POETRY & PLACE = JOY

 

[Riff] 

Unbelonging 

Place. ‘Mind your place.’ It’s not your place. It’s not my place. A place at the table. Stay in your place. Do you have a place? Give up your place. 

Place. New place old place lived in that place moved to this place moved from place to place settled in this place are you settled will you ever settle? Settled. Settler! 

Belonging. Not belonging. Unbelonging. 

Longing. 

This place. That place. No place.

Displaced. 

Place through the eyes of longing. Joy of place. 

Place through the eyes of unbelonging, longing. Poetry. Poetry of place. Joy of place. 

That’s the one. Joy of place. Poetry. Place poems. Share the joy. Here’s one. Hope you enjoy. 

grasses breezy 

land alive with skitter and crawl 

wedge-tails circling the rising air 

smaller raptors stooping 

dropping through sky 

Excerpt from the title sequence in my latest collection 

Bitumen Psalms (RRP $12.50 Flying Islands Pocket Poets, 2024/25)

One of eight new FIPP titles

Watch for readings

POEMS ABOUT UNBELONGING

In Bitumen Psalms you follow the Hume Highway from the inland Yass region (NSW) where Lizz Murphy lives, all the way to Wollongong on the South Coast where she used to live. Lizz often writes about place and belonging. In the long title sequence of micro and haiku-ish poems, she is all too aware of her unbelonging — always just passing through. 

In these pinch-size poems she attempts to engage more closely:

grasses breezy 

land alive with skitter and crawl 

wedge-tails circling the rising air 

There are also glimpses of her own patch in the village of Binalong, through Tai Chi, her other passion.

Raising arms (six times) 

Mt Bobbara becomes golden 

blue shadowstreak  each rock 

inscribed on the horizon 

 — from Opening the Heart

There's a photo of Mt Bobbara at dusk in another recent post — here.

So that's a bit of the blurb. There's more on the Flying Islands Pocket Poets website here: https://flyingislandspocketpoets.com.au/?s=murphy My thanks to Dylan Jones who designed Bitumen Psalms and was a wonderful collaborator.

You can also read about the other seven new titles. Order Bitumen Psalms (RRP $12.50, pb; $6.25, e-book) from the website or better still subscribe to receive all eight plus a couple of extra collections.

BEFORE THE QLD POETRY FESTIVAL

April 16:

Here I am in Queensland somewhere west of Chinchilla (Burncluith area) and beyond a dingo fence. I feel I’ve really gone bush. I’ve said hallo to the cows including Sweet Pea, Baked Bean, Boogers and Aniseed from the other side of the fence (cows are big); had a bush walk along the east fence, the west fence, the north dam, the new fences, the new gates, the creeks; photographed native wild flowers; did a tour by truck of the back paddock (2-3 hours), into the spotty gum country, down along the Wild Dog fence, jumping in and out to examine and photograph trees in all their colours and hear about ‘old timer things’ like how they used to log on this place. There are koalas but we didn’t see any and birds but it was too hot for them. A frog called out just once but loudly. In a few days I will head to Brisbane for the Queensland Poetry Festival. It's important to get around poetry/literary events even if you are not performing ... don't you think? Be the audience they need; see what's going on where, what other poets are writing where, what the issues and trends are there ...

Ooops that's not me although it is a ginge ... hang on ... 

There I am. Me and a big sky. 

Me and a little brother called Stretch.

EXERCISING OUTSIDE DURING COVID-19

At Bargang Beach a solitary elderly returns to his car ski walking  then standing in front of the car  he twists and holds  twists and holds  side bend hold  side bend hold  Breathe in hold tucking chin in  breathe out shoving chin out A Eurasian Coot does bottoms up dives  chin out swallow  chin out swallow  bottoms up dive several times then move on A Purple Swamphen practises ‘Flying like a Crane’ from Five Animal Qi Gong standing on one leg stretching her other leg and that wing backwards slowly with perfect balance massaging her heart and lungs The kayaks return to shore gliding in like orange and white swans Other couples cycle and walk Soloists jog or stand still contemplating lake or life 

 

The white Hilux is back we are neighbours again I’ve also seen that ute before realize he’s the pissing fisher guy dub him The Slasher A small green bird lands on the mirror that sharp black line of beak a black outline edging the folded wing the white strip under the dark of eye He flies off (I moved) I take a call discuss workshops online once just an option now the new world for all of us and I have so much to catch up on Three resident swans mooch by legs paddling underwater bills tangerine against their black heads and bodies the tips catching light three floating stars On my other side a passionate young couple have to exercise control

I SPY A POETRY READING

Truth © Lizz Murphy Mixed Media work in progress

Long time no see. I haven’t been on strike — just not been keeping up! Started this mixed media work (20x25 cm) recently with a random bird image and found text which took me one way or another into internet espionage. More concerned with government control and censorship. It should become a poem or two. Meanwhile while wondering what the bird had to do with anything, I discover that 'bird' is the back end process behind iCloud. No I don't know what that actually means yet but hey. Makes the bird image relevant  With many thanks to the inspirational Kate O'Connor for her Painting at the Pub workshop held in Binalong last weekend — part of the Binalong Arts Group’s ongoing program.

 

I don’t have any readings coming up myself which is fine as I’m meant to be head down writing and painting, but you might like to attend these if you’re in the neighbourhood:

That Poetry Thing that’s on at Smith’s on Monday Nights continues to deliver a dynamic program. On March 2 (tonight!) it’s Mirsad Ramic & Alasdair Carter and March 9 it's Sarah Rice & Claire Albrecht. Starts at 7.00 pm. Smith’s Alternative in the Melbourne Building, 76 Alinga Street, Canberra. Watch for more poetry events at Smith’s including the launch of two poetry collections That Other World & People by Yass Valley's Jane Baker on March 30 at 5.30 pm. Have a gourmet sandwich and drinks after and stay on for the regular That Poetry Thing. Actually I think it’s a Not Very Quiet reading.

Geoff Page’s monthly poetry program has moved from University House (ANU) while they renovate, to Beyond Q bookshop another great venue in Weston ACT. Masses of second-hand books, meals and snacks. Note: BYO. Don’t miss Jessica L. Wilkinson of Melbourne, the main feature at the next reading on Wednesday March 11 at 7.00 pm.  The evening will begin with a tribute reading for Gwen Harwood’s centenary by three well-known local poets: P.S. Cotter, Penelope Layland, Russell Erwin. Bookings are not necessary, but you will cheer Geoff he says if you let him know you’re coming, on gpage40[at]bigpond[dot]net[dot]au

Binalong Arts Group’s Brush with Poetry kicks off this month at its current delightful venue (as opposed to former delightful venues), Café on Queen, Queen Street, Binalong with a shared mike on Sunday March 29 at 1.30 for 2.00 pm. Arrive any time but getting in early with your first coffee orders is a good idea — arrive even earlier and have lunch! BYO. All styles of poetry — serious, intense, hilarious — plus music and song very welcome. Coordinated by Robyn Sykes: robynsykespoet[at]gmail[dot]com and co-emceed by Robyn and Gregory Piko. This event is held on the last Sunday of the odd months from here on.

I’ll be back with more.
 

SKYLINES 8

In the day blackjay

just ahead In the night

Corvus somewhere

above So many stories

Perched on a shoulder

whispering in an ear

Fallen bird Soul from

the sky Who was your 

message for Will they 

see it in the stars

Lizz Murphy

skylines treetops

blue day heat

wing flutter

I’m flagging

Michele Elliot

ONE SKY — DOES THE SKY BLEED

Do stars tremble in the face of the wind

does the wind roar in the face of the star

if you fall upon a star

what if you land on a point

who decided a star had five points

who first drew a five-pointed star in one continuous line

do you remember how hard that was

what if the sky was granite

what if it was galvanized leaky tin

what if all the birds took to the sky at one time

would it just be a traffic jam or would they eclipse the sun

what if the sky was a crow’s wing

‘raven’ (it’s not the same bird) always sounds so much nicer

the sky would be a satin shelter

what if you dream your room has separated from your house and is spiralling  up into the black sky and now the walls are disappearing and your bed is going to slide  out into the night into space would you be singing twinkle twinkle little star

what if you are in your pyjamas on the stairs and they separate from everything

and fly up into the sky and you are sitting on the edge of the first step

and the bannister has gone

is reaching for the sky an unachievable unrealistic goal

why do they say reach for the stars

that’s a big reach

it’s not like getting a dish off a high shelf

who washes God’s socks

is that when it rains

is falling through space like almost drowning

is falling through space like drowning only faster

if the sky fit

would you wear it

midnight blue

a wattle bird nests in a drought-thwarted tea tree

when I walk past it flaps its way out

cuts a line through space to a higher point in a nearby gum tree

does the sky bleed when a eucalypt pierces it

is that why the sky turns red as the sun goes down

does the sun get a sinking feeling

A draft poem for the One Sky Many Stories project at Belconnen Arts Centre

WALK THE WILDLY — POETRY REPRINT

A strange walk

It’s strange going back to earlier poems even if it is after only a few years. You read them as if you weren’t the one who wrote them at all. Sometimes I completely forget that I had written a particular poem or batch or that I ever wrote in that style or on that theme.

Walk the Wildy was first published in 2009 by the original Picaro Press owned by poet Rob Riel in Newcastle NSW. It has just been reprinted by Stephen Matthew’s Ginninderra Press which took over the Picaro Press imprint, when Rob was unable to continue. The new edition has a classy white glossy cover with sharp black lettering. The new cover image is a quite monochromatic shot of Grogans Road which I have walked a thousand times over. I can spend a lot of time looking at these almost animated shadows.

A number of the poems are inspired by the place of Binalong — birdlife, drought, hard working people. The collection also takes me back to exhibitions I participated in, books and poems I have read, pondering over a paddock gate, civilians under threat at that time, memories of the place I originated from. I feel quite nostalgic.

The style of the 5 page fragmented title poem is inspired by Mary Oliver’s The Leaf and the Cloud a delicious book (all one poem) I found in Kathy Kituai’s guest room.

With thanks to Stephen, Rob and Kathy.

Here’s the back cover blurb:

Walk the Wildly with Lizz Murphy in this, her fifth collection of poetry, where winter is a lumbering lantern-jawed season, spring is a baking back, untimely frost a trollop. There are women of precise skirts, men with shipwrecked backs and locals who inspect the brash blue, foreheads strained like fence wire. Reflecting on absence and place, the sea is put aside for special occasions, the river kept for the everyday and language is slow from heat and unfinished endings. She also writes of water ancients, civilian targets and angels caught off guard. Lizz Murphy lives in the village of Binalong in rural NSW.

How to order:

Walk the Wildly (Picaro Press 2009, Picaro Press/Ginninderra 2017, pb, 35 pp, RRP $12). Order from Ginninderra Press here (check out the other Picaro Press titles too) or send me a note.

SHEBIRD POETRY REVIEW

“Murphy’s preoccupation with the marginalised voices of women and girls is astutely conveyed in this volume, which translates the pain and violence experienced by women into brief yet profound verses.”

I was so thrilled to be reviewed recently in Cordite Poetry Review. Not only was Stephanie Downing complementary but she seems to have articulated my own writing goals. I’m particularly pleased that she thinks the bird motif is effective.

I’m very appreciative. You can find the full review here, a little more about the book in a post below and information on all my micropoetry collections at PressPress.

A6 40pp ISBN 978-0-9873057-5-6

(cover photograph: Chris Mansell)

RRP $9.90 free p&p