Falling up through the hole in the roof

When I see you now,
it is from orbit, blinking unseen
across a sky too bright

A Brisbane Afternoon Time-Lapse

Cardboard cutout clouds stack up
Heavy with the town’s collective breath
Above the sausage tree and strangler figs

Slender palms like nervous schoolkids
Line up by the shallow water
While the bell hangs still and silent

The rainstorm breaks
In a Busby Berkeley dagger-dance
Across the writhing river

The rain returning home
Makes a heady aromatic tea
In the gutter’s gum-leaf dams

I am excited to see The Nemo’s time-lapse project up and running. Splendid work, sir!

24 January 2012

grey cloud, white noise day -
a thousand new-made rivers
breach our clear-cut lines

Poetry, Philosophy, Insight, Biography and All That Is Good

Sarah Kay at TEDx East. Warm tears and love.

Wiederaufgegriffene Schneeliebe

This swirling galaxy of feathers
Falling from the dark grey sky
Is not really falling:
We are rising.

We delight in the wonder of physics -
This geometric joy warming us
Even as our fingers freeze -
In the same way we look to the stars,
Knowing, understanding to our every atom
That this – all these perfect patterns -
Is what makes us possible:
We delight because in the snow and stars
We see what we are made of
And know that it is good to be alive.

mr oCean, 16.12.2011

Sometimes I think it’s nice to step beyond the metaphor and delight in the sheer joy and wonder of reality – of the exquisite physics that made it all possible. It’s snowing. I love snow. If I were to spend a whole day watching snow fall, I could only conclude that it was a day very well spent indeed.

Maybe as close as I get to a manifesto

Aeolian Hearts

If the worth of our selves must be measured,
let it not be by our jobs and possessions
and the TV shows we watch,
but rather by the music that we make
when the world blows through our hearts.

Originally published in SpeedPoets (an earlier version)

Another string to an already formidable bow

If you’ve ever heard Joe Czarnecki play guitar, you could be forgiven for thinking that was all he could do, and could easily conclude that this was more than enough. But blimey… this! With To Build a Spine, he also becomes one of my favourite poets. I hear echoes of Shane .L. Koyczan and Coleman Barks in this, but it is very clearly Joe’s own voice, his own heart. Listen to it. Name your price for a download: it’s worth having.

To hear the oCean…

Yes, updates have been terribly infrequent, haven’t they? I am getting on with writing a novel at last (easily the most wonderful job I’ve ever had!), so poetry and telling people about it have been in the back seat of late. But all is not silent! I have set up a couple of pages to replace the excruciatingly slow, ad-saturated dog’s breakfast that is MySpace.

On the ReverbNation page, you can hear spoken word and musical pieces in pretty much a finished state.

I’m using the SoundCloud page more for works in progress and experiments. And while you’re over that way, perhaps you’d like to pop by lina paul’s fabulously heartbreaking recording of part 2 of The Twilight Shore, which we wrote together for our Stories from the Corner of your Eye show, back in March.

You can still get yourself a copy of my zombie love-song at BandCamp, for as little as $1, with proceeds going to Brisbane flood recovery. (I’m planning to record a definitive version of this track later in the year. All people who’ve bought the current download will get a code to download a free copy of the new version.)

There’s more to come, but for now, you at least know where to find it when it does

Writing as essential maintenance and repair

Today was one of those days where something goes askew in the brain or elsewhere in the body and I felt inexplicably miserable. What brought me out of it, after a little musical and literary sympathy from Mssrs Oberst and Tan, was writing myself into the place I felt I needed to be – in this case, the gorgeous hills and vineyards, just to the North-East of Melbourne (remembering them at about this time of year, incidentally).

This approach, of writing as both a way of working through things and of connecting with the world, is the beautiful kernel of Writing Our Way Home and A River Of Stones. The latter in particular draws on some of the observational traditions we see in Japanese poetry, using writing as a way of developing a better sense of connection with the world around us; the former aims to foster a sense of community in such writings. Whether you join the community or not (after all, the writing and observing are more important than more time on-line!), these sites and their related books are a good reminder of how brilliant writing can be for exploration and a spot of mental repair, and also offer abundant inspiration if you need a little push to get started.

You might also care to pop by A Handful of Stones, which is a “small stone” blogzine with a broader scope, including fiction. There are some gorgeous pieces there – only bite-sized and yet often completely satisfying.

Stories from the corner of your eye

I’m delighted to announce the first performance for a new collaboration between lina paul and me. We met at The Sofa Salon last year, and seemed to both get a sense that we could cook something up; here’s what we have on the stove:

Stories from the corner of your eye

Gelegenheiten, Weserstrasse 50, 12045 Berlin Neukölln. (U-Bhf Rathaus Neukölln)

Friday, 18 March at 20:00.

the dreams of the insomniac, the echoes of voices in abandoned places, personal faultlines in reality… lina paul and mr oCean seek out the stories that flit unnoticed at the edge of our vision or dance in shadows, and with music, song, spoken word and odd noises, bring them out into the light to feed your curiosity.

lina paul’s minimalistic music and soundscapes are like spider-webs – delicate, yet disproportionately strong – and the songs and tales they catch are never ordinary. mr oCean’s words sketch views from old windows and distorted mirrors and his music is drawn to cold shorelines and broken buildings.

It’s been exciting to not only hear our words and music coming together in new ways, but also to have this extra push to get pieces finished, which had been lurking at the edge of my mind for too many years. And this is your chance to hear shining new pieces we’ve put together specifically for the show. We’re massively looking forward to the gig, and also to further developments!