Mark Roberts on Christopher Barnett – Poetry and Collaboration

Luciano Prisco ‘Buio’, 2016, oil on canvas

I was recently asked to write an introduction on the work of Christopher Barnett for an exhibition of paintings by Luciano Prisco and poems by Christopher Barnett which is currently showing at the Langford 120 Gallery (120 Langford Street North Melbourne Victoria 3051) until 9 October 2016.  Christopher has been one of the great influences on my work and my understanding of poetry and literature and I hope that this is reflected in this introduction – if nothing else this project has also introduced me to the wonderful paintings by Luciano Prisco.

The test to my introduction can be found on Rochford Street Review: https://rochfordstreetreview.com/2016/09/12/luciano-prisco-new-works-poems-from-christopher-barnett-mark-roberts-on-christopher-barnett-poetry-and-collaboration/

 

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‘City Circle’ hits the (big?) screen!

I have been waiting over twenty years for the call from Hollywood. I knew it would come, it was just a question of when. You know the call: “Hi Mark, We’ve read your micro-fiction and we want to make it into a movie. Yes a three hour blockbuster with Tilda Swinton, Charlotte Rampling and Harvey Keitel”. Well I’m still waiting for that call but I did receive an email from the wonderful Spineless Wonders to let me know that my small micro-fiction piece ‘City Circles’ was being made into a very short video by Emily Twomey and will be screened as part of the Beams Arts Festival at Chippendale this Saturday. The piece will be part of Spineless Wonders #storybombing initiative. #storybombing takes place at 15A Dick St, Chippendale NSW and I believe that the videos will also appear on the festival show reel.

If you are in Sydney come along and have a look.

• The Festival website is http://beamsfestival.com.au/
• The Facebook invite for #storybombing Beams is https://www.facebook.com/events/501006743443942/
• If you want to read ‘City Circles’ it is included in my latest book Concrete Flamingos (available from https://rochfordstreetpress.wordpress.com/rochford-street-press-titles/) and it aalso collected, along with some other great micro-fiction in Flashing the Square, Spineless Wonders (available from https://shortaustralianstories.com.au/products-page/all-products/flashing_the_square/).

 

‘perfume’ wins 2016 Dangerously Poetic Byron Writers Festival Poetry Prize

With Anthony Lawrence (left) at the Dangerously Poetic Byron Writers Festival Poetry Prize presentation. Photograph Linda Adair

Last weekend I had the wonderful experience of attending the three day Byron Bay Writers Festival and, on Saturday night, being awarded the 2016 Dangerously Poetic Byron Writers Festival Poetry Prize for my poem ‘perfume’. In his judge’s report for the prize Anthony Lawrence described ‘perfume’ as:

‘perfume’ moves like frames in a sepia-tone, grainy film. Its story suggests intrigue, death, rural myth or local history, in a time of war.

First and third person points of view combine in clipped, lyrical stanzas to create a miniature novel in which mystery and allusiveness are palpable.

 

Details of the award, together with the winning poems can be found here http://dangerouslypoetic.com/2016/08/and-the-winners-are-2/ or you can find ‘perfume’ below.

 

perfume
………………………………………………….she heard him
………………………………………………….an instant before
………………………………………………….the scarf pulled tight
………………………………………………….against her throat
the train to lithgow
settles into a metal song
reassurance of steel on steel
………………………………………………….her arm swung around smashing
………………………………………………….the perfume bottle to the floor
last night I smelt a ghost
sweet & alluring
flowers, orange
a suggestion of earthiness
………………………………………………….wartime
………………………………………………….he will be shipped out
………………………………………………….before
………………………………………………….they find the body
a ripple of iciness
flowing up the bed
my eyes closed
but awake
colder now
than a bathurst winter
………………………………………………….left behind in the pub
………………………………………………….next to the station
………………………………………………….waiting

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‘The Age of Rubbish’ – New Poem in Bluepepper

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Bluepepper, edited by Justin Lowe, is one of my favourite online poetry journals so it is always exciting to have a poem accepted by them. ‘The Age of Rubbish’ is a poem about the recent history of Morrison Bay on the Parramatta River near where I grew up.

http://bluepepper.blogspot.com.au/2016/07/new-poetry-by-mark-roberts.html

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‘Red’ and ‘Reading Poetry’ published in ‘In-Flight’ Literary Journal

Two more poems from Concrete Flamingos, ‘Red’ and ‘Reading Poetry’, have just been published in the US based literary magazine In-Flight.

http://inflightlitmag.com/issues/issue7/author.html?author=Mark%20Roberts&work1=reading%20poetry&work2=red

Concrete Flamingo is available from https://printedshadows.wordpress.com/2016/01/23/concrete-flamingos-poems-by-mark-roberts/

‘how many more are coming’: Cordite 53 THE END edited by Pam Brown

To conclude an extremely busy day for poetry my poem ‘how many more are coming’ was published today in Cordite 53, edited by Pam Brown.

‘how many more are coming’, like some of the slide poems which will appear on Project 365+1 over the coming month, is part of a larger work/book called LACUNA. The poem records the death of Jack Marsh, an Aboriginal cricketer, who was bashed and left for dead in Robinson Park in the Centre of Orange NSW.

The poem can be found here: http://cordite.org.au/poetry/theend/how-many-more-are-coming/

The complete issue, which includes some amazing work, can be located here: http://cordite.org.au/content/poetry/theend/

My thanks to Pam Brown and Cordite Editor Kent MacCarter.

 

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Project 365+1: A poem a day for a month – #1 Slides – Prelude

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February appears to be the busiest month. Just lucky this year is a leap year and February has one extra day to help fit everything in. For the next 29 days you will have the pleasure of reading a new poem from me everyday on the 365 +1 Project website http://project365plus.blogspot.com.au/

So what is Project 365+1? It is described on the website describes as:

Project 366 is a poem-centric collaboration of artists and writers taking place daily throughout 2016. And why? Because poetry is a process, art is a process. Poetry and art happen because we do it, because we make the effort to make it. So the object of this project is not to create finished art objects on a daily basis; it’s to get work on the way every day. Project 366 is to encourage the everyday business of artmaking for those who work – however they work – with word and image. Some people will post only pictures, some people will post only poems or short prose pieces. Some people will alternate among the various forms of their practice. And some may evolve new practices over the course of the year. (http://project365plus.blogspot.com.au/p/about-this-project.html)

I have approached my month with a box of old slides from my childhood – the kind you put in a projector and watched image after image appear on a wall or screen. Almost lost technology now, but the physical slides, like a floppy desk, remind us of something almost forgotten. So each day I will take a slide, either the physical slide itself or the memory of the projected image, and write about it.

Some of the poems may form part of a project I am working on with the working title of LACUNA (an empty space or a missing part; a gap. Inprinting, lithography & bookbinding) a gap or space, esp in a book or manuscript) – this is longish piece about place, history and memory set around the Central Western NSW town of Orange). Other poems may exist for a day and be placed back in a mouldy box, other poems maybe stand alone works.

My first poem has been posted today. Have a look and feel free to take part in a conversation about the poem, the process or the project….

http://project365plus.blogspot.com.au/2016/02/mark-roberts-1-slides-prelude.html

Project 365+1 is also on Face Book https://www.facebook.com/Project-Three-Six-Six-1542051856107487/

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My forthcoming poetry collection, Concrete Flamingos, with will be launched in Sydney by Anna Couani on Saturday 27 February from 2.30 pm at the Friend in Hand Hotel 58 Cowper St Glebe. Further details and purchase details at https://printedshadows.wordpress.com/2016/01/23/concrete-flamingos-poems-by-mark-roberts/