The Poetry Resource

The Guardian have an extensive profile of, and interview with, Australian expatriate Clive James. A great deal of the article deals with his poetry and is well worth a read,

Cerise Press launches

admin — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 06:41:53 +0000

I received an email this week pointing me to a new publication accepting poetry submissions: Cerise Press.

It’s stated mission:

Cerise Press, an international online journal based in the United States and France, builds cross-cultural bridges by featuring artists and writers in English and translations, with an emphasis on French and Francophone works. Co-founded by Fiona Sze-Lorrain, Sally Molini, and Karen Rigby in 2009, Cerise Press hopes to serve as a gathering force where imagination, insight, and conversation express the evolving and shifting forms of human experience.

Submissions are invited (guidelines are here), so do have a browse and/or contribute if you see fit.

Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop: book review

admin — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:30:46 +0000

The London Review of Books has a review of Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell edited by Thomas Travisano and Saskia Hamilton.

You can read the review here – I’ve ordered a copy of the book as I think it’ll give some fascinating insights on one of the more significant poet relationships of the 20th Century.

Exhumus: poem for fallen Australian WWI heroes

admin — Mon, 11 May 2009 13:49:22 +0000

I received the following email from Annie Kemp in the UK today, and it’s well worth passing on in full:

Today 5th May 2009, in a field in Fromelles, France forensic scientists are disinterring the bodies of fallen Australian heroes of WW1, there will never be ‘an unknown’ soldier, and I wrote these lines to commemorate this extraordinary event

Exhumus

Exhumator, ceremoniously you waken us
Gone so long, back in World War One
Sorrow, yes, but no forced air of solemnity
Take us up gently – bones of the unreturning,
Doomed but valiant knaves
Shelled hideously, intermingled in French mud.
Probe for mates, collate and light us
Twenty first century, DNA and type me
Photo, blog and net me
Kith and kin trace and verify me
Name, claim and honour my youth
Forget not, why we came here, back in World War One
Exhumator, when you’ve done,
Go against your trade and reinterre me.

By A. Kemp May 2009.

Reminder: landmine poetry competition closes next week

admin — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 14:20:22 +0000

All the details here. For six pounds you get to make a difference plus have your work judged.

Well worthwhile in more ways than one.