Do You Want Myself or Do You Want My Song? Poetry & Truth

While I was pregnant with my (now four month old) daughter, I was performing a feature poetry set in Melbourne and during the break a woman came up to me and said: Congratulations! I’m so glad to see you’re expecting. That poem about your son dying is so sad, it makes my heart break.

My response was to stare at her blankly. I thought she’d probably confused me with someone else, and asked whether she had. She looked a little confused. You just performed that poem – the one about your son being shot. I looked at her again, blankly. The poem you JUST read, she insisted, it’s in your book! I racked my brain and realised she meant the poem mali, which appears in my book Gil Scott Heron is on Parole (Picaro Press, 2010). The poem is about the anxiety of carrying a black child in the womb, with the mother (myself) imagining all of the things that could go wrong:

...birthing a black child
into this world
wasn’t smart on any footing
like dumping osama in abu ghraib
& saying have fun boys
nobody’s looking
i felt sick
every time i felt you kicking...

The poem also contains the lines:

...gunned down on the tube for wearing a back-pack
seven holes
not one sniper stopping to think that
maybe a mama wz losing her child...

Clearly, the reader had taken the poem literally. I explained what the poem was actually about and all the while the woman was staring at me dubiously. When I got back behind the mic, I noticed her toward the back of the room whispering to some mates who in turn, were staring at me even more accusingly than she was – as if they were wondering whether every poem was flight of fancy. Wtf?

Even if the poem had been written from the perspective of a woman who’d lost her son to police brutality, would they have been justified in being peeved? Fiction is a word usually applied to story writing, but poetry can just as easily be fiction or storytelling, can’t it? I know my poems often are, but should I have to declare that they are? Surely a poet has no obligation to their readers to separate fact from fiction? Am I selling you myself, or selling you my song?

I once submitted a novel of mine to a Novel Search competition. It was successful, but didn’t end up being published (full story in the interview here if you’re interested). One thing that surprised me, and has always stuck with me, is that when I initially submitted the first 10,000 words of the manuscript, the potential publisher, when calling me for a full submission, asked: Uh, I was just wondering...how much of this manuscript is actually autobiography? I paused for a moment, wondering: What does he want me, or expect me, to say? Umm. About five percent. That five percent or so was so sporadic: locations and mundane situations rather than people or names. Thank goodness, he said, most of what we’ve been sent has been thinly veiled autobiography.

The competition was a fiction writing competition, so his frustration made sense. It got me thinking though, about different writing forms and truth.In my experience readers, particularly non-poets and superparticularly (let me invent a few new words every now and then - it’s my blog after all) non-writers generally expect poetry to be honest. Literally honest: they expect to hear about the poet’s direct experiences or at least actual observations. If you write a poem about riding the railway in India, they expect that you have ridden the railway in India. If you write about a volatile break-up, they expect you to have been devastated by an ended relationship.

Why? It’s not journalism, it’s poetry! What are your thoughts about poetry and truth? Should I give myself, or are you okay with my song?

You can listen to the poem mentioned in this post over here at Wordplay

let's riot: an invasion day poem

a brown body without
its fist in the fight is
the white light shining in amadou’s eyes
the steel-capped boot in rodney’s spine &
the marksmen marking luther’s life

let’s riot

a full mouth without a mic-megaphone
spells the solitary cell of mandela’s years alone
& the baxter backer’s chant
of go home

so let’s riot

an aboriginal child
without hope in her smile
is a freedom civil rights riding
front of the bus denying
federal bureau of indigannihilating crime

let’s riot

able black legs that just won’t
take a stand are like
malcolm & george jackson gunned to the ground
in a grave graveyard roll-call of brown

so riot

anti-aborevolutionary terra cronullians
are highlighting apartigration but what’s new
I’ve got the hope-deporting
hanson-courting
vegemite flag sporting
hypocritihistory warping
mandadetention supporting
true blacksploitationary blues

let’s riot

This poem is from my first poetry collection 'Original Skin' (Picaro Press, 2008). I dedicate this post to the rightful owners of this nation. Because the conquerer's kin have apologised, yet every 'Australia Day',like today, people gather to celebrate the invasion.

Fiery Poem

fiery poem
featuring a dazzling display
of heterogenous splendour
designed to
educate
edify
amaze
& uplift

REAL Writers Don't Blog

Have you ever seen a real writer blog? And by real writer, I mean published-heaps-of-books-gets-recognised-in-the-street-earns-an-actual-proper-living-from-it writer. It’s a fact: real writers don’t blog. Blog writing is for egocentric borderline personalities who can’t get published elsewhere. Writers who blog aren’t real writers, but desperate wannabes who bring shame to the writing vocation with relentless self-congratulating stream-of-consciousness drivel. And these desperadoes feed the hopeless dreams of like-minded aspiring ‘writers’ by swapping comments and links in a mutual, and probably clinically psychotic pseudo-literary love-in. These losers make it harder for us writers who actually have talent to be heard.

Blog writing is the most unprofessional and embarrassingly uncensored form of self-publication. At least with actual print self-publication (don’t get me started on bloody e-books and print-on-demand. I mean seriously, an e-book? Wtf?), you need cash to churn out a respectable number of copies, which means that all of those squat-dwelling, raggedy, down-and-out, broke, two-minute noodle eating try-hard ‘bohemian’ types are somewhat restricted by lack of finances, leaving their words exactly where they best belong: in their deluded little heads.

Well might you smirk, but that’s the opinion of many ‘published’ authors: real writers just don’t blog.

There’s a little truth in this view: if you’re serious about writing, you have a good blog. That is, you don’t post unedited drunk ramblings on Saturday nights about the girl you met at the bar and how she blew you off, or how your husband-to-be was eyeing off the chick in the short red dress. You don’t post clips of your cat having kittens, or videos of your kid (who I know is probably a genius, but aren’t they all to their parents?) performing I Love a Sunburnt Country at the school assembly – no matter how much enthusiasm they perform it with. But then, there are exceptions to this rule. What if the write-up about your husband and the girl in the red dress is hilariously delivered, brilliantly written and well edited. People tweet it around the country, and is the start of an anonymous fly-on-the-wall look at a failing relationship a la Bride Stripped Bare? What if you’re a mother as well as a writer and the video of your children is posted on your niche motherhood blog which draws thousands of readers a day?

Well, then, let’s revise that to: if you’re a writer and you blog, you need to be sure that your blog is a help, not a hindrance, in accomplishing your goal of supporting yourself as a writer.

Make no mistake: publishers read blogs. They might not spend their days trawling through the internet for new talent (I mean, why would they when their slush-pile of submissions is probably the height of Centrepoint Tower?), but if your manuscript lands on their desk and they read it and are undecided, do you seriously think they’re not going to Google you? Yes, real publishers google. And what’s likely to be the first thing they come up with? Probably your blog. Your blog will tell people a lot more about you and your writing than a personal website will. A website is a resume`. A blog is a business card and a first and second interview. What’s the first page of your blog going to tell readers about you? With a decent blog, in less than five minutes, a publisher can find out who you are, what you’ve published, where you’ve been reviewed or interviewed, how many people read your blog, how productive or prolific a writer you are, how versatile your writing can be, what your politics are, how well you present and how marketable you are. Yep, that’s right, for goodness sake, take those cat snaps down and clean up a little.

I once had a prominent Australian publisher request a manuscript from me by email. She started by saying ‘I read on your blog that...etc etc etc’. Yes, it really happened. Unfortunately I haven’t come up with a manuscript yet, but that’s because I’m too bloody busy blogging!

Authors for Queensland Auction

a mother & father
lift theirs to safety
& are swept away

a small boy
saves his brother
the great wet rages

searching soldiers form a line
with broken hearts &
sombre faces

The Queensland flood disaster has devastated Australia. People worldwide are donating to the flood effort, including us writers. Please bid online here for the Queensland flood writers auction. I've donated two signed copies of my poetry collection 'Gil Scott Heron is on Parole' (Picaro Press, 2010), which you can bid for here. Get in quick - the auction closes on Monday (Jan 24, 2010). Alternatively, you can donate money directly here. Please, dig deep.

Why Should We Write for Free?

Overland Literary magazine, a quarterly Australian publication, is looking for interns, and in response to their call-out, a commentator on the Overland Literary Magazine blog, “Victoria”, posted this comment:

Sounds like slave labour! If you’re good enough to work at a quarterly, you’re good enough to get paid. Anyone who goes for unpaid internships needs a boost in self-confidence.

It’s an age-old question, and one that is often thrown out to bloggers: should us writers ever write, or work, for free?

The general defence of magazines which don’t pay is that they are underfunded, and it’s not that they won’t pay, rather that they simply can’t. While in some rare cases this is true, it’s probably more accurate that they say: with the small pot of money we have been allocated, we have to prioritise and choose carefully where we spend our money. We have done so and decided not to pay bloggers/contributors/interns.

Of course, there’s always that massive drawcard for emerging writers of being published – having something for the writing cv, gaining exposure for their work etc, but in this internet age, exposure is something that can easily be achieved through a good personal blog or website, or even through self-publishing if approached the right way.

So why write for free, and is it exploitation?

I’m in two minds about the answer to this question. I am a blogger for Overland, and have been for several years, though I haven’t contributed anything to the blog for six months or so. At the time of Overland’s call-out for bloggers last year, there was intense discussion about whether or not calling for blog contributions for free was exploitation. I have been published by Overland in print twice, and have received over $400 (though well below recommended industry rates) for each article. I've also been paid to design a cover for the publication before, yet when I write blog posts, I am paid nothing. So why do I blog for them?

For me, analysis of the ‘should we write for free’ question comes down to this:

1.
When I write my own blog, I am writing for myself, not for anyone else. Blogging, at slam up at least, for me, is not a commercial enterprise, but rather both a business card and a hobby. I don’t expect to be paid for knitting or jogging, so why would I want to commercialise my blog? I don’t see that I am giving away my words for free, more that I am self-publishing without having to pay the costs.

2.
I am primarily a performance/slam poet. It's a particular and rare skill, and this is my stock in trade. Therefore these days it would take extraordinary circumstances, such as a non-profit or fundraising cause I really believe in, to perform for free (unless in competition).

3.
Journalism is also my stock in ‘trade’, and where most of my writing income comes from. I make about $10,000 per year in total for my writing work on average. It's not a lot, but it's money. So ditto above.

4.
As a freelance writer, I do acknowledge that there is a ‘cost’ in publishing without payment. I’m mindful of the fact that, because I do earn from my writing, each piece published without payment is a lost opportunity to be paid for that particular piece. If I do write for other publishers without payment, it costs me money. As such, I thoroughly analyse the publicity or career development opportunities that the exercise will afford me and if it’s going to be incredibly high profile, or otherwise very beneficial, I look at it almost like owning a business and paying for advertorial.

5.
When I make decisions about pro bono writing, I’m also mindful of the fact that the more writers are prepared to be published without payment, the less publishers will be prepared to pay.

That said, I so understand that emerging writers need a break, and opportunities like the Overland internship can sometimes be that leg-up that they’ve been looking for.

It's a hard one.

What about you. Would you, or do you, write for ‘free’, and in what circumstances?

Sunday Slam #3*: Staceyann Chin

*posted Saturday this week cause I have an overseas guest arriving tomorrow.


Every Sunday, Slam Up introduces you to passionate spoken word from around the globe. This Sunday, Staceyann Chin. I saw her at the Parramatta Riverside Theatres in a Def Poetry Jam show as part of the Sydney Festival about ten years ago. She, quite literally, changed my life and art. I slam today partly because of Staceyann Chin. Find out more about her here.

arizona boy: a poem

a white boy has gone crazy in arizona with a gun
boy / arizona has a crazy white
white crazy arizona has a gun / boy
gun white arizona with a boy
with a gun
white boy with a gun
crazy boy with a gun
crazy white boy in arizona with a gun
arizona gun with a crazy white
crazy white gun in arizona
arizona crazy boy
crazy gun
crazy white
arizona boy

Two Reasons I Write

Sunday Slam #2: Nikki Giovanni

Nikki Giovanni: Talk to Me Poem, I Think I've Got the Blues


Every Sunday, Slam Up introduces you to passionate spoken word from around the globe. This Sunday: one of my heroes, Nikki Giovanni, with Talk to Me Poem, I Think I've Got the Blues on America's Def Poetry.

Responding to Bad Reviews

What do you do, as a writer, if a reviewer gives you what your believe is an unwarrantedly bad,or ludicrously savage review?

Late last year, ths Sydney Morning Herald reported here that:

Hugh Lunn, an award-winning journalist and author, has collected Australia's ''lost language'' - the vernacular that is dying with our older generations - in his best-selling book Lost for Words and its sequel, Words Fail Me.

Now he is preparing to sue the magazine The Monthly for a savage review of the new book by Peter Conrad, an expat Australian writer who left Tasmania in 1968 and teaches at Oxford University....

Conrad wrote in last month's issue that Lunn, a Queenslander, ''has taken on the persona of a philologic Pauline Hanson'', ''fantasises about an Australia hunched inside its rabbit-proof fence'' and ''is leading a peasants' revolt against multiculturalism and its dilution of Australian integrity''.

He wrote: ''I realised that what delights his fans in the superannuated suburbs is [Lunn's] praise for a time that was blinkered and bigoted, impoverished both economically and linguistically, when Australians spoke their own idiosyncratic language because in their empty, distant continent they were unreachably isolated from the global conversation.'' Lunn and his publisher, ABC Books, wrote to Ben Naparstek, the editor of The Monthly, requesting an apology and removal of the review from the magazine's website. Naparstek refused but has published a letter from Lunn in the latest
issue.

Lunn told the Herald ''legal action is in train'' for Conrad's ''defamatory assault''...

It's not quite in this spirit that I announce that the first reviews for my 2010 poetry book Gil Scott Heron is on Parole have now been pubished over at Crikey and at Overland. At the risk of defending my work at all odds like this writer did against this blog review, and at the risk of 'reviewing the review', both reviewers might have mentioned that I am a young, black West Indian Australian woman writing political poetry in a culture of white Australian middle class male poets writing mostly personal poetry.

On the other hand, it is a rare and wonderful privilege to have my work reviewed in any way, shape or form in a country where any kind of poetry reviewing is rare and coveted - so thankyou to the Crikey LiteraryMinded blog, and to the Overland editorial team.

The best they said was:

"...her vernacular is powerful and funny: the sooner she is available on YouTube the better for her now-growing reputation...Clarke is one of the most compelling voices in Australian poetry this decade..." - Stephen Lawrence, Overland

"Opening the book is like turning on the radio to something quite funky. It sets you moving in its own time. The translation of rhythms from music into print; that’s the achievement, impressive, as the many who write poetry will know, the significance, of Clarke’s collection. Turn to any title. You’ll find its movement getsinto your own, into your foot against the chair leg, your fingers on the keypad. It gives you an idea of the strength to be found in Clarke’s live performances...Even not carrying the revolution under its arm, her book should certainly make the streets." -Greg Westenberg, Crikey.

The worst they said was:

"The downside is that when Clarke’s words are forced to lie flat on the page, you can see they have only two registers: sex and politics...when however, she strays from these topics or tries to build upon them, the poems grow weaker. The first page of ‘unmiracle’ is sassy and moving; page two isn’t. This may work perfectly well on stage but it may be excessive to load up two full pages when one would have done"-Stephen Lawrence, Overland.

"The negative? if: a rewrite does not add anything to the plays listed in a roll-call of notable characters. We know nothing new about Caliban from Clarke’s paintinghim in ghetto-wear, The Tempest will be no different. Particularly set as it is next to important poems like my people, if reads like a record industry caricature of afro-american culture. Perhaps I’m missing something, but Ice Cube’s A Gangsta Fairytale seems a better start for pointed reinterpretation. if had the taste of a posture, overcooked after the finely spiced dishes accompanying. we want poetry back is another poem that would not have been missed from the collection." -Greg Westenberg, Crikey.

Sunday Slam #1: Taylor Mali

What Teachers Make, by Taylor Mali