FROM WENCH WE CAME — POETRY

Here are more great poetry friends: myself looking a might pious (left) with Victoria McGrath, Jane Baker and Robyn Sykes.

I always enjoy reading with poet peers and friends — one of the best nights in a while was From Wench We Came at Smith’s Alternative in June (yes I am running behind). Jane, Victoria, Robyn and myself have known each other for a long time. We used to meet regularly to support and encourage one another as poets surviving in the regions. We have also performed as a group on a number of occasions, mainly at Yass events but also at Bungendore as part of the Weereewa Festival one year. 

Anyway, the Not Very Quiet team invited us into their monthly program which is part of ThatPoetry Thing that’s on Monday Nights at Smith’s Alternative, Civic, Canberra. ‘We don’t want just four poets getting up one after the other,’ they said, ‘we want a presentation.’ We tend to do that a bit anyway, but we did put extra thought into it and if we do say so ourselves … we were taut!

Our presentation ranged from ecopoems to refugee poems, tragi-comedy to bush humour, micro poems to rhyming metre, world conflict and women’s issues. Victoria’s are sharp and wry, Jane’s are world travelled, Robyn’s pack performance punch. We’ve arrived where we are in different ways from different places, and we selected poetry to demonstrate that and to reflect our diverse experiences and passions. 

It’s a fantastic audience at Smith’s — open to everything and generous with positive feedback. And then it was back to our individual life and poetry things ...

The Smith’s weekly poetry program continues with Emma Rose Smith and Clark Gormley on October 8 and Australian Poets: Japanese Influences (another Not Very Quiet event) on October 15. Starts at 7 pm.

Photo courtesy Kendall Kirkwood with thanks.