tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52127147307576051332024-03-21T21:46:16.893+11:00Written there on skin Linda Stevenson, Melbourne poetLinda Stevensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12826064420206218439noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5212714730757605133.post-4652478317940913082016-05-31T16:55:00.000+10:002016-05-31T16:57:23.321+10:00This poem is from "The Tipping Point"<br />
published recently by Blank Rune Press.<br />
<br />
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<![endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Be There</span></b><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">circumstance, say an afternoon,</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">from the arcane heart and stones</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">of a river, a great one, a Thames, Nile, Amazon</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">...like a river’s perpetual loosening of itself</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">amazement strikes, emanates</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Now, as we approach the falling away of our tribe</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">She may fall on you, wounding dumb clay,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">letting old blood and the holy words spill out.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Watch, be more vigilant</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">than you have yet been</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">throughout your uncounted lives.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Don’t risk</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">not being there</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">when it happens.</span></div>
Linda Stevensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12826064420206218439noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5212714730757605133.post-75461544408706444652016-05-31T16:35:00.002+10:002016-05-31T16:43:47.004+10:003CR Spoken Word program May 2016I enjoyed creating this poetry segment with Peter Davis.<br />
<br />
Click here to listen to poems and interview:<br />
<a href="http://www.3cr.org.au/spoken-word/episode-201605120900/linda-stevenson">http://www.3cr.org.au/spoken-word/episode-201605120900/linda-stevenson </a>Linda Stevensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12826064420206218439noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5212714730757605133.post-14219664415474832016-05-13T16:01:00.001+10:002016-06-14T15:55:38.014+10:00How Could You Not Know?<br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">How could you not know? about</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">prisons, when we’ve met behind the bars of several,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">brought books in, and denied that mere walls</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">should enslave us..?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Dear, I saw the covering over your head, the stain</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">of inherited guilt seeping through the cloth.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Love, I once saw the light falling flat</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">on your shoulders, your eyes weeping against the glare.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Friend, I heard how you dropped to the Post Office</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">steps, dying right on them, a heart attack,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">no one helped.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Our elder author, lady with</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">the lilt still when she reads, she says poetry</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">will save the world. I have my doubts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">hope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As you hope also.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">So how can you not see that the pettiness</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">of blind ego drags us to a page of broken prose,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">tramples the beautiful words into bitterness.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Come, be a safeguard now, frisk me, making sure</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I carry no arms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sit with me here</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">and we shall write lines so diaphanous and proud</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">they’ll hold the very air in place.</span></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />Linda Stevensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12826064420206218439noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5212714730757605133.post-10737458145737432972016-05-06T16:10:00.003+10:002016-05-06T16:10:53.050+10:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Here's Valli Poole, of Blank Rune Press, helping me talk about my chapbook</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Tipping Point at our recent launch in Frankston.</span></span>Linda Stevensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12826064420206218439noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5212714730757605133.post-5292644768651164372016-04-29T16:09:00.000+10:002016-06-14T16:41:54.346+10:00Booklaunch of The Tipping Point<br />
on 23rd April 2016. Linda reading<br />
"The Warning" from the book.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXWuI1t9i5gAD-K7Z-Ut3ibOb7OYM9K_ghoP2aUw1kITXfMckwO70yiQMHYyE-4v9W09XTmhpJfLUBhi4-YUY3F7Ktnhyphenhyphenw49-KagXMJbmJszCdbP6uqFLGvBK5lIMF354CEdqhrOG3SkYG/s1600/BlogCoverCropped.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXWuI1t9i5gAD-K7Z-Ut3ibOb7OYM9K_ghoP2aUw1kITXfMckwO70yiQMHYyE-4v9W09XTmhpJfLUBhi4-YUY3F7Ktnhyphenhyphenw49-KagXMJbmJszCdbP6uqFLGvBK5lIMF354CEdqhrOG3SkYG/s1600/BlogCoverCropped.PNG" /></a></div>
<br />Linda Stevensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12826064420206218439noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5212714730757605133.post-50033952459524934442016-03-20T10:13:00.002+11:002016-03-20T10:32:24.196+11:00The Tipping Point – my new chapbook<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<i style="font-family: Helvetica; text-align: left;">(Melbourne, Blank Rune Press, 2016.) </i></div>
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<b style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></b></div>
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<b style="font-family: helvetica;">Reviewed by Rosemary Nissen-Wade</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipHJnsE1q7jDHup9dViGwjuDn4KIgudzmLyaHZr94wget5VRDiKnD42aJ0DIeFyV2f7Cxu09QZZ_2ZsiUxbxC-g5xZUIzVOOYpLlUluBniaQnJVPwfNK6aebSfu2nUj5hYRZs_oWSYZUyB/s1600/The+Tipping+Point+Book.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipHJnsE1q7jDHup9dViGwjuDn4KIgudzmLyaHZr94wget5VRDiKnD42aJ0DIeFyV2f7Cxu09QZZ_2ZsiUxbxC-g5xZUIzVOOYpLlUluBniaQnJVPwfNK6aebSfu2nUj5hYRZs_oWSYZUyB/s320/The+Tipping+Point+Book.jpg" width="230" /></a></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica";"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">This
slim volume is a feast! Linda Stevenson is a thoughtful poet whose work ranges
from intellectual word play to direct and simple appeals to the emotions. One
of her own paintings forms the beautiful cover illustration. Her words paint
pictures too – scenes and images that continue to haunt the reader after the
words have been read.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And her
language is full of music.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">It's
exciting for me in various ways to be reviewing Linda’s first poetry chapbook.
During my long acquaintance with her poetry, I have always believed it deserved
publication and a wide readership. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Yes,
we have a history. Once upon a time we were two young women living in
Melbourne, who happened to sit next to each other at Library School. We got
talking and found much in common, such as the fact that we both wrote poetry.
We're still doing a lot of talking five decades later, though nowadays we live
in different parts of the country so it's usually by email. And we are still
deeply engaged with poetry.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I am
also well acquainted with Linda’s encouragement and support of other poets,
myself included. In a way, the wheel has come full circle. Thirty-one years
ago, in her capacity as Melbourne City Librarian, Linda Stevenson launched my
first book of poetry at Margareta Weber's bookshop in Melbourne.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">In
that capacity she also gave the Melbourne Branch of the Poets Union a meeting
place for a number of years, at North Melbourne Library. In those days she
didn't seek to promote her own poetry – busy enough, no doubt, with
professional and family life; and, more than that, focused on bigger pictures
and community issues rather than personal ego.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">She
says now, on her recently begun poetry blog, 'Written there on skin' : <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">My
poetry is a part of my life, that creative part so vital to our human
individuality. It has been a lifelong habit, scribbling words down, from
childhood on through adolescence, adulthood and now into mature older age.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I love
the process that takes the poet from the raw first phrases on through the
building of themes and expressed ideas and finally to the crafting of a
satisfying work. The sharing of that creation with others is the icing on the
cake.</span></i><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 12pt;">We both left
librarianship eventually, I to give more attention to writing and she to
concentrate on art. As well as becoming a painter, still her primary focus, for </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica";">some
years she ran a successful business involving an innovative technique of
print-making. All the while the poetry continued.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica";">It
took our old colleague, Valli Poole, now proprietor of Blank Rune Press, to
persuade Linda at last to compile a chapbook. I hope it's the first of many.</span><br />
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica";">I
remember her telling me, long ago, how much she loved understatement. In this
book, with its environmental theme, she uses it to excellent effect – by no
means shirking the confrontation of unpalatable truths, but without unnecessary
dramatics (the facts being sufficiently dramatic in themselves).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica";">A
personal favourite, which I featured recently in an online column for the
poetic community <a href="http://poetryblogroll.blogspot.com.au/">Poets United</a>, is <b>Adani Coal Mine Approved</b>, which works
by painting a contrasting picture to the facts. It deserves quoting in full.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10pt;">It pares down</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10pt;">
to the palest of skies<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10pt;">to a native fledgling
</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10pt;">thirsty, untended<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10pt;">to whether a black stinking<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10pt;">mess of outmoded greed<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10pt;">is claimed as our chosen soil<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10pt;">when we might have lifted<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10pt;">up into the quiet transparency
</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10pt;">taking the winds<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10pt;">undisturbed<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10pt;">carrying the young bird
</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10pt;">with us<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10pt;">as our token.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica";">Her
environmental concerns inform the whole book. </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica";">She is fully cognisant of the issues she addresses. She worked as a full time volunteer in the environmental movement in the early seventies and has retained interest and involvement since. <i>(<u>See </u>footnote*)</i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica";">The title, <i>The Tipping Point,</i>
comes from a piece called <b>Solar Winds</b>,
which is as despairing as we all often feel about the planet's and humanity's
situation. It begins:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10pt;">So weary<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10pt;">at this juncture<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10pt;">here, where the turning on a life’s edge<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10pt;">is pivotal…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica";">Yet
this is a book full of beauty. It ends, though still sadly, on a softer note
with this small untitled poem:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10pt;">Searching for haiku and other poems<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10pt;">I find instead a quiet place in the garden;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10pt;">in its still shadow I stand<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10pt;">upright as bamboo<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10pt;">soft and weeping, like orchids.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica";">The
book is to be launched in Frankston on April 23<sup>rd</sup> by well-known
Melbourne poet Ken Smeaton. It will be available later from Collected Works
Bookshop (Level One of the Nicholas Building in Swanston Street, just a few
minutes from Flinders Street Station).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica";">Orders and pre-orders</span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica";"> <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica";">From
Blank Rune Press, via Linda’s poetry blog </span><a href="http://writtenonskin.blogspot.com.au/" style="font-family: helvetica;">‘Written There on Skin’</a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica";">Via
the </span><a href="https://web.facebook.com/blankrunepress?_rdr" style="font-family: helvetica;">Blank Rune Books Facebook page</a></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica";">By <a href="http://vallipp9@gmail.com/">email</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica";">Valli
will take a firm order, supply payment details, and forward the book after the
money is received in the account.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica";">Order price:
RRP $15 AUD including P&H.</span></div>
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<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "helvetica";">*Asked
for details, Linda said: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">In
early 1971, I became intensely involved with the then environmental movement,
as a researcher/liaison officer for the 4th International Congress on Human
Relations: "Environment: social/industrial responsibilities". I
researched global environmental problems, potential solutions, and helped to
plan and organise this major Conference at the Dallas Brooks Hall Melbourne in
July 1972. Speakers included high profile environmentalists from overseas such
as Barry Commoner and Rene Dubos and local speakers and delegates from
universities, trade unions, political parties, business and industry, along
with significant individual voices such as Judith Wright and Robin Boyd. During
this period I also became a full member of the Round the Bend Conservation
Cooperative, a shareholder of its land at Kangaroo Ground, and served on its
Committees of Management for several years. Since then, I have maintained a
strong interest in all aspects of conservation/preservation of the natural
environment and related concerns.<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><u>Note:</u> This review is reposted with permission from Rosemary's <a href="http://rosemary-nissen-wade.blogspot.com/">SnakyPoet</a> blog.</span></i></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5212714730757605133.post-57656111000756111792016-02-09T15:50:00.001+11:002016-02-09T16:13:49.419+11:00Look up there<div dir="ltr">
You might be able to see it still<br />through the window,<br />speckled with small rain, dusty<br />from summer, net curtained.<br />You need to look up there<br />where the top parts of trees<br />are their quivering, unsure essence,<br />where sky cradles clouds, if any.<br />Or it might be gone.<br />Or not have been.<br />Still, you need to look up there,<br />intent<br />on discovery.</div>
Linda Stevensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12826064420206218439noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5212714730757605133.post-60134374300537086352016-01-25T15:44:00.001+11:002016-05-06T16:30:33.231+10:00Not Knowing from Where<div dir="ltr">
Not knowing from where<br />
it issues, a rhinoceros say,<br />
the word, the creature that it is,<br />
the idea, genesis,<br />
history, habitat...<br />
you'd think the wonder of it<br />
would virtually kill us stone dead<br />
with amazement,<br />
gratitude, delight;<br />
language, stirred up out of our mouths,<br />
indentured with meaning, discovery, exuberance,<br />
our communal mind stuttering, seeking the match<br />
for the observed grand thing,<br />
the experience.<br />
</div>
Linda Stevensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12826064420206218439noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5212714730757605133.post-78645004534652464112016-01-08T12:45:00.001+11:002016-01-08T12:59:13.275+11:00Authentic PoemsAuthentic poems<br />
are mischievous rats<br />
scrambling, scribbling,<br />
rabbits from hats<br />
<br />
In second/third grade at Essendon<br />
1949<br />
yours truly convened<br />
behind the shelter sheds<br />
<br />
poetry of secrets<br />
of not quite knowing<br />
of nakedness<br />
<br />
<i>lest we forget</i><br />
<i>lest we forget</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
It used to rain properly then, after the war<br />
and it was cold, no heating<br />
bluestone walls<br />
handknits with holes where the worn-out wool was frayed<br />
wide enough to stick your finger in<br />
<br />
the asphalt in summer burned our feet<br />
and we "got the strap"<br />
<br />
Yet genius dug deeply into its family plots<br />
the small shovel of enquiry scraping up<br />
against whatever was planted there<br />
<br />
authentic poems leaned down from the flowering gums<br />
authentic poems hid in the corners of unfurnished rooms<br />
and bit into salty potato cakes<br />
and noticed where a teacher put his hands<br />
<br />
mischievous rats scampering in the night<br />
the rabbito man on his rounds<br />
<br />
authentic poems<br />
scrambled and scribbled in spelling books<br />
and recipe books<br />
disclosing how it is, and how it was,<br />
inviting bitterness<br />
<br />
the visiting magician's wand<br />
rabbits from hats<br />
<br />
authentic poems, lest we forget,<br />
made cause for punishment and screams<br />
torn up and ridiculed<br />
<i>lest we forget, lest we forget</i><br />
and sacrificed to fire<br />
<br />
their narrative warmth<br />
sparks rhythm to flame<br />
scorching the flimsy summer frock of childhood<br />
slow-burning a hole in its fabric<br />
wide enough to stick your finger in<br />
<br />
wide enough for your whole hand to fit...<br />
authentic poems are written there on skin.<br />
<br />
<br />Linda Stevensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12826064420206218439noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5212714730757605133.post-67881743534327140822016-01-06T15:46:00.000+11:002016-01-08T21:41:47.950+11:00Melting<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Is it our warm hearts and hands</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">melting the ice?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our grasp of global?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(our understanding being not limited or</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">provincial in its scope)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ah! we might wish to be so warm,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">so heartfelt, universal,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">human, pulsing with the hot blood of caring,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">evolving to be sisters, brothers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Share with us" we'd cry warmly,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to people with nothing, desperate people,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">broken, assaulted people;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Together we'll demolish barbed fences,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">lay down these black weapons of condemnation,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">rebuild the righteous barricades</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and light small campfires </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">against </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">their timbers</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">for our mutual sustenance."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then the ice choking our arteries</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">might deliquesce, a timely thaw melting it</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">all the way down</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to the frozen old reptilian bones.</span><br />
<br />Linda Stevensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12826064420206218439noreply@blogger.com0