Author: Zenobia Frost

FreeVerse! And Spooky Things!

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FreeVerse: Page Vs Stage

State Library of Queensland, 16 Oct. 2012

FreeVerse tomorrow is going to be brutal. And oh, man — I should have blog-rambled about this yonks ago, but I’ll admit I’ve been quietly confident that my opponent, Robin “Archie” Archbold, will fold like a bible-paper page under the weight of Page Poetry. Well, perhaps not — he gives as good as he gets, but it should make for a spectacular show. I am rarely this excited about gigs. Let us show you a good time. Gloves are off.

Fresh: Poetry and Burlesque in the Library

Brisbane Square Library, 19 Oct. 2012

If you need an event a little less violent than FreeVerse, catch some poetry and burlesque at the Halloween-themed Fresh event on Friday. I can promise gory cemetery poems. And I’m delighted to get to share the stage with Red Devotchkin, definitely my favourite Brisbane burly-Q performer.

Click the headers to hit up the FB event pages and find out more.

auf wiedersehen spiegeltent

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auf wiedersehen spiegeltent

1.

the circus is gone
big top
stripped to bone

wide-load giraffe
skeleton canters

in smoke and hammers
collapses collapses
ghosts of their shimmering
crushed into clay

at first light we steal glances
carnies disguised as men
unravel canvas

for one last act
The Great Vanishment

2.

we return
to one-hearted one-steps

preacher calls to his lambs
bowler tumbling downarm
and we come

their suicides unwind
from sky-held ribbons

our strongest men
are not strong enough
our women cannot fly

that man is a tin soldier
he is all moving parts
that woman hovers
en pointe en tightrope
their drunken limbs forget
the ways they should not bend

we swallow whole words

and the lion obeys
with a wink in the glint of its fang

we cannot contort
our mouths
back into grins

they fold back into boxes
like costumes like paper
with string and bells secured to their toes

Zenobia Frost
“auf wiedersehen spiegeltent” — a paean to Brisbane Festival‘s Spiegeltent and Strut & Fret’s Cantina — received 3rd prize in the 2011 John Marsden Awards.

A Bastard Supermarket Terzanelle

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Here is a poem I wrote a long time ago for my favourite (no, seriously) check-out assistant at a Brisbane supermarket. I had always intended to give him a copy, because I wrote this with a lot of affection, but I figure some people might be offended by being labelled a satyr in disguise. But I saw this character again recently — looking much happier in his human skin, by the way — and remembered this paean.

He does not belong in Woolworths

He does not belong in Woolworths,
He does not belong in Woolloongabba.
Even those with no imagination

can tell; they avoid his check out,
avoid his lopsided smile.
He does not belong in Woolloongabba.

He’s not a bad-natured Thing;
he’s just awkward in his human skin.
Avoid his lopsided ‘hullo’ grin

if his gaze makes you fidget; I understand
he tries too hard at small talk.
He’s just awkward in his human skin,

and it isn’t nice to stare; after all,
he’s only trying to fit in, though
he tries far too hard at small talk.

He walks as though his legs are hocked.
His goateed chin juts out before him,
but he’s only trying to fit in.

His feet are uncloven by bitumen.
He catches my bus, but I doubt he goes home,
though he follows the snout that juts out before him.

Have pity; he’s not a bad-natured Thing
and he can’t pay a tailor for that ill-fitting skin.
He doesn’t belong at Woolworths, but
you’ve got to admire his attempt to fit in.

 

Zenobia Frost

QPF Roadshow Round-Up

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The dust has settled in Central Queensland, and the good people of Bundy, Gladdy and Rocky have survived the onslaught of poets. The Queensland Poetry Festival was a blast last-last weekend (24–26 August, 2012) at The Judith Wright Centre, but we touring poets didn’t skip a beat. We arrived in Bundaberg on Monday, 27 August, to give the first of our regional workshops.

I had the pleasure of travelling nationally with the Arts Queensland Touring Poets Program in 2009, but this is the first regional outing for QPF. I joined performance poets Scott Sneddon (Darkwing Dubs) and Steve Smart (from Melbourne), and QPF’s lovely Talina McKenzie Continue reading →

Poets on the Road

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Delight! After Queensland Poetry Festival weekend in August, I’m joining Darkwing Dubs and Steve Smart on the QPF Regional Roadshow. We’re stopping in on Bundaberg, Mackay and Rockhampton to give performances and workshops. I can’t wait. We get to go by plane and train! I’m picturing Platform 9 & 3/4, pumpkin juice, and an owl… I’ve always wanted to travel by train — and it’s high time I saw more of Queensland. See you soon, northerners!

All the workshops are free, and you can book in by emailing Talina at qldpoetry@gmail.com.

Here’s our itinerary:

Continue reading →

Three Score Years in Verse

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The Space, a very splendid UK arts publication, recently launched 60 Years in 60 Poems. I mention it here because it’s one of the coolest things I’ve found on The Internuts in recent times.

The design shows the potential for online publications to be delicious, even tactile things. The poems, as far as I can see, have been commissioned for the project, which has audio, text, visuals, and all sorts of buttons longing to be clicked.

I keep getting stuck in a loop of listening to poems, hypnotised by the spinning record design. Then, I read over the text of the poem, or read it aloud myself. It’s a wonderful platform for savouring words: the flavour of them, textures, sounds, and smells.

In “1962”, Brian Patten writes:

Words smelled of tulips and marigolds
Their fumes made sentences
That the bees stole for themselves

Avid Reader: Voiceworks #89 Launch

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Express Media’s awesome Voiceworks Magazine is slowly working their way to world domination, and Brisbane is next on the map. VW #89 — Space lauches at Avid Reader on July 26, and we’ve got a super-cool trio of Brisbane writers to help us: Michelle Law, Jack Venig, and Alberto Vasquez Sanchez.

Voiceworks publishes the words and art of Australians aged under 25. Come along to learn more, hear awesome writerly talents, buy Voiceworks, and find out how to submit your poetry, prose and non-fiction. Also there will be wine.

Find out more on the FB event page, or follow @Express__Media for updates.

How seapunk is our cover?

Midyear News

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What a week.

Last Friday I finished my final exam for the degree I’ve been whittling away at for six years. In 2007, I started a BFA in “Creative Writing Production” at QUT (now “Creative and Professional Writing”). Chronic ill-health and wanderlust took their respective tolls, and I QUiT to work and travel, returning to study at UQ in 2009. Here I am with (almost) a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature/Writing. BAs in English might be a dime a dozen, but mine was hard-won and it is surreal to finally be finished.

What none of us expected this week was for Rave Magazine to meet its doom. The news devastated Rave staff and contributors. Whenever I remember suddenly what I’ve lost — in losing Rave — it feels like a kick to the chest. We loved this magazine, and as a publication I loved it for its integrity, high editorial standards and commitment to the arts. I can only hope I’ll get to work with and for such excellent people (Chris Harms and Jody Macgregor especially) again one day.

Thanks to Rave, Brisbane’s performing and visual arts have — frankly — taught me more than any degree could have. I have fallen so deeply in love with Brisbane and its mettlesome artists. Rave leaves a big hole in our hearts, and all I can do now is try to find new ways to stay in touch with communities that have been so good to me. (If you have any ideas on how a new publication should support Brisbane arts, let me know!) We’re all very grateful for the kind messages flooding Rave inboxes. At the very least, I will have the arts listings out somewhere on time next Tuesday. I’ve already started them.

None of us knew till after Issue #1047 went to print on Tuesday that it would be Rave’s last. It was surreal (again) to troop down to Civic Video (another dying breed — the Rosalie one survived the floods, and is the only video store left near me) to complete rituals: pick up Rave, rent a terrible movie, buy chocolate/samosas/chocolate samosas. Seeing this humble pile of deathbed Raves undid me all over again.

That’s enough melancholy for now. I have to trust that a whole aviary of phoenixes are currently gestating in the ashes of what Queensland has recently lost and might soon lose. Keep your fighting trousers pressed and close to hand.