Ruby Street

Michael Farrell has just posted some comments on a couple of my poems on the Jacket2 site . He points out that some recent poems, such as these two, 'Leaving It To the Sky', from Dark Bright Doors , and 'Misinterpretations/ or the Dark Grey Outline' , recently published in Overland , are, in his words, more 'aggressive' and 'rawer, rougher, more "live" '. I hadn't thought of the newer poems in those terms, exactly. And another reviewer has pointed out the 'violence' in some of my work, overall . But it's apparent that Michael has noticed a newer mode in my work, that there are things 'up with which I will not put' any longer. A new assertiveness, rather than the previous assertiveness (which is there, if you look). He says: "It's a broader, more assertive platform for Jones's brand of projective verse, and one that bodes well for a midcareer future." Parts of the poem, 'Misinterpretations ......

The latest version of the annual Black Inc poetry anthology, The Best Australian Poetry , has been finalised and will be heading into print shortly. And, yes, yours truly has a poem in it, which originally appeared on Jeremy Balius' site, The Diamond and the Thief . The poem gets a different title in the anthology, but the rest of the words and lines are as is. This year's editor, John Tranter, says in the foreword (one presumes): ‘What a rich, strange and diverse lot these poems turned out to be … I suspect that these baroque and potent imaginings can only have come into existence as fragments of dreams or nightmares.’ This focus from the editor indicates that this year's anthology won't just be the sameold sameold. A look at the list of contributors also indicates that the spread of poets offers more of the newer and more innovative writers on the scene, as well as a number of anthology regulars. The anthology also picks up on work that has either been published ...

New work in Blackbox Manifold . Poets include: Emily Carr, Claire Crowther, Nikolai Duffy, Ian Ganassi, Julie Gard, Geoff Gilbert, Carl Griffin, Tom Jenks, Mark Johnson, Jill Jones, David Kinloch, Nathaniel Mackey, Anthony Madrid, Helen Mort, Rebecca Muntean, Burgess Needle, Ujjal Nihil, Aidan Semmens, Corey Wakeling, Duncan White. Plus reviews, and a translation section, co-edited by Sam Ladkin, Robin Purves & Adam Piette. My poems from a sequence entitled, Senses Working Out , a series of untitled poems which have been appearing all over.

your hand counted on it and if joy arrived in flicker, DIY laser prancing there was plenty too much O summer hoedown after the party run someone delivered bitter crust and for limp dicks, the gaudy you miss the festering the gear sings as it climbs a small city horn jump guns, exciters star blear and goon noise bring you closer each crack in the ether cry cry green lichen taking mould for comfort into overcast hollows back with sandstone night