Matt Hetherington



Plain Western Sun

After David Prater under the plain western sun we’ll mooch around in low-slung casuals point to one hidden moon like rich, tenured buddhas drink coffee like it’s beer then puke on some fish-heads under the plain western sun we’ll understand …

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Adolesce

still at that dreamy stage where the days have become decades & one finally begins to comprehend the truth of being alone, face-down in the hospital doing my best to keep you in my heart, hypocrite lecturers & fans of …

Posted in 88: TRANSQUEER | Tagged

Deep

venetians are closing on another small day and you can see i’m complicated like a conquered face keep on keeping on and round things roll off each other then sink wishes come out like cockroaches that’s midnight for you to …

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The Anxiety of Affluence

can’t hide the tired beard, or unknow? what you’ve seen, absolutely? flat out screening, yes? it takes as much as it gives? even though all five walls are never quite right? but you’re not as guilty as the guillotine in …

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Translating Hidayet Ceylan and the Melbourne PEN Freespeak Reading

In his introduction to The Random House Book of 20th Century French Poetry, Paul Auster quotes the great French thinker Maurice Blanchot: ‘Translation is Madness.’ Anyone even beginning to attempt such an activity (perhaps, especially, when dealing with poetry) soon …

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Matt Hetherington Reviews David Brooks

In a review originally published in Heat #6, David Brooks praised Peter Boyle’s The Blue Cloud of Crying as being influenced by the tradition of Cante Jondo or deep song, and as being more accessible, recognisable, and emotionally engaged than most Australian poetry. He then went on to observe: “There has been something of a tradition of emotional reserve in Australian poetry.

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Sally Malley: Trunk

“I beckon like a lemon, like a feather” ~ Sam Sejavka   damn that rose! there you go – alcohol’s typos, elephant trees in boots, the body like a present goes stale in its box i say i am the …

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Kristin Hannaford Reviews Matt Hetherington

I met Matt Hetherington briefly one year at the Queensland Poetry Festival, mingling in the post-reading foyer space; he impressed me as someone who was calm amidst the storm of poetry and red wine enthusiasts. He discussed his passion for haiku and I got a glimpse of the composed, almost meditative and reflective voice which infuses his poetry.

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Straight from the Tank

On January 25, 2003 – the hottest Melbourne day since 1939 – David McLauchlan and Michael Ward began the practice of filming poetry readings for the Channel 31 TV program “Red Lobster”. As of late 2006, this process continues, and …

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4 Haiku

the man checking passports has undone sneakers   *   eating rice looking at fields of rice   *   little black bug – how long have you been on your back?   *   corpse awaits cremation – a …

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Syd Barrett’s Threnodic Devotion

When something is 'of the stars' (de sidera) we desire it (desideratus); when there are no stars, we have no desires; when we have no desires we are ready to die, or be silent.

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Matt Hetherington Reviews Dan Disney

It's reasonable to suggest that we live in somewhat Tragicomic times. A well-known satirist (whose name I forget) recently complained of being completely unable to mock the American government, since those running the country were already effectively satirising themselves by saying and doing things more absurd and laughable than anything he could come up with.

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Matt Hetherington Reviews Sea Peach

Someone (not a New Zealander) once told me that there used to be a TV program in the old NZ similar to the Australian show 'That's Amazing!', but which was actually called 'That's Quite Interesting!'. Well, whether that's true or not, that's what I thought after I read this book and listened to the accompanying CD.

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Matt Hetherington Reviews Jordie Albiston

Given the small amount of time available between the book’s release and the deadline for this piece, there are still some poems I find impossible to respond remotely in an objective fashion. Two in particular [‘How I Spent Night in Twenty Lines or Less # 2’ and ‘Twelve (Transverse) Octaves, F#’] are difficult for me to inhabit for very long. Which is, of course, a great compliment.

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