Wednesday, July 18, 2012

WHAT'S COMING

I have two poems coming out soon...

Visionary, a poem springing from an incident back in 2001, involving a drunk flatmate (who sported a tattoo of the Grim Reaper on his shoulder) and his fists, is to be published in the first edition of Perth-based journal Regime. My sincere thanks to Nathan Hondros, Regime's editor and his team, for accepting my work. I was impressed with Nathan's punctuality and professionalism re. correspondence. Some established literary journals don't get back to you for six months or more when you send them work. Regime is the total opposite.

Sincere thanks is also due to poet Harry Owen, who's based in South Africa, for taking Nexus, possibly the briefest poem I've penned, for his upcoming international anthology For Rhino in a Shrinking World. My poem looks at the unexpected connection humans have with rhinos - it's a poem about keratin, basically. Harry's book will aim to celebrate the rhino and raise awareness of the rare animal's plight. Poachers are still murdering the poor beast for its horn. Nexus will be the first poem I've had in an international publication. It's good to see Aussie poets Andy Kissane and Ron Pretty also have poems in the anthology.

Lastly, thanks to Alicia Sometimes for fighting hard to get a poem of mine - on outlandish 80s band The Art of Noise and Britain under Thatcher - into the journal Etchings. Alicia was the guest editor for their music issue. Unfortunately, there were other editorial voices and my work didn't make the cut. I'm sure that it'll appear one day.

So, another moment of recognition. How lucky I am.

LJ, July 19 2012.