On rabbits and things

The thing is,
the object of your reconstruction
as you see it,

bears little resemblance

to the object
of your reconstruction
as I see it.

In other words,
that is not
how you make
a rabbit.

But must a poet speak
of things
in other words?

The thing is just an object
of your constructs,
both social and historical.

Poetry’s a rabbit
with a mistress
and a family
in a hidey hole.

With all due respect and thanks to Sarah K Bell on reconstructing a rabbit

Three cappuccinos

two cappuccinos
one with sugar
bayside pillow talk
written on the inner
of a dappled envelope

cinnamon of pull-apart
parading through the purple
wysteria in bloom
beneath a myriad of moons

the captain
of the recommissioned
origami boat
is folding your rsvp
into quarters

the cover band man
sings
two out of three
ain’t bad

one cappuccino
to go
“La cuenta, por favor.”

Get some words into you

The hare in the moon is all ears but I haven’t any carats of verse to offer. What I do have, however, is a new delivery on the way.

Eclipsed – Poets Cornered Anthology 2009 – This does not mean that I don’t want a signed copy, Kiersty.

The Adventures of Granny Destross and CeeCee by Val B Russell – The first instalment in a three volume series. Congratulations on going the self-publishing route, Val. Wishing you big success.

The Puzzle Box by Paul Squires – I don’t think I need to justify buying a second copy, even if I plan to keep it for myself. I could hide it in the safe just in case someone steals my original copy, but I think I might donate this one to the Macquarie University Library.

Heads up to the folk at Lulu.com, who appear to have significantly reduced their delivery fees. So head on over and get some words into you.

Fwd: Re: Thirsty

Key dislocation indicator – My creative writing persona has infiltrated my internal workplace emails.

@ maekitso.podbean.com

Imprecision

“The ‘I’m-precision’ of meditative reflection on the other is analogous to the imprecision of hearsay”, said the lion to the King.

“Did you hear what I said, or did you infer from my purr with a view to confer my intentions?”

Podbeaning

Thanks to those of you who are podbeaning (Paul, Kiersty and Tipota to name a few brilliant examples), I have finally seen the light and decided to give it a go. Embedding in WordPress doesn’t seem to happening for me, so here’s the link to my inaugural ‘bean-up’. Meditation

Thanks for all the cool comments on the visual version and thanks, Maxine, for pointing me to Pi.O. That’s just opened up a whole ‘nother world.

Meditation

.       Back in a moment <<<
Hold that thought.
Slip into something
becoming.

Look in my eyes……
No!!! Look
in my eyes.
¿
Hang on a second
I’m coming.

‘Booklife’ by Jeff VanderMeer – a preliminary Australian defence

Jeff VanderMeer has posted an excerpt from his upcoming ‘Booklife: Strategies and Survival Tips for 21st-Century Writers‘. In that excerpt, VanderMeer writes that “reader perceptions are so often driven not just by their opinion of your writing but of you.” I would add that your readers’ perceptions of you are often driven by their reactions to your writing. If I write a poem in the first person about beating my wife, and I have the capacity to invoke my readers’ horror with my words, they may have a hard time accepting it as non-representative of my character. That said, VanderMeer’s timeless quote serves as a strong basis for all ’21st-Century Writers’ to give serious thought to the ways in which their public activities can affect their perceived character.

VanderMeer asks the readers of his excerpt to keep in mind that “I don’t advocate being a PR hound in the book–I advocate being a balanced person who puts creativity first, while acknowledging you have to do some public things if you want your books to reach an audience…”. Those ‘public things’, in Jeff VanderMeer’s opinion, involve maintaining a consistently high quality of work. One way to maintain that quality would be to employ an editor.

Whether or not you employ the services of an editor, many of you are ultimately concerned with the quality of your work. For VanderMeer “[a] high-quality creative project could be anything from an esoteric experimental science fiction novel to a heartbreakingly tragic literary novella posted on a website, a book of poems about your neighbor’s talking chicken or a techno-thriller about zombies. The genre is irrelevant.”

Unfortunately, Jeff Sparrow’s comments at Overland seem to have alienated at least one major audience for VanderMeer’s book. Specifically, the editor of Overland states that “[t]o get a novel published in Australia today, you have to sell it to someone who thinks it will make money.” By that comment, we may conclude that Jeff Sparrow believes that if you are a writer of novels in Australia, there is not much point in taking advice from a book that advocates putting your creativity first.

Three strikes

My Dad advised me once or twice
that I could make a word my own
by using it three times in different contexts.

It puzzles me that I have used you
often inconsistently
to discipline you in to common sense

and yet you have the hide to throw my books at me
and certify
‘You fucking prick! You seem to think you own me.”

Earth to Dada

“Dada? Do you know where my emonmeeberes?”
Raising eyes from laptop screen. “Sorry?”
“Do you know where my ebony bear is?”
Slightly confused. “Um, your ebony bear? I don’t know.”

“One must be receptive, receptive to the image at the moment it appears”. Bachelard, Gaston. The Poetics of Space.

Eyes rolling. “Tch. Daaaaadaaa! Not my ebony bear. My MP3 player.”