HOLD THAT TIGER
By Chloe Wilson
That morning, in the mirror,
I’d pulled my draping cheek-skin upward.
I had shone, taut and foreign,
the gums and incisors
glistering with saliva.
While evening and the show crowds gathered,
I watched him. The chain glinked
as he traced his circle,
always stalking - even the grass
shivered under his breath.
Entering the ring, he beckoned
me to dance, laid one
paw on each shoulder
and rolled me in the dirt.
His mouth opened wide
as bedclothes, and I scented
the iron on his tongue
while he hinged his hips
and the crowd thought I was dying.
Tigers like to dine alone.
I knew this; yet stayed a moment
too long, waiting
for an invitation
and was not all that surprised
to find a joint of meat missing
from my thigh.
They hunt by pressing you
to their hearts, then
kicking out your insides
in a casual sweep.
There’s the danger.
Not, after all, in the teeth
but beneath the tail,
which, like a finger,
searches out any pleasures
the front end may have missed.
This one slid
his tongue along the contours
of my bowel,
sniffing like a sommelier.
That night, he cleaned himself
thoroughly, that supple
tongue spreading like a stingray
under the nails
and detailing the groin;
ignoring the crowd
nobly, as they shook
the metal bars
that keep them safe.
‘Hold That Tiger’ is featured in The Mermaid Problem, Chloe Wilson’s first collection that has been published as part of the APC’s 2010 New Poets Series, more details here.
Workshop for seniors: Wednesday 6 and 7 October
In conjunction with the Victorian Seniors Festival, the Australian Poetry Centre will be running poetry workshops for seniors. The session times are 9am–12noon and 1pm–4pm, open only to Victorian seniors and places are strictly limited.
Time & date: Wednesday 6 and Thursday 7 October
Location: Wheeler Centre, 176 Little Lonsdale Street Melbourne
Tickets:Each session cost $35 or $120 for all four sessions. If you are not a senior $55 Bookings- www.australianpoetrycentre.org.au
Wednesday 6th October - 9.00 - 12.00 hrs.
Location - The Wheeler Centre - Board Room.
QUANTUM POETRY
‘Experienced and beginner poets alike are welcome in this small-group workshop, where participants will start and develop their own poem relating to space or science. As a warm up, we’ll look at some exciting space and science poems from poets as diverse as Emily Ballou, John Donne, Carol Jenkins, Ruth Padel and David McCooey. Using these poems and other source materials as creative prompts, we’ll work through exercises designed to extend our use and understanding of images and line breaks in poetry. Participants will be expected to read and discuss their poems and share friendly advice in this workshop; they do not need any expertise in space or science.’
About Lisa Gorton
Lisa Gorton lives in Melbourne. Her first collection, ‘Press Release’, was shortlisted for the Mary Gilmore Poetry Prize and the Melbourne Prize Best Writing Award, and won the Victorian Premier’s Prize for Poetry. Lisa wrote a doctorate on John Donne’s poetry and prose at Oxford University; her essay, ‘Space in Donne’, won the John Donne Society Award for Distinguished Publication in Donne Studies. She was awarded the inaugural Vincent Buckley Poetry Prize. Lisa has also published a novel for children, ‘Cloudland’.
Book Your Place now.
Wednesday 6th October 1.00- 4.00 pm
Location - The Wheeler Centre - Board Room.
HOW TO READ A POEM
This is a workshop designed for people who, for one reason or another, have not read a lot of poetry. Perhaps they haven’t had a lot of time, or perhaps they find a lot of modern poetry difficult or obscure, or perhaps it just does not touch them emotionally. In this workshop we will read and
explore a lot of poetry, ranging from Elizabethan times to the present, and look at the ways in which poets seek to make an impact with their work, through their use of sound and imagery, well-chosen detail and suggestion. Participants will be encouraged to discuss the impact of the various poems on them, and to tease out what it is that interests them - or doesn’t - about the poems we’re reading. The aim of the session will be to enable readers to identify the kinds of poetry they like, to know where to find that poetry, and, in the process, perhaps to widen their enjoyment of poetry a little.
Session led by Ron Pretty
Book your place now
Thursday 7th October 9.00 - 12.00 pm
Location - The Wheeler Centre - Board Room.
THE VOICE OF THE POEM
This is a workshop designed for people who enjoy writing poetry, but want to develop their techniques a little. We will concentrate on one aspect of poetry writing: the voice in the poem - is it the poet’s voice, or is it a character the poet has created to present the details of the poem? What
difference does it make? If it’s a fictional voice, is it one we can rely on, or do we want the reader to understand more than the narrator is telling us? We will look at a number of poems to see how various poets have approached these issues, but the emphasis in the workshop will be on trying out a range of voices in the poems participants write during the workshop. Participants are asked to bring pens and paper to this session, and to come prepared to enjoy playing with language and poetic form.
Session led by Ron Pretty
Book Your place now
About Ron Pretty
Ron Pretty’s seventh book of poetry, Postcards from the Centre, will be published by Profile Poetry in May this year. For twenty years he ran Five Islands Press, during which time it published 230 books of poetry. He has edited the magazines Scarp:New Arts and Writing and Blue Dog:Australian
Poetry. He has taught writing in the Universities of Wollongong and Melbourne, as well as in schools, colleges and community organisations. He established the Poetry Australia Foundation, which in 2006 became the Australian Poetry Centre. Currently he runs an Online Workshop for the APC. Ron Pretty has been awarded the NSW Premier’s Award and an AM for services to Australian literature.
Thursday 7th October 1.00 - 4.00 pm
Location - The Wheeler Centre - Board Room.
WORKSHOP
This is a wonderful opportunity to workshop some of your poems with one of Australia’s leading poets and chair of the Australian Poetry Centre: Chris Wallace-Crabbe.
About Chris Wallace-Crabbe
Chris Wallace-Crabbe, poet and essayist, was born in Melbourne. Altogether he has sixteen volumes of poetry, a novel, and numerous prose works. His Selected Poems 1956-1995 (Carcanet Oxford Poets) won the Age Book of the Year Prize.
Book Your Place now.