- 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
Jennifer Compton
Jennifer Compton Reviews Esther Ottaway and Diane Fahey
Puncher & Wattmann, whose present proprietors are David Musgrave and Ed Wright, has, since 2005, brought forth over 200 titles, many of them of the poetry ilk. On the ABOUT page of their website, the press proudly avers that they are a publisher of “shit-hot writing.” As far as I can recall, this has been their guiding principle since inception. I am kind of tickled by this appropriation of the vernacular. Because shit is hot.
Posted in BOOK REVIEWS
Tagged Diane Fahey, Esther Ottaway, Jennifer Compton
Jennifer Compton Reviews Peter Boyle and Izzy Roberts-Orr
First, I salute Vagabond Press – its progenitors, its long-time toilers in the vineyard of poetry, its patrons, its cheer squad, and those who work in the shadows. Any small press, surely, is a hub of more-or-less willing volunteers. It is very expensive, in all sorts of ways, to make a book. Count the cost. But year after year after year, since 1999, Vagabond Press has been turning aside from the multifarious, ever-present griefs of the world, and privileging poetry.
Posted in BOOK REVIEWS
Tagged Izzy Roberts-Orr, Jennifer Compton, Peter Boyle
Your Common Or Garden Mint
Beg a few inches of the white root and put it almost anywhere. It is forgiving. Clings on. Goes underground if conditions are extreme. Twines and twines and twines inside a pot. Throws out runners if unchecked and seems to …
Posted in 112: TREAT
Tagged Jennifer Compton
Jennifer Compton Reviews Sarah Holland-Batt and Gavin Yuan Gao
Both of these considerable books, The Jaguar by Sarah Holland-Batt and At the Altar of Touch by Gavin Yuan Gao, arrived into my hands, out of their padded envelope, with all of the gravitas of prize-winners. They are, both of them, winning books—they shine with sincerity and reach and craft—and they won me over with minimal resistance on my part.
Posted in BOOK REVIEWS
Tagged Gavin Yuan Gao, Jennifer Compton, Sarah-Holland-Batt
Another View
Landscape and jacaranda — Grace Cossington Smith Is she sitting? Or is she standing? In the open air. No, she is sitting. Her eyeline lifts towards the flowering. The sun is behind her but I cannot see her shadow on …
Posted in 96: NO THEME IX
Tagged Jennifer Compton
Under the House
I would put on dress-ups and run around our house singing. You could run right the way around our house. I would run, a little bit skippingly, with draggle skirts and shawls awry. And the song I would sing was …
Posted in 95: EARTH
Tagged Jennifer Compton
Ex-Yugo
All the good songs come from the men leaning on staves – watching sheep graze on a field without fences. So I am told. In this country they dry hay on this sort of wooden rack – and in that …
Posted in 33: PASTORAL
Tagged Jennifer Compton
Open City
Like breathing out forever we announce our imminent absence. The oracle told each of us at the same time in a specific voice that the great conversation of armed rhetoric and counter-attack that the flags and insignia, the fine, high …
Posted in 31: SECRET CITIES
Tagged Jennifer Compton
The Woman of Rome
La Romana. By Alberto Moravia. I read it at 13 snugged up in bed in my aunt's house in Kilbirnie – having rejected my own home in Rongotai. For the usual reasons. One hand on my mons veneris eyebrows approaching …
Posted in 28: INNOCENCE
Tagged Jennifer Compton
The Devil His Due
The Professor of Philosophy with sad black holes in his head riffs the collective consciousness in the Cafe of Hopeful Poets she is negatively charged her hair writhes she is smoking seething she reefs in her bitter tongue with the …
Posted in 06: NEW POETRY
Tagged Jennifer Compton
Safe House
for David Quinlivan and the Wingello Rural Fire Brigade caught in the fire near Johnstones Creek on New Years Day Turn this house inside out braced and joisted by a man with a builder’s smile he hummed as he worked …
Posted in 04: UNTHEMED
Tagged Jennifer Compton
In the Worst Way
I want to sniff your armpits arsehole: I want to lick your toes until they clench & writhe: I want to nibble buttocks: strive against your tautened breasts: sink teeth into your clattering eyes: sing on a note of garbled …
Posted in 03: NEXT WAVE
Tagged Jennifer Compton
Dear Les,
I think you ought to write a poem BUSH POET AT DEATH’S DOOR. I wonder what death’s door looks like. I’ve been there, in fact stepped through it – to be precise in an ambulance stopped at the red lights …
Posted in 01: UNTHEMED
Tagged Jennifer Compton
