‘Gweagal Shield’ published in ‘War’ 24 Hour Chapbook Challenge

WAR: 24-Hour Chapbook Challenge VII, edited by Colin Dardis, Rancid Idols Productions, Northern Ireland

I tend to take time writing a poem. A first draft, some initial revisions and then coming back over a period of time, reviewing and editing. I think my record from first mark on paper to completed poem is 30 years. So the concept of writing a poem from a single word prompt and being published all withing 24 hours was a particular challenge for me.

The challenge, by Rancid Idols Production, was part of their sporadic poetry challenge series: a one-word prompt was sent to participating poets, we replied back with a brand new poem, It is then collated and a free digital chapbook available to be download all within 24 hours!

The one word prompt was ‘War’, unfortunately currently a very fertile ground for artists. My poem is based around the Gweagal Shield, which is currently held, under dispute, in the British Museum. Although its providence is questioned, is it supposedly the shield dropped by a Gweagal warrior following the confrontation with British Marines on the shore of Kamay (Botany Bay) in 1770.

The chapbook, which contains some remarkable poems, all of which were written withing 24 hours over the weekend, is available for download here:

https://rancididols.weebly.com/war-chapbook-challenge.html.

Many thanks to Colin Dardis who coordinated and edited the project and to all the other poets who took part in producing this remarkable little artifact in such a short period of time.

Rancid Idols Productions also runs the Poet Alone project and maintains a Bandcamp channel of music, poetry and noise. You can access these projects at

https://rancididols.weebly.com/

‘Gaanha-bula’ translated into Hindi

Although it was published in 2019 I only just discovered that my prose poem ‘Gaanha-bula’ was translated into Hindi as part of the Spineless Wonders Shuffle Translation Project. The work first appeared in in Shuffle, An Anthology of Microlit, published by Spineless Wonders in 2019, so it was a pleasant to find it had been translated.

Many thanks to the translators, Anindya Singh and Ishrat Parween, to Paulette Smythe who produced the video poem of the translation and to Anindya Singh who read the poem. And of course thanks to the Spineless Wonders team who pulled the project together.

• You can listen to the Hindi translation here: https://shortaustralianstories.com.au/vimeo-video/ganhabula-hindi-english/
• You can read the Hindi translation here: https://shortaustralianstories.com.au/vimeo-video/ganhabula-english-hindi/

‘Skipping’ Long listed for the 2023 Liquid Amber Poetry Prize.

I was a little surprised and very honoured to have had my poem ‘Skipping’ included in the long list for the 2023 Liquid Amber Poetry Prize. The poets nominated in the long list include many writers I respect and seek out so it is exciting to be included in the list with them. Congratulations to all nominated poets and a big thanks to the judges Anne M. Carson, Rose Lucas and Reneé Pettitt-Schipp.

https://liquidamberpress.com.au/2023/07/14/2023-poetry-prize-long-list-announced/

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‘The weather was perfect for making movies outside’ – Film Poem published in Sublunary Review

I haven’t sent much work out over the past 12 months, but I did try to find a home for one of my film poems and was excited when ‘The weather was perfect for making movies outside’ – a poem based on the Godard film Made in the USA – found a home in the excellent Sublunary Review. Many thanks to poetry editor Ruslan Garrey and the Sublunary Review team. You can read it here:

https://www.sublunaryreview.com/home/weather-was-perfect-for-making-movies

Film Poems in Oz-Burp Eight

I haven’t sent much work out over the last 12 months or so, something to do with the pandemic (don’t ask me what), but some of my film poems continue to appear in Pete Spence’s wonderful journals. The latest, Oz-Burp Eight, contains ‘film festival’, ‘The Game of Angels’ and ‘O Lucky Man’.

Pete has produced some wonderful work and publications over the years and he continues to bring together some amazing writing from around Australia and around the world. This issue, for example, contains work by: Tom Weigel, George Trakl (translated by Tom Weigel), Joel Dailey, Jake St John, John McConnochie, Joahha Walkden Harris & Pete Spence, Francesca Jurate Sasnaitis, Elinor Nauen, Annabel Lee, Pete Spence, Mark Young, Richard Martin, Linda Adair, Joahha Walkden Harris, Douglas Messarli, Pam Brown, Chris Mason, Kris Hemensley, Phyllis Rosenzwig, John Jenkins, Cam Lowe, Jim Cory, Mitch Highfill, Dan Raphael, Martin Edmond, Glen Cooper, Chris Barron and Jill Jones.

Oz-Burp may fly under the radar of many who sail in the good ship Australian Poetry, but it is exciting to have some poems included among the amazing work in this issue of the journal.

Oz Burp is a hard journal to track down but Rochford Cottage Bookshop has a handful of copies available for sale at $12.95 (plus postage and handling). Click here to order.

‘My mother’s room’ & ‘Learning to shoot’ in Live Encounters – Special Australian & New Zealand Edition

I am excited and honoured to have two poems in the May 2021 issue of Live Encounters Poetry & Writing featuring writers from Australia & New Zealand. Many thanks to Live Encounters editor and publisher Mark Ulyseas and guest editor Denise O’Hagan for including my work in this amazing issue.

You can read my two poems here: https://liveencounters.net/2021-le-p-w/05-le-pw-anz-2021/mark-roberts-my-mothers-room/

And you can browse the entire issue here: https://liveencounters.net/2021/04/22/live-encounters-poetry-writing-australia-new-zealand-may-2021/

‘Cadogan Place, Orange, 1992’ – published in ‘The Blue Nib’

Almost 75% of the work in the Lacuna cycle has now found it’s way into magazines, journals and anthologies in Australia and around the world and I’m excited that one of the more personal memoir poems, Cadogan Place, Orange, 1992, has just appeared in the wonderful Blue Nib Literary Magazine. Many thanks to editor Denise O’Hagan for giving this poem such a wonderful home.

If you want to read Cadogan Place, Orange, 1992 you can find it here: https://thebluenib.com/poetry-by-mark-roberts/

A companion piece to ‘Cadogan Place, Orange, 1992, Place Burial, was published in Issue 3 of Pink Cover Zine back in May 2019 https://printedshadows.wordpress.com/2019/05/08/place-burial-appears-in-pink-cover-zine-issue-3/

The Lidster Poems appear in ‘No Placebos’

Poems from the Lacuna cycle continue to find their way out into the world and it was exciting to see a selection of ‘The Lidster Poems 1961-1992’ appear in Pete Spence’s latest journal No Placebos. Many thanks to Pete for including my work alongside so many other brilliant writers. 

‘feral green marketing’ – Plumwood Mountain Volume 7 Number 1

There are some journals were there is that extra bit of excitement when you receive an acceptance. Plumwood Mountain is one of those journals. The journal is subtitled An Australian Journal of Ecopoetry and Ecopoetics and it is this clearly stated political stance that makes the journal and the work in it so important.

My poem ‘feral green marketing’, which appears in issue 7:1, is the second poem I have written in a genre which I “invented” some time ago (the first ‘Written Under Duress was published in Australian Latino Press some years ago https://australianlatinopress.blogspot.com/2014/05/written-under-duress-mark-roberts.html). The genre, which doesn’t have a name, takes the form of three stanzas with each stanza having its own title. The overall poem title is a combination of all three stanza titles. Beyond that I guess I am still working on the rules.

 

 

feral green marketing

 

https://plumwoodmountain.com/feral-green-marketing/

 

‘self evacuation’ and ‘charcoal drawing’ published in ‘From the Ashes: A poetry collection in support of the 2019-2020 Australian Bushfire relief effort’

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The last few months have certainly been challenging. Fires, floods and now plague. Already we have seen the offers of support and funding made to those impacted by the Morrison fires of 2019/2020 forgotten and people and the environment abandoned as we are overtaken by the next crisis. In such an environment it is important to remember and to make our leaders remember the commitments they made. This is one of the reasons I am proud to have two poems in the anthology  From the Ashes: A poetry collection in support of the 2019-2020 Australian Bushfire relief effort edited by C.S. Hughes and published by Maximum Felix Media.

My two poems in the anthology, ‘self evacuation’ and ‘charcoal drawing’, are raw poems, written with the memory of a summer of fire, smoke and danger in the Blue Mountains. My thanks to the editor, C.S. Hughes for including them in the collection.

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As Hughes says in the introduction to the anthology:

It has been a season of fire and flood. It is not that we are unfamiliar, in our dry and storm driven land, with such seasons, but these elements, perhaps through our ignorance and neglect, have burgeoned and magnified, returned on a scale that seems unimaginable.

Hundreds of homes have been lost, nearly two score lives. Each given in defence of what we all value, home, family and thus each life lost in defence of us all. Before such an onslaught, it is only by fickle winds and fortunate rains that the destruction has not been more overwhelming.

From the Ashes: A poetry collection in support of the 2019-2020 Australian Bushfire relief effort is available from https://fromtheashes.maximumfelixmedia.com/. Proceeds from the sale of the anthology will go to support the ongoing care of Australia’s native wildlife through selected charities and wildlife organisations.