all corners

Something new, finding poetry in all corners of the net.

praguish

Trevor Joyce has posted pics of the Prague poetry readings.

I'll be posting more on Prague, Kutná Hora and Brno soon.

three things about berlin

Berlin seems pretty OK so far. Having been here about an hour. But no 7/11s, or similar - at least in this district (not a tourist area).

The trains work. A promising sign.

A lot of doner kebabs must get eaten here.

three things about prague

The Museum of Communism is in the same building as a casino. A Maccas is outside.

The trains and buses and trams work very well.

There are a lot of dogs.

spring? how weird

A dive (aka hotel) in Frankfurt's red light district (table top dancing, anyone, it's just next door) is tonight's big fun. Maybe it will be quiet for Good Friday, who knows? It's not a 'fair' week here, so maybe it won't be, err, hectic.

Seoul looked busy and interesting for the few hours we were awake there. Stings the sinuses and the eyes with its pollution. But the cherry blossoms are beautiful along the avenues. Because, of course, it's all the wrong way around in the northern hemisphere, and they're getting into spring. Weird.

And my first European train for many years - Prague via Dresden. Then days of poetry. Something I am looking forward to (see entry below).

Mostly I am discombobulated by time changes and all the hours and half hours I've gained and lost. It has been a very long 10th April, far longer then 24 hours.

I did get to see a bit of Siberia along the way.

check it out

MICRO-FESTIVAL POETRY SERIES
Prague / Brno 14-18 April 2009

Maurice Scully (IRL), Martin Rainer (CZ), Justin Quinn (IRL), Kevin Nolan (UK), Trevor Joyce (IRL), Jill Jones (AUS), Philip Hammial (AUS), Michael Farrell (AUS), Vincent Farnsworth (USA), Stephan Delbos (USA), Pam Brown (AUS), Petr Borkovec (CZ), Louis Armand (AUS)


14 April 2009 (Tuesday)
Shakespeare & Sons
Krymska 12, Praha-Vrsovice
Pam Brown, Stephan Delbos, Vincent Farnsworth, Michael Farrell, Philip Hammial, Trevor Joyce (English)

15 April 2009 (Wednesday)
The Globe
Pštrossova 6, Praha-Nove Mesto
Louis Armand, Pam Brown, Michael Farrell, Philip Hammial, Jill Jones, Trevor Joyce, Martin Rainer, Maurice Scully (English)

16 April 2009 (Thursday)
Sklenena louka
Kounicova 23, BRNO
Louis Armand, Pam Brown, Michael Farrell, Philip Hammial, Jill Jones, Trevor Joyce, Martin Rainer, Maurice Scully (Czech)

17 April 2009 (Friday)
Café a knihkupectví Fra
Šafaríkova 202/15, Praha-Vinohrady
Petr Borkovec, Pam Brown, Michael Farrell, Philip Hammial, Jill Jones, Trevor Joyce, Justin Quinn, Maurice Scully (Czech)

18 April 2009 (Saturday)
Shakespeare & Sons
Krymska 12, Praha-Vrsovice
Pam Brown, Michael Farrell, Philip Hammial, Jill Jones, Trevor Joyce, Kevin Nolan, Maurice Scully (English)

wish fulfilment

In the nature of materials
constancy of years

Sing praises, of super-phosphate
and the management approach

The process is stuffed
into the space where we sit

Environments scan prototypes

it's that simple

Are the new feelings
just like the old feelings?

My legs tired
from sitting
staring
my hands busy
not feeling
what wood or air
means

because it’s not
nothing
beyond

it’s near
out the back door
birds hopping trees
absolutely identifiable
and me
swapping selves
not knowing.

But I smell it now
beyond anyone’s claim
into the time’s now
coming to pass.

interior

Holes decorate the path, tiny drops
of polystyrene blowing tickets.

Little is luminous,
the dry is turned.

Lay aside the gods for a minute,
they've no price but may require it.

The end of the work song
burns itself, stained with open-ended nights.

Recycled sheen smells of the chemist’s lamp,
anaesthesia torn from the spine.

How an interior tears a door into words,
water drains inside a dream.

You must slip stealthily into the ventilator,
the market will be normal after that.

a smell of varnish

Through white assemblies morning remains
in the old city of joy, there’s low sweet singing
around gardenias, the end of edges
oscillating in waves.

Ring and repair old inclinations,
remember halls of varnish, how wood bounced,
the way skin disturbs movements of sweat,
how the song didn't go away.
Paragraphs burn through this art of layers
adding to clarity beyond the verandah.

To wake up and arrange the resistance,
a fine balance must be recognised.
Change masses on a mark. Besides,
and after all, you can bear questions.