Ruby Street

Non-compliant. Disloyal. Not making exclusive claims. Non-singular vision. Inconsistent. Non-hierarchical. Non-categorical. To make meaning work - not tied up, and definitely living in the world (not a closed loop): ‘A composition of the prolonged present is a natural composition in the world’ - Gertrude Stein. [The ‘prolonged’ is as much the point as the present, to me. As is ‘in the world’.]

I'm heading over east this week, first to do some things in Sydney and then heading up to Newie, en train, so to speak, to do a panel discussion and a reading for the critical animals gigs at TINA. Sat 3 Oct: 9.30am – 11.00am CONTEMPORARY POETICS (LOOKING IN): THE PLACE OF THE EXPERIMENTAL IN CONTEMPORARY AUSTRALIAN POETRY City Hall: Banquet Room Is experimental poetry now the norm in Australia and what does experimental mean in 2009? Who makes up the audience for experimental poetry? Does the diversity in Australian poetic practice entail a progressive, permissive playing-field? This engaging and exploratory panel discussion includes readings by the panellists. Featuring: Stu Hatton, Derek Motion, Michael Farrell, Jill Jones Facilitator: Aden Rolfe Sun 4 Oct: 9.00 – 10.00am BREAKFAST POETRY COLLAGE READING City Hall: Banquet Room A selection of Australia’s most interesting experimental poets read their collaged and cut-up works. Come and join us for coffee, a croissant and some r...

Of course, next month is the Sydney Writers Festival , and as part of it there's Poets Paint Words , which is curated by Peter Minter and Lisa Slade, who commissioned a number of Australian poets to write a poem inspired by a painting in the Newcastle Region Art Gallery collection. Their choice, not ours. Poets involved include Luke Davies, Martin Harrison, Keri Glastonbury, Kate Fagan, Jaya Savige, Les Murray, Dorothy Porter, John Tranter, Judith Beveridge, Jill Jones, Peter Minter, John Kinsella, Robert Adamson. The exhibition runs until 17 June and during the Writers Festival there will be readings by a number of the poets.