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.

PIECE OF PLACE/FINDING OUR WAY HOME

Lizz Murphy/Kate O'Connor opening Friday 6 pm

'Here we are/where are we?' an old regular would frequently say at the local pub, on his visits to Binalong. I'm thinking it kinda sums up what Kate O'Connor and I are exploring in our linked exhibitions Finding our Way Home (Kate) and Piece of Place. They open together on Friday, November 4 at 6 pm — no formalities — just wine, nibbles, pizza pieces in The Hive at the rear of Café on Queen, Queen Street, Binalong. We have each painted over thirty works most of which are just 10 x 10 cm or 15 x 15 cm. It's a buy-and-take-away scenario — and we hope you do!

Working in acrylic and paint-pen on tiny canvases, Kate has created paintings, maps and verse — landscape, abstracted imagery, coded poems, landmarks and memories — helping her map 'the way home.' I track, I trace the outline of a past I cannot place/I make histories in the clouds/The branch, that one bird song at three — Finding our Way Home is supported by the Yass Valley Arts Trail.

I have worked in acrylic paint with found text on canvas, capturing vintage objects (and memories) from over the years and also created a sequence of Tree Haiga — close-ups of bark and leaves with haiku poems representing my place. roots run deep/knot old and new/rephrasing/the song of you — Piece of Place is supported by a Southern Tablelands Arts Micro Grant (a Covid initiative).

The exhibitions continue over the weekend from 10 am to 4 pm as part of the Yass Valley Arts Trail which is responsible for an explosion of art across the region November 5-6. Visit their Facebook page to find out more. 

More Yass Valley Arts Trail events in Binalong:

Same venue — still a space or two in Poetree my tree-themed workshop, Sunday at 10 am — contact me on lizzmurphy7[at]gmail[dot]com And in the afternoon all are welcome at Binalong Arts Group's pop-up Brush with Poetry (coordinator Robyn Sykes) featuring Sarah St Vincent Welch. Includes tree themes — join in the open mike with a tree poem (or any). Sunday 2-4 pm. Visit nearby exhibitions/open studios at the Old Bakery Gallery and Peter Minson Art Glass.

FOXES & FUNGI

 

Here we are in the new financial year! Just thought I’d say that. Yesterday a fox (presumably) ran off with my two pet chooks. It wasn’t even night or dusk or daybreak. Somewhere between 8.30 am and 10 am when I let them out just for a while before the Canberra commute. I’m not so fond of foxes at the moment.

 

Here are some foxy coloured fungi. Might be Orange Peel Fungus. Or maybe not. Who’d have thought there were so many details to consider. I’ll inspect more closely tomorrow. And also — as Billy Collins would say (on his poetry broadcasts) — google it up.

 

 

 

 

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.

DRINK FECKIN RESPONSIBLY

Well no I don't think the Lilt series of poems and pieces I'm writing for Project 365 + 1 will cut it for the fragment genre manuscript mentioned below. But never mind. It's what is working for the moment and I'll come back to the other. Here's a fun piece just posted which brings back great memories. In Belfast they dance, laugh, party and tell it like it is.

LILT x.

DRINK FECKIN RESPONSIBLY!

for Aroona and Mags

They get straight to the point

Drink feckin responsibly

Take a feckin taxi

The taxi we took on our night out

was a karaoke taxi

He was sittin outside the club

waitin for his hens’ party to return

One of the girls chatted him up

took him off duty to take us

to our next venue

We’re all in the back

with microphones in our hands

tryin to sing

sayin is this switched on

can they hear us outside?

We are wettin ourselves

We arrive at the next club

all arguin to pay

fumblin with coins for the fare

The driver says

give us 50p each and fuck off!

We tumble on to the footpath

laughin’ our heads off

© Lizz Murphy

 

Photo: Aroona Murphy

LILTING MY WAY THROUGH POETRY

Lilt is the beginning of a series of poems/pieces/pieces of poems about Ireland drawing on a visual journal from my last visit. There have only been two visits. The first in autumn - of course it rained the whole time except when it unexpectedly snowed. The second was in summer and I re-experienced twilight and The Twelfth.

The 12th of July is the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne celebrated by Loyalists. It's a significant event with emotional and political pulls for both Protestants and Catholics. If you visit Belfast early July you'll find it strung with red, white and blue buntings and Union Jacks. There are also preparations for Bonfire Night (July 11) and traffic constantly held up by rehearsing marching bands. The Catholics clear out if they can. I have family and friends on both sides of 'the divide.' (Born a Protestant; married a Catholic; blah blah.)

It's five years since I visited and took these photos. It's time I tried to write a few pieces - besides I'm under pressure to produce for 365 + 1! I'm not sure if it will fit into my fragment manuscript slowly in progress - it might - it's another small experiment - I'll let you know. You can follow if at all inclined at project365plus.blogspot.com.au

[Sorry - Blogger is doing crazy things with the formatting in #i]

LILT

i.

The lilt of the ‘New Belfast’ tilts me 

motorways cutting through terraced terracotta  

  

battle anniversaries cutting through evening