Sunday

We Don't Stop Here

It's been launched! The New Chapbook from The Private Press, We don't Stop Here, Poems inspired by David Lynch's Mulholland Drive
With poems by me, Juliet Cook, Karen Head, Esther Johnson, Collin Kelley and Daniel Lloyd. A fine bunch of filmic poets.
The next book The Lynch mob are doing is called 'I can't figure out if you're a detective or a pervert.' Poems inspired by Blue Velvet, It's been awhile since I have seen that movie but I intend on soaking in it like a milk bath. Submissions are open till the end of the year.

No hay banda. There is no band.


1. It all starts with heavy breathing, that’s how it always starts.
Expensive cars snake through quiet streets.
A violin sighs.
With her head full of blood and her handbag full of clues she slides through the bushes and sleeps under a pot plant.



2. The man behind the wall is waiting for him.
He makes angels feel guilty.
His eyes are hot sulphur.
The carpet in the room is too still.


3. Sunshine arrives; she’s a blonde.
Rita is in the shower,
Hayworth is on the wall.
Betty is as sweet as a peach.


4. Black slides out of his mouth.
Espresso.

5. Somethin’ bit me bad!
One suicide, two murders, a vacuum cleaner with a bullet hole and way too much DNA.
Rita opens her purse; she can count out her real name in hundred dollar bills.

6. He swings into Mulholland drive, his wife is covered in ripples but the pool is as still as a skull.
Her jewellery turns strawberry milk pink.



7. The cowboy wants to see you.
There’s someone in trouble but it’s not you, Betty.
The ranch lights up like an electric toothache.



8. The audition.
There was so much breath in the room it would relax an asthmatic.
Betty melted off the wallpaper with her jawline. Action.

9. I guess I’m not Diane Selwyn.
It smells bad in Apartment 17.
By the way, Rita, you don’t have to sleep on the couch.
Four breasts, two women, one kiss.
This is the girl, this is the girl I want.

10. Night winds blow the lovers and they land in red velvet. Everything is a
recording. A silver tear glistens like wet asphalt. Llorando por tu amor.



11. Betty slides her fingers down her pants,
the room falls in and out of focus, she tastes salt in her orgasm.
The sounds of her sins crash around her like falling pianos.
The pianos are only good for ash.
Her breasts are still perfect but her lips are nastier.
Poison love games swill
then the pool is still again.
In every universe, parallel or otherwise, the blue key unlocks death.
The man behind the wall at Winkie’s Diner knew all along.




12. Silencio.





Tuesday

Night Words at the Sydney Opera House

Yo Sydney siders! Come along to Australia's first ever spoken word festival!

I am performing on opening night, Thursday the 6th of March.

The Night Words Festival is a modern day camp–fire, a cosmopolitan coroboree where stories are performed and songs are set alight. With politics gone mad, our climate off the scale, and war raging on- the time to speak up is now. With just a mic under a spotlight individual voices from across Australia step into the ring. The Studio will be packed with poetry, hip-hop, lyrics, monologues and music from un-earthed poetry slam winners to veterans like Tug Dumbly, Miles Merrill, Edwina Blush, Ghost Boy (Bris), Emilie Zoey Baker (Melb) and more Over three very different nights Australia’s best versifiers are joined by celebrity songwriters, hip-hop artists and novelists like Kev Carmody, Steve Kilbey (The Church), Linda Jaivin and Ozi Batla (The Herd).
Set to a live soundtrack by Entropic, Waiting for Guinness and Trevor Brown.
7:30pm every night March 6-8
Tickets selling fast! You can Book by calling 02 9250 7777
or go here

March 6: Night Words House Party

The music pauses. The lights go out. One spotlight hits a lone poet who stands and delivers. Poetry is delivered on trays, in back rooms, on screens, from balconies and more. All set to a live soundtrack by the Night Words House Band- Entropic

March 7: Legends of the Word

Meet the stars of the Sydney's spoken-word underground. Samples, beats, images, poets live and dead and take us from rhyming beginnings to slamming present, with music by Trevor Brown.

March 8: Slamarama

You be the judge as 12 of Australia's word heavies create 3 super-slam teams and battle it out using hip-hop, theatre, spoken-word and whatever comes up. Accompanied by the wild rhythms of Waiting for Guinness

Warning: contains coarse language and adult themes

For more info see-
www.myspace.com/thenightwordsfestival