Ice, rain, spirit, wind – a music track

Ice, rain, spirit, wind is a track I created for Cities and Memory.

Thingvellir national park reimagined by Allis Hamilton.

"This track is a conversation between midwinter, in my bushland home of Heron Cottage in Southern Australia, with that of the Iceland Thingvellir National Park. It is a song of the elements of rain and ice, wind and spirit.

"The night I first heard the Icelandic track was an evening of an enormous storm, a tornado of sorts, and the recordings I made of that fierce wind and the trees in my garden swaying and swirling in their unified response to the wind created my first thoughts for the music.

"Over the winter, through frosts, thunderstorms and rain I recorded the sounds of the natural world outside my squeaky front door. Alongside these I played some piano, ocarina; and added vocal layers laid like whispers on the wind over the footsteps of the other sounds, including the Icelandic recording which bookends the song alongside thunder and the calls of the mystical and mythic black cockatoos, the rain bringers."

“Cities and Memory remixes the world, one sound at a time - a global collaboration between artists and sound recordists all over the world.

The project presents an amazingly-diverse array of field recordings from all over the world, but also reimagined, recomposed versions of those recordings as we go on a mission to remix the world.

What you'll hear in the podcast are our latest sounds - either a field recording from somewhere in the world, or a remixed new composition based solely on those sounds. Each podcast description tells you more about what you're hearing, and where it came from.

There are more than 5,000 sounds featured on our sound map, spread over more than 100 countries and territories. The sounds cover parts of the world as diverse as the hubbub of San Francisco’s main station, traditional fishing women’s songs at Lake Turkana, the sound of computer data centres in Birmingham, spiritual temple chanting in New Taipei City or the hum of the vaporetto engines in Venice. You can explore the project in full at www.citiesandmemory.com

To listen to my track, click on the image.

(photo from the website)

(photo from the website)

My exphrastic poem, Hare, after Phillip Wolfhagen published among the Reflections Series on the Castlemaine Art Museum website

‘In this response to a large oil painting in the collection, poet Allis Hamilton recalls her poem Hare, as having ‘writing itself onto my page’ after viewing Philip Wolfhagen’s Southern Vista I. As Allis describes, "there is no visible hare in Wolfhagen’s painting yet to me it felt like it was there, or could quite easily be there, in among the shadowy hedges of the landscape."‘

You can read the poem here:

Philip Wolfhagen, Southern Vista I, 2008, oil on beeswax on linen. Castlemaine Art Museum, Purchased with the support of the Robert Salzer Foundation and the T C Stewart Bequest Fund, 2008. Courtesy of Dominik Mersch Gallery.

Philip Wolfhagen, Southern Vista I, 2008, oil on beeswax on linen. Castlemaine Art Museum, Purchased with the support of the Robert Salzer Foundation and the T C Stewart Bequest Fund, 2008. Courtesy of Dominik Mersch Gallery.

Ledbury Poetry Salon, 22 October, with Claudine Toutoungi

I’ll be doing a three minute reading in the open mic of this event in the early hours of Australian time, 7pm GMT.

  • Ledbury Poetry Salon
    Thursday, 22nd October 2020
    7:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Ledbury Poetry Salon and Open Mic with featured poet Claudine Toutoungi

Hosted by Chloe Garner, Festival Artistic Director

7pm – 9pm on Zoom

Tickets £2

Poet and playwright, Claudine Toutoungi’s new collection Two Tongues is published on 29 October by Carcanet and follows from her acclaimed first collection Smoothie. Blending wit and surrealism, these poems blur boundaries and explore the fluidity of identity. The event will combine readings and conversation with opportunities for the audience to contribute to the conversation and pose questions in the chat. The Open Mic follows for the second half of the evening

 

Ghosted in Meanjin

My poem, Ghosted, can be found by subscribing to Meanjin here.

Or you could borrow a copy from your local library, if you live in Australia.


Ghosted is written in the style of a sijo. A sijo is a Korean verse-form related to haiku and tanka.

My poem, Ghosted, has three lines of 15 syllables per line.

The poem dripped from my fountain pen when i was attending a Poetry Workshop by Mark Treddinick.

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Meanjin No 79 Vol 2

I’m deeply humbled and excited to have a poem in the forthcoming edition of Meanjin, alongside two of my favourite writers: Alexis Wright and Toby Fitch, among many others whose work I look forward to reading.

The edition is out on June 16th. But you can pre-order a copy here.

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Chase of the Light from The Creel, on YouTube

Guillemot Press have made an online eel festival in celebration of their sold out poetry anthology, The Creel, which was created in honour of the magical eel. My poem lives among them and you can watch it, and all the eel clips on Guillemot Press's Youtube channel, if you eely feel like it.

The Creel is ‘an anthology of contemporary poetry about eels, featuring [deep breath] Matt Barnard, Simon Barraclough, Rachael Boast, Eavan Boland, Traci Brimhall, Andy Brown, Sarah Cave, Jenna Clake, Claire Collison, Hugh Dukerley, Andy Fentham, Jerome Fletcher, Imogen Forster, Tim Gardiner, Stephen Grace, Ann Gray, Allis Hamilton, Sarah James, Fawzia Kane, Michael Longley, Jane Lovell, Rupert Loydell, Talia Marshall, Andrew McNeillie, Sam Meekings, Edwin Morgan, Paul Muldoon, Elizabeth O’Connor, Caitriona O’Reilly, Alice Oswald, Jeremy Over, Astra Papachristodoulou, Robert Peake, Rachel Plummer, Wendy Pratt, Susan Richardson, Robin Robertson, Elisabeth Sennitt Clough, Ben Smith, Danica Soich, Nic Stringer, Sneha Subramanian Kanta, M. Stone, Alex Toms, Gareth Writer-Davies, Marc Woodward, Tamar Yoseloff.

This is a very limited edition. Only 50 copies are available individually, printed on Mohawk Superfine with Fedrigoni end papers, with cover art by John Kilburn.’ - Guillemot Press

Seven Dials Festival 30 Poetry Trail

I just discovered this happened. My poem, Winding Her, was part of the event.
You can read the poem, & the others, in the little ebook here, if you feel so inclined. 📚

A commemorative e-booklet collecting all the poems that featured on the poetry trail run by The Poetry Society that appeared at the Seven Dials Festival 30 in Covent Garden, London on 29 June 2019. Each poem was selected from the back catalogue of The Poetry Society's quarterly journal The Poetry Review.

Farewell Kavisha Concert

I’m delighted to be guest at the Kavisha Mazella Farewell Concert on Saturday 30th Nov. at Theatre Royale, Castlemaine.

”FAREWELL KAVISHA
She's returning to the west

Kavisha Mazzella, the much loved and admired musician, singer, songwriter, performer and choir leader, is leaving Castlemaine to return to her original home town of Perth.

The ARIA award-winning songbird will be deeply missed. But before she heads west Kavisha will perform a special concert at the Theatre Royal - a night brimming with her original and traditional Italian songs steeped in humour, poetry,
social justice and the spiritual.

Think of it as a Royal Command Performance, where Kavisha's fans from Castlemaine and afar can come together to honour her as an artist and for her great
community spirit in bringing people together around her music.

Oft quoted as having the voice of an angel, Kavisha will be joined by musical friends,
including Jack Norton (bouzouki and chittara battente - Italian guitar) and Matthew Arnold (violin) along with MC Jan 'Yarn' Wositzky. And there will be more!

So book early for what promises to be a grand Castlemaine night to farewell one of the great artists to make this town home.”

Kavisha and I met at a Daylesford Wind Turbine Festival some years ago when we were both performing and i am thrilled to join her on the stage for her Farewell Concert. I will be reading a poem on the night.

If you want to come along follow the link below.

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'To Hold an Ancient Story Told of Amour'

I was happy to have a work included in the ‘Love Collage’ - group exhibition, at Lot 19 from 1st Nov - 17th Nov.

I created the Oil Paint and Illustration as Collage work for the show, ‘To Hold an Ancient Story Told of Amour’. (71cm x51 cm)

I created this painting while thinking about self love as a form of healing, thinking about how self love benefits not only myself but everyone and every living thing around me. The more I am able to bring about love for myself, the more whole and of service I am able to be. The drawings around me are the beings, memories of experiences, seen or unseen, that assist me in my process of healing and self actualisation. Some of the drawings depict many stories and are filled with layers of meaning and food that have gone to enriching my experience of living in this lifetime, in this body. ❤️MAY LOVE HEAL❤️

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Dark Sky Dreaming

I'm delighted to have two poems included in this beautiful Anthology about the night sky as seen from Regional NSW, edited by Merrill, Findlay


“When you look up at a midnight sky, what do you see—mottled stars and a full Moon trying hard to compete with the street lamps for your attention? You might be situated in a city, or its sprawling suburbs, where the ever-present urban glow tends to keep your gaze horizontal, missing out on the beckoning mysteries of the Universe.

 

This Skywriters anthology will change all that. Through the eyes and creativity of people who write about south-eastern inland Australia, we’ll redirect your vision upwards to a brighter Moon, the subtle presence of nearby planets, the cosmic spectacular of our Milky Way galaxy and those celestial bodies even further away.

 

You’ll find inspiring stories, poems and essays by a great diversity of Australians responding to what some have called the ‘Inland Astro-Trail’, which connects rural and remote communities with world-class astronomical observatories such as those at Parkes, Siding Springs and Narrabri. Some skystories are “literary”, others intensely personal, but all are guaranteed to widen your horizons—upwards!”

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Love Collage Group Exhibition

Beautiful Folk!

I've been creating a work for this 'LOVE Collage' Group Exhibition.

This is an invitation to the show, if you wanna come gander at what has grown out of my heart and through my finger tips.

I haven't exhibited any art in Castlemaine for ages so I'm excited to be included in this show. I shall by exhibiting my new collage and oil work titled: ‘To Hold the Ancient Story Told of Before’

Opening from 5-8pm Friday 1st November .

Gallery Hours: Friday, Sat, Sun 11-5
1st-17th November at Lot 19

McShanags Road Castlemaine..

Leslie Thorton "Grandparents House Woodford, Queensland", 2010

Leslie Thorton "Grandparents House Woodford, Queensland", 2010

Reading at Manning Clarke House

I will be guest poet of Hazel Hall at Manning Clarke House on Thursday 22nd August, 7 for 7.30pm. 11 Tasmanian Cir. Forest, ACT

$10

I am sharing the podium with Denise Burton and Laurie MacDonald.

At the beautiful Wicken Fen, Norfolk, U.K.

At the beautiful Wicken Fen, Norfolk, U.K.