It’s been a very poetry week…  Yesterday morning I went into Radio Adelaide to record a whole lot of my bird poems for Julia Wakefield who’s doing a series inspired by the Bimblebox project. 

Also reading there were David Adés (returning briefly from Pittsburgh), Valerie Volk and G M Walker. After getting down our  own work we each recorded a couple of poems by our late friend John Pfitzner whose posthumous collection  Voices from the Fire was  launched a week ago.

Last night I got along to Word Box at the Soul Box in Hindley St, Adelaide to see guest poets Loren Steinberg and Priya Malik (both of whom were brilliant!) and other local talent in the open mike section. I did I think the worst is over now and a clarity of smog (which I was also happy to learn this week has been accepted for the next foam:e this coming March.)

This week I’ve been enjoying Rachael Mead’s The Sixth Creek , Peter Macrow’s latest Blue Giraffe which includes a poem by Amelia Walker dedicated to Lyn & me – (a big surprise!) and Friendly Street’s anthology Patterns of Living which I missed last year in Japan.

I’ve also uploaded Looking up to ccmixter’s Christmas mix. A very productive week in poetry…

It’s been a while since I’ve had a poem published in four W, (Wagga Wagga Writers Writers!), the annual anthology of new writing out of Charles Sturt Uni in Wagga Wagga, NSW. Four W is one of Australia’s oldest and most respected annual collections of poetry and prose – last year it was launched by Les Murray – and even more impressively it’s in an Australian regional centre which is NOT a capital or major Australian city.

When I couldn’t attend the launch of the 2005 edition which included my poem Redback Spider (male) I sent my daughter Amy to represent me since she was studying medical imaging on campus!

I’m pleased to be part of this great institution again in 2013 with my poem Retired banker in a  nursing home. Unfortunately I couldn’t make the launches in either Melbourne or Wagga but thanks for the invitation anyway and respectful appreciation to long-time editor David Gilbey for including my work in the collection.

More HERE.