Ruby Street

These days, especially it seems, reviewers, panels/judges, constructors of ‘canons’, etc, seem to want a singular style or approach, a kind of unified body of poetry at least for each book if not overall, something they can theorise about or judge or slot-in easily. In other words, there has to be a focus, a centre, if you will. A poet is not allowed to wander where she/they will or may, not always constrained by the ‘signs’ of category. OK, ‘allowed’ to do so but as a consequence not taken seriously, or neglected, because she/they can’t be pinned down. I’m aware of that working in my own case – it’s been said to me more than once – and I suspect it is so for others. I take my work seriously (and sometimes not so seriously, because you just have to let all that go as well). As Gertrude Stein once wrote in T ender Buttons : “Act so there is no use in a center.”. Forms, procedures, styles or themes don’t need to be centralised, rounded-up. If I approach composition as making, f...

A long time away from the page, of here. Slowly making a way back. A few years living not in my home city have led to various rethinkings of place, position, worth, work. For starters. I recently had an argument with a friend (I rarely argue with friends) about how a place like Adelaide is seen in the 'big scheme of things'. He admitted (we were talking more broadly of 'the yartz', not poetry specifically) that, well, the east coast (ie Sydney and Melbourne) are where the money and activity is and, the implication being, why fund much where not much is happening. Which is correct if you're talking purely about profit and bang for buck, ie treating the 'yartz' as a profit-generating activity. There's no bang for buck here. Not much bang anything, apart from the loud construction noise going on in my street at the moment (Adelaide has finally decided to electrify its train system - welcome to the 20th century ... oh, wait...). All this as a way of sa...