surprised bus driver from the Philippines why.
The Newcastle anthology ('To sculpt the moment') arrives. I am pleased to receive a good looking book after the fiasco a few years ago (when I happened to be chief judge).
I have a 198 line 'poem' - a small section from an ambitious long poem about a 3 day visit to Adelaide during Writers Week earlier in the year, called Groundwork - I post two extracts - one about the Ngurrara canvas, that made history as art as evidence in a Federal Court case on land rights, and the Aboriginal painter Michael Riley.
November
Gettin' Nasty a mashup about the US election - how many houses do you think McCain owns? How many cars? The truth revealed.
Latest poetry mp3 A Platypus Inheritance, Riversdale, Bundanon (extract) from c1992 my first visit. Published in my collection Field Notes.
Poem added mp3 Play, Cooks River, Sept 08. The deep play of cockatoos.
Paul Ehrlich at Gleebooks 6/11, his assessment of the world's difficulties goes far beyond global warming - to water and food supplies, the increasing difficulties agriculture is facing, the toxicity load on the planet from the chemical industry, human population presures (of course), over consumption by the developed nations, and threats of pathogens. No simple answer except governments need to take action, (nation states a recent phenomenon, perhaps 200 years old are probably incapable of action in a globalised world) we need to take action, and for that to happen we need to change human behaviours and for that to happen he argues we need fast cultural evolution.
Dominant Animal: Human Evolution and the Environment, Island Press
One piece of the jigsaw that can change behaviour and foster appreciation and concern for the environment is natural aesthetics. See Eco-poetics.
'How Strange is water' & 'Through a glass darkly' are 2 video poems that made the final cut
Both will be shown at the Earth Festival 29 Nov. (Thanks if you voted).
October
30 0ct. A poem I wrote at Bundanon called 'Kitchen Music', written for William Barton, has just won the inaugural David Tribe Award. The richest prize in Australia for a poem.
