Fall-end Poetry Day

On 31 May 2025, I dedicate myself to The Craft.

In the morning, I work on my slam poetry piece (for the evening) for some hours, sending it to some dear poety pals¹ for their input. Together we work up an audience participation plan. Twee? Perhaps.

By lunchtime I’m at FunHaus Factory Gosford’s inaugural Silent Book Club session, preparing to crack open verse volumes.

Tricia Dearborn is FINALLY on the menu, and I begin by studying her first collection, The Ringing World,² like my life depends on it.

The title track, ‘The Ringing World’ appears last in the book,³ but of course I read it first. It’s a prize-winning poem and merits much re-reading. I won’t spoil it for you by telling you what it’s about—a goodly part of the fun is nutting that out for yourself. Let me just say, it’s well worth it.

Tricia’s poem titles are pretty perfect. It’s part of what drew me to her. A book editor like me, and evidently queer like me, she also appears to relish the art of naming, like me. The Ringing World features plenty of other evocative monikers: ‘You are my perfect’; ‘Stirring like a chemist’; and, deceptively sweet, ‘The smiley spoon’.

When I turn to her second for-grown-ups collection, Autobiochemistry,⁴ you can bet that ‘Pleghm: a love poem’ catches my eye!

Tricia Dearborn’s also a master of the shocking one-liner: ‘Sit here so the man can shoot you‘ (this from a mother, the child alarmed but steadfast);⁵ ‘By February, fish-gilled and transparent’;⁶ and ‘I limp to the toilet / bathed in roses.’⁷

Autobiochemistry features a poem for every element that participates in the human form. I haven’t read many of these yet, but it strikes me that the water in ‘Hydrogen’ is part demon puppet-master (reminding me of my own penchant for writing ‘nature as enemy’):
‘surprised by sorrow, laughter, eros,//
we brim, we drip.’⁸

I already have so many favourite lines from these works, but perhaps the ones that grab me the most, so far, are these three from ‘The changes’, about a first sapphic kiss (with a church bell metaphor!):
‘My throat sang my body
swung my skin shone
and my old life shivered and fell from me’⁹
I think I particularly like the rule-breaking enjambment, creating as it does something of a parallel to the narrator’s sensory multiplicity and overload through multiple possible readings confusing the reader.

Rebel Dearborn, far from a bride of Christ, ‘quietly … married the word’.¹⁰ And gosh, I’m so glad she did! I heartily look forward to reading more.

But poetry day must go on! After some more revision and a little practice, I’m off to the inaugural Ebb and Flow poetry slam, which is part of my local writer’s festival, Words on the Waves.

Will Small from Lead by Story is the evening’s most excellent and appropriate slam-master, and HE EVEN REMEMBERS MY NAME! from previous events. It’s true that the Central Coast poetry scene is kinda niche, but I find it so lovely that he does. He’s Small in name only—not stature or nature—with plenty of love, encouragement and inspiration to share.

Will’s performance pieces tonight are about his sons, and as we’ve come to expect, they’re gorgeously loving, hilariously irreverent, and politically relevant.

I’ve bought his book, Poems for when the world is ending,¹¹ and after the event he signs it for me, ‘Keep hope!’ Small’s recent recordings, blending music, poetry and meditation, are well worth checking out. ‘The Apocalypse Next Door’ is undeniably poignant, yet paradoxically full of hope—Will Small is the best kind of frame-shifter.

My performance goes well! It’s designed for catharsis, and the crowd is so warm and loud, holding me in all the right ways. Thanks to music therapy, I’m confident enough to hit the right notes in my sung bit.

Some familiar faces and voices grace the mic, and it’s so good to feel part of a vivid, joyous writing community that also doesn’t blanch at tackling the hard topics. We relish them, in fact. A large part of our purpose is to call out injustice.

Another stand-out for me tonight is featured poet Maxine Beneba Clarke, whose collections for adults and children now number in the teens. I’m not sure how she escaped my notice until now, but I’m glad she’s finally on the radar. It’s hard to choose, but I purchase a copy of How Decent Folk Behave,¹² and she signs it ‘From my heart, to yours’. You’ll surely be hearing more about Maxine from me here, once I crack book and heart open. Aren’t poets just The Best?

1. Jessica Perini and Eden Cassidy, thank you! ↩︎
2. Puncher & Wattmann, 2012. ↩︎
3. The Ringing World, p. 61. ↩︎
4. UWA Publishing, 2019. ↩︎
5. ‘You are my perfect’, line 15, The Ringing World, p. 34. ↩︎
6. ‘Springborn’, line 3, The Ringing World, p. 25. ↩︎
7. ‘Anniversary’, lines 14-15, The Ringing World, p. 36. ↩︎
8. Autobiochemistry, p. 12, lines 12-13. ↩︎
9. The Ringing World, p. 13. ↩︎
10. Autobiochemistry, p. 10. ↩︎
11. Lead by Story, 2023. ↩︎
12. Hachette Australia, 2021. ↩︎