- 115: SPACE
with A Sometimes
114: NO THEME 13
with J Toledo & C Tse
113: INVISIBLE WALLS
with A Walker & D Disney
112: TREAT
with T Dearborn
111: BABY
with S Deo & L Ferney
110: POP!
with Z Frost & B Jessen
109: NO THEME 12
with C Maling & N Rhook
108: DEDICATION
with L Patterson & L Garcia-Dolnik
107: LIMINAL
with B Li
106: OPEN
with C Lowe & J Langdon
105: NO THEME 11
with E Grills & E Stewart
104: KIN
with E Shiosaki
103: AMBLE
with E Gomez and S Gory
102: GAME
with R Green and J Maxwell
101: NO THEME 10
with J Kinsella and J Leanne
100: BROWNFACE
with W S Dunn
99: SINGAPORE
with J Ip and A Pang
97 & 98: PROPAGANDA
with M Breeze and S Groth
96: NO THEME IX
with M Gill and J Thayil
95: EARTH
with M Takolander
94: BAYT
with Z Hashem Beck
93: PEACH
with L Van, G Mouratidis, L Toong
92: NO THEME VIII
with C Gaskin
91: MONSTER
with N Curnow
90: AFRICAN DIASPORA
with S Umar
89: DOMESTIC
with N Harkin
88: TRANSQUEER
with S Barnes and Q Eades
87: DIFFICULT
with O Schwartz & H Isemonger
86: NO THEME VII
with L Gorton
85: PHILIPPINES
with Mookie L and S Lua
84: SUBURBIA
with L Brown and N O'Reilly
83: MATHEMATICS
with F Hile
82: LAND
with J Stuart and J Gibian
81: NEW CARIBBEAN
with V Lucien
80: NO THEME VI
with J Beveridge
57.1: EKPHRASTIC
with C Atherton and P Hetherington
57: CONFESSION
with K Glastonbury
56: EXPLODE
with D Disney
55.1: DALIT / INDIGENOUS
with M Chakraborty and K MacCarter
55: FUTURE MACHINES
with Bella Li
54: NO THEME V
with F Wright and O Sakr
53.0: THE END
with P Brown
52.0: TOIL
with C Jenkins
51.1: UMAMI
with L Davies and Lifted Brow
51.0: TRANSTASMAN
with B Cassidy
50.0: NO THEME IV
with J Tranter
49.1: A BRITISH / IRISH
with M Hall and S Seita
49.0: OBSOLETE
with T Ryan
48.1: CANADA
with K MacCarter and S Rhodes
48.0: CONSTRAINT
with C Wakeling
47.0: COLLABORATION
with L Armand and H Lambert
46.1: MELBOURNE
with M Farrell
46.0: NO THEME III
with F Plunkett
45.0: SILENCE
with J Owen
44.0: GONDWANALAND
with D Motion
43.1: PUMPKIN
with K MacCarter
43.0: MASQUE
with A Vickery
42.0: NO THEME II
with G Ryan
41.1: RATBAGGERY
with D Hose
41.0: TRANSPACIFIC
with J Rowe and M Nardone
40.1: INDONESIA
with K MacCarter
40.0: INTERLOCUTOR
with L Hart
39.1: GIBBERBIRD
with S Gory
39.0: JACKPOT!
with S Wagan Watson
38.0: SYDNEY
with A Lorange
37.1: NEBRASKA
with S Whalen
37.0: NO THEME!
with A Wearne
36.0: ELECTRONICA
with J Jones
CONTRIBUTORS
Ali Jane Smith
In which I haunt scholar poet William Empson
William Empson stands at the basin to shave. His face in the small mirror becomes a series of surmountable practical problems for the hand and eye. Every visitor describes his digs as ‘squalid’ but in this imagined moment he stands …
Posted in 114: NO THEME 13
Tagged Ali Jane Smith
Storm front, roll cloud
“Maybe it’s a thing you could call the subgrime” Jill Jones to Claire Albrecht I’ve been looking at my hands holding the knife, at the skins, pips, cores, stalks at the sink filling I’ve been looking at tiny writing on …
Posted in 106: OPEN
Tagged Ali Jane Smith
The Language of Flowers
The very glossy dark leaves of camellias mean ‘boredom’ the papery bougainvillea mean ‘turning out better than expected’ and the yellow and white frangipani flowers mean ‘get it while you can’. Some things are strange, but not interesting. Some biscuits …
Posted in 95: EARTH
Tagged Ali Jane Smith
Poetry, Whatsoever: Blake, Blau DuPlessis, and an Expansive Definition of the Poem
William Blake pinches himself. Yes! He is alive, not in heaven or hell for all eternity, but on earth, for just as long as I need him for the purposes of this essay. In the almost two hundred years since William Blake died many things have changed.
Posted in ESSAYS
Tagged Ali Jane Smith, Paul Hoover, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Roman Jakobson
Clodhopping
Cut a hole through the ceiling, the insulating batts, tin sheets. Climb out that way, spacetime jelly-wobbles. I might revisit the demolished pub, say something else at the rock pool decline the offer of a garden tour, take my plate …
Posted in 78: CONFESSION
Tagged Ali Jane Smith
Review Short: David Brooks’s Open House
In Open House, David Brooks makes it look easy. These poems appear to be simply set down, flawless panes of glass framing scenes from a life. For the attentive reader, however, even one who doesn’t know the extent of Brooks’s work as a poet, a novelist, an editor, a translator, a researcher and writer of books about other poets and poetries, there are clues to the years of deep thinking, constant writing and serious, engaged living that Brooks brings to his own practice.
Posted in BOOK REVIEWS
Tagged Ali Jane Smith, David Brooks
Davistown
after Bill Manhire My turn with the binoculars. The Honeyeater flies straight into the sliding-glass-door. My brother. My yellow t-shirt. His. My sister’s curly red hair, same as mine. My somersault into the nasturtiums. My best friend. Wendy. My hands …
Posted in 59: GONDWANALAND
Tagged Ali Jane Smith
Mogul
How long since he’d sliced and salted a tomato? There was almost nothing he touched: silverware and bed covers, expensive notebooks sometimes the floury crust of a gourmet burger the younger skin of a grandchild or subordinate. Somewhere, another old …
Posted in 47: NO THEME!
Tagged Ali Jane Smith
Bankstown
It's the Saturday morning fruit and vegetable market in Berkeley, California. There are trestle tables with artichokes, bok choy, carrots, sugar cane, strawberries, looking as though they would taste sweet, and a stall selling organic sauerkraut. It's not a big …
Posted in 11: COPYLEFT
Tagged Ali Jane Smith
SuperX
At the SuperX there are pro riders in the demonstration events and local kids riding in the races. When we first arrive there are bobcats all over the place, they're still building the track. It's exciting just watching the bobcats …
Posted in 11: COPYLEFT
Tagged Ali Jane Smith