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!

For Ben

Against a flat blue Summer evening, reflected in the flat blue glass façades, the gurgling fruit bats are the only things of substance, until finally a song cracks open the shell that surrounds us.

24 January 2012

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

Sadness with water; fun with zombies

My erstwhile home city of Brisbane has just suffered its worst flood since 1974, and 75% of the state of Queensland has been severely struck, with some towns vanishing entirely beneath the water. To contribute a bit to the recovery, I’ve put my new song (about heartbreak and zombies, so it’s stuff everyone can relate to ) up on BandCamp, where all money earned from downloads will go to the government’s relief fund.

Please click here to check it out!

It’s only $1 (Aus), which is less than a Euro.  You can pay more if you like, but I would rather see larger amounts go straight to the flood appeal than be reduced by the cuts taken by BandCamp and PayPal.  Besides, there are a whole lot of natural disasters about at present!

If you like what you hear, please spread the word.

Please also check out these other fine artists contributing to the flood relief effort:

Our favourite lost shark, Graham Nunn is donating more than 100% of all sales from his latest book (which is magnificent, by the way), “Ocean Hearted”.

Ghostboy and the Golden Virtues are likewise donating all proceeds from their latest album, “Enter”.  $18 for the goods. Just email them at ghostboywithgoldenvirtues at gmail_dot_com (trying to dodge spam-bots there) with the title “GBGV… Flood CD purchase” with how many copies and postal address, and they will set up direct payment from there.

And the following as listed on Another Lost Shark:

Page Seventeen are donating all proceeds from sales to flood relief.

David Reiter is offering copies of his children’s book Global Cooling for $10 with all proceeds going to the ABC’s flood crisis fund.

Fablecroft have published the limited edition e-book After the Rain, After the Floods and are donating all proceeds to flood relief.

Further adventures in art…

Yes, I am sorry; I am being evasive and/or lazy in telling you about other people’s endeavours instead of posting my own. But I would be failing in my duty of care in neglecting to inform you of things that will make your lives richer, would I not?

And if you’d like a small shot of mr oCean writing, you can wander over to A Handful of Stones (and please browse further; I thoroughly enjoy that blogzine).

But once you’re done there, if you’re in Brisbane, I heartily suggest you get yourself along to check out Bettina Walsh’s exhibition, Dreamscapes.

You might know her from such fine endeavours as illustrating Zenobia Frost‘s heart-fluttering volume, The Voyage. If you do not yet know her, well, this is the perfect opportunity, no? You might also like to whet your appetite at her deviantART page, where her piece, “Of Dreams and Nightmares” had me exclaiming aloud.

And please be patient, dear reader. There are poems coming!

A Splendid Outing in Brisbane

I must briefly express my hearty recommendation of this event from the delightful and inspirational Ruby Fizz Society for Superior People: A Gentlemen’s Tea Party.  Marvellous performances, culinary delights and, rumour has it, parlour games to grant wings to your imagination.  Be sure to book early!

The smell of subtropical rain in gritty streets

I couldn’t tell you whether my defining the sound of Brisbane poetry by Graham Nunn’s voice with Sheish Money’s music is due to the undeniable intrinsic Brisbaneness of it or the fact that he’s the first Brisbane poet I remember hearing. Probably a bit of both. Whatever the case, the recent CD from the duo, The Stillest Hour, carries the scent of my other home across the 15000km between us.

For me, the collection is the night, a sea breeze ushering away the lethargic humid heat of the afternoon, a far-off surge and lapping of waves; that unheard voice that whispers “home” as you leave behind the bright lights and fashion clones, the fighting and the fallen, and cross the river, to watch it from a blanket of green at a safe distance – like a star – then thread home through a frozen tomorrow, cued like clockwork automata waiting for noon to strike.

Last I heard, there weren’t many copies left, but if you would like to pick yourself up one and can’t, do not despair! For there is word of more recorded goodness on the way! And a browse around Another Lost Shark will afford you a couple of tastes to tide you over…