National Poetry Week: Share

Now I've recovered a little from my buying spree yesterday, I'm here to share. I haven't thought a lot about what to share, so I'm making it up as I go. Hope it works out ;)

First up, I'm going to share an old favourite, Clancy Of The Overflow. At the recent Queensland Poetry Festival I was very pleased to listen to Helen Avery recite it (along with half a dozen other classics) and have had it playing in my head a little since.

In the spirit of sharing other people's work, I notice the National Library are getting in on NPW and have done some sharing of their own. Also, poet and blogger Gabrielle Bryden is sharing poems this week that are mostly written by not-usually-poets. This link will take you to today's entry and you can scroll back and forth to see what else has been shared: she's sharing all week.

Yesterday I shared my buys and recent reads as well as an opportunity to get a copy of my chapbook, First taste, for $10 including postage within Australia, and promised to spend all of this week's sales on more Australian poetry.

I'm not sure if this link will work, but Cranbourne Library in Victoria are sharing poetry from a variety of Australian poets on their Poet's wall. I'm not sure how long it'll be there but if you get a chance, drop by to check it out.

I can't end the post without sharing some of my own poems. I have a few in online publications, so I'll send you to a few. This is an audio poem published in Cordite that I wrote shortly after the passing of my grandmother. Also on Cordite, this poem was written after noticing Claudia as a baby seem to discover for the first time that she was able to control her fingers. I have a few others on Cordite that you can find yourself, but I also recommend you have a good look around in general, there is some fabulous poetry available and it's all free to read and/or listen to.

This link to Verity La will take you to what has been called a brave poem, Shopping for girls. And... just one more: A poem about visiting my father in hospital for the last time that I would ever see him, in the June 2010 edition of The Diamond and the Thief.

I said I wasn't going to share the poem I wrote on Monday on WRITE day, but for some crazy reason, I've changed my mind. It's in the spirit of this week, right? It doesn't have a title, so feel free to suggest one (or anything else), though mostly, I just hope you enjoy it (especially after I sent you to all those not-so-happy poems). And lastly, feel free to do your own poem sharing in the comments (short poems or links to poems).

(Untitled)

Pulling my jeans on

I notice chicken shit
on the cuff
remember wiping it from the side
and sole of my shoe yesterday.
I pull the jeans on anyway
because the shit doesn’t smell
and looks like dried mud
not that anyone will notice
or care
unlike when my toddler
has left a trail of snot
across the shoulder of my t-shirt
and someone invariably says
that’s disgusting.

National Poetry Week: Tuesday = Buy

It's National Poetry Week, and I'm excited.

Yesterday I wrote a poem, for WRITE day, and today, for BUY day, I've started well. I'm stuck at home so restricted to the online shops, but that's working out fine. Too fine, perhaps. Shopping online really is too easy. Anyway, I've bought:

Anthony Lawrence: Bark (UQP)

Michelle A Taylor: If the world belonged to dogs (UQP): one for the kids.

Kate Middleton: Fire Season (Giramondo). Recommended by a friend

Cate Kennedy: The taste of river water (Scribe)

and I'm sending off for a copy of Heather Taylor Johnson's Exit Wounds (Picaro Press).

And it's less than two weeks since I bought up at the Qld Poetry Festival!

In case you're after ideas, here are a few titles I've already enjoyed this year.

Michelle Dicinoski: Electricity for beginners (Clouds of Magellan).

Max Ryan: Before the Sky (Picaro Press). (Only $5, inc post.)

Robyn Rowland: Seasons of doubt & burning (5 Islands press) and my recent favourite,

Rosanna Licari: An absence of saints (UQP). I'd prefer to direct you to the publisher's shop, but they don't appear to have copies for sale, but you could pick one up here if you're quick.

I'm also offering my poetry chapbook for $10, including postage within Australia, so if you're interested in buying a copy, email me at 'tiggatha [at] gmail [dot] com' and I'll send you payment instructions. If you'd like to read a review first, go here.

AND... I've decided that any money that comes in for sales of First taste by the end of this Friday, I will spend on Australian poetry, including the books above I have already bought/ordered.

Tomorrow is SHARE day, so if you can handle me posting here again in such a short period, I might come back and share some poetry. Meanwhile, I hope you're enjoying National Poetry Week too.

Launch photos

I'm a little slow with actually doing anything lately, except when it comes to packing boxes. Although really, I could probably be more efficient there too. But I'm not here to talk about what'll be happening after 5 more sleeps. Partly because I think you already know, and partly because I know you'd prefer to see a photo or two from the recent launch of First taste.

Which I have thanks to Vicki who, as well as sharing all her pics with me, wrote a bit of a thing after the launch here. It was a lovely afternoon, a chance to see so many friendly faces for what might be the last time, at least for a while. Unfortunately Emilie Zoey Baker was stuck at home in bed, but Marian Spires put on her launching hat and helped me send First taste into the

world in style.

Here is one of my biggest fans.

Marian Spires and my mum.

A couple of friends enjoying themselves.

Koraly and Vicki.

And a family shot to end the afternoon.

Thanks to everyone who came along, those who couldn't but wanted to, Marian for doing a fab job with short notice, Vicki for the photos, and all my friends and the poets of Melbourne, who I will dearly miss.

Copies of First taste are available from Collected Works, Readings (St Kilda store) or direct, via paypal, here.

A First taste taste

First taste

He pierced my heart
with butterscotch sauce
a double quantity
smeared
over the warm cake full
of brown sugar and dates

next
he baked a delicious sponge
wet with citrus tang
light
but heavy after being prepped
with walnut and greens
fried

the triple chocolate cheesecake
and rhubarb crumble
secured the deal
we celebrated
with premium ice-cream
swimming in chilled muscat

together
we discovered the delights
of orange almond syrup
chocolate mousse meringue
and chocolate raspberry pudding
cakes
wrestled
with decisions over
chocolate or caramel
mud
docked dry fruit in port
for months
before baking the proverbial
bun

now
he makes anzacs
in double batches
I bake muffins
with blueberry patches
and mull over stained pages
of cookbooks

last birthday
I made my own sticky date
shared it with friends
and recalled
my first taste
of butterscotch sauce.

First taste will be launched by Emilie Zoey Baker at Caffe Sospeso, 428 Burwood Road, hawthorn this Sunday, 28th November, 2010, from 3pm.

Come help celebrate Tiggy's debut poetry collection, to listen to some poems, including one she wrote in year 9 (that, thankfully, is not in the book), and see her one last time before she heads on outta Melbourne. She might even cry, and that's not something you see every day.

If you want to know a little more about First taste, check out this review, or this one. And if you can't make it to Hawthorn on Sunday, go here to order your copy via Paypal.

Packing and a little launch

Our first shipping container arrived yesterday. Yes, that’s right. Shipping container. And first. Initially we thought we’d use the bigger container, but it turns out it wouldn’t fit in the driveway, so we’re using two small ones. But that’s worked out well. With one coming at a time, we have twice as long to pack.

The down side is that it’s hard to stay in denial when there’s a huge container in the middle of the driveway.

We’ve started packing it already. By that I mean Bryden has started packing it already. He started with all the couches bar one. I know that sounds odd, but yes, while I’m finding it difficult to throw out old uni stuff I know I don’t need any more (and I will throw it out, I promise), Bryden kind of collects couches. In other words, please NEVER tell him you have a couch you don’t need any more. Please.

He’s also packed most of our books. And while he seems to be doing most of the packing thus far, I have done some. Though mostly I’m trying to stay on top of the normal day-to-day stuff. It’s better for everyone if I can stay in normal mode (denial) as long as possible though. Because once I engage with the reality of the big move, I’m probably going to freak right out.

So I’m keeping up with National Novel Writing Month. Well, I’m almost keeping up. I’m a little behind in my word count but not enough that I won’t be able to catch up.

And with the launch of page seventeen issue 8 behind me, that I’ll write a bit about somewhere else soon, I need another time-sapping project.

I’m thinking about the upcoming launch of my debut poetry collection, First taste. I’ve finally booked it all in, and as well as being a launch, it’s also a bit of a going away party, as it’ll be my last big Melbourne outing before we head off. So, if you’d like to come along to see my first poetry book fly into the world, come along. If you’d like to see me before I fly into a warmer part of the world, come along.

We’ll kick off at 3pm, on Sunday 28th November, at Caffé Sospeso, 428 Burwood Rd, Hawthorn, with Emilie Zoey Baker doing the launching honours. I’ll be hanging around afterwards to make sure I have a chance to catch up with as many people as I can. And to eat. Eating is good. It’s a short walk from Glenferrie Station, or if you’re driving, there’s a huge car park in Kent St that I’m pretty sure is all day parking at weekends.

Meanwhile, if you want a small taste of First taste, a few of the poems can be found online, including here, here, here and if you go here, you can scroll down to the June 10 issue and download the pdf to find another. I’m thinking about posting one here, to this blog, next week too, so feel free to let me know which one you think it should be.

The NaNo start

You know, I kind of liked that list thing I did a couple of weeks ago, so I think I might go with it again.

- I am off to a good start in NaNoWriMo, having met the daily word count so far on both days.

- I’m going to have to hold on to just scraping through close to the 1667 words required for another day, by writing in the evening, as Thursday will be my first actual writing day. Then, I’ll hope to get ahead. Even if just a little.

- I spent yesterday baking for Claudia’s 5th birthday party today. Both the baking and the party were fun and yes, I have plenty of cake/NaNo fuel left over.

- We sold our house.

- We’re probably leaving Melbourne before Christmas. By that I mean before the middle of December.

- I’ll be at Passionate Tongues at the Brunswick Hotel next Monday, 8th, co-featuring alongside Graham Nunn, and I’d love to see you there.

- I’m trying to write a new poem every day this month and I’ll share some with you if you come to Passionate Tongues next Monday, 8th.

- I’m definitely planning to make the First taste launch extend into a going away kind of do, though I’m not sure I’ll be able to have both at the same venue.

- If you have an idea where I might have either of the above events, feel free to share your wisdom. Soon.

- I’ve decided I disagree with one point in Derek Motion’s review of First taste: there is embarrassment. Although not necessarily over the things one might expect.

- The abovementioned embarrassment is ten-fold when the one line in the entire book that I find embarrassing is quoted on the internet (although I am almost over this already). This is probably much less embarrassing if it doesn’t come up in certain google searches.

- Don’t bother asking which line I’m talking about, because telling you would just cause further embarrassment. But if you come to Passionate Tongues next Monday, 8th, it’s possible you’ll find out.

- I read and loved Marchetta's On the Jellicoe Road.

- It was really nice to not have an Open Inspection last Saturday.

Thoughts for the week

My mind is in a strange place at the moment. I'm not sure I could write a coherent piece if I tried, so I thought I'd go with a kind of list. It might give you an idea of where I'm at.

* I am really sick of sweeping the bathroom floor.

* On Tuesday, I sat at my 'writing space' for the first time since I got back. I wrote more than 1000 words and it felt fantastic.

* I looked at the poems I wrote while I was away or soon after I got home, and they aren't as bad as I originally thought, especially after a few tweaks.

* Derek Motion wrote a review of my poetry collection, First taste, at Literary Minded. It is awesome I don't know what to say. Except, go read it and buy the book.

* I'm planning to launch the above-mentioned book on Sunday November 28th. Not sure where yet, though I think it'll be called a Going Away Launch Party.

* I've decided to do NaNoWriMo again (more on this in a later post). Well, sort of. I'm going to be a rebel and write (hopefully) 50,000 words that aren't going to form a novel.

* I am pleased that my hardline approach of closing the door and ignoring my 2 year-old's tantrums seems to be working already. I guess he's not as similar to his older brother as I thought.

* My 8 year-old is starting to see how ridiculous someone who's having a tantrum looks and might start to modify his own behaviour. (I realise I'm being mighty hopeful a I say this and assure you I am not holding my breath for any actual change.)

* I realise my daughter might think all boys act like two year-olds when they don't get what they want.

* I am the feature poet this Saturday at Stopping all Stations in Nunawading. I plan to read from my book as well as to share some new stuff.

* I love it when my computer automatically shuts down when I'm in the middle of something, like typing this blog post (this is actually not true).

* The steamed banana pudding I made on Monday was so delicious I plan to make another one tomorrow.

* I am looking forward to driving around Brisbane's southern suburbs on Monday looking at the houses on our (long) shortlist. It feels weird to think that I will probably visit the house we'll move into next year.

* I really hope we don't have a huntsman inside on Saturday for our Open Inspection.

* page seventeen issue 8 is almost ready to go to the printer.

How excitement

I was going to review my goals, given I said I would at the end of March, but something arrived today that makes constructing sentences and actually using certain parts of my brain too damn hard. So, instead, I'm just going to share this.

Squuueeeeeeeeee!