Poetry Says
Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
Episodes
Ep 200. Anti-insights
07 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Friday arvo in the park. Show notes A Walk in Kensington Gardens by Dorothy Porter Silent co-producer K Elizabeth Morgan House Antonia Pont Dorothy Po...
Ep 199. Answered prayers
31 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
“More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones.” Show notes The Monthly’s culture issue Strength to strength by Alison Croggan ...
Ep 198. Felicity Plunkett on the poetry editor’s invisible work
24 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Gatekeepers, puff pieces, labour and care. Show notes If I Had a Gun by Gig RyanFelicity Plunkett’s books Vanishing Point & A Kinder SeaEp. 196 with...
Ep 197. Fury
17 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A completely normal, acceptable human emotion. Show notes Gena Rowlands in A Woman Under the InfluencePoems That Make Grown Women CryThe Poetry Pharma...
Ep 196. James Jiang: A certain claustrophobia
10 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
‘There’s something fraught about even the most informal encounters…’ Show notes James Jiang’s article in the ABR: Blurb Praise and Hot Takes...
Ep 195. Harry Reid: Poetry rocks
03 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What is a ratbag? Show notes Harry Reid’s full-length collection Leave Me Alone & chapbook the best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friends...
Ep 194. Learning to read
26 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Shock: I was (and am) a teacher’s pet. Show notes Recorded on the 10-year anniversary of ModPo, which is taught by Al Filreis & his team.Delmore Sch...
Ep 193. Prize fight
19 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Eleanor & I get all judgey. Show notes Eleanor’s Forward Prize reviewsScattered Snows to the North by Carl PhillipsI’m Shouting I LOVED YOUR DAD a...
Ep 192. Erik Jensen: Intimacy and trespass
12 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
“The space I felt between me and the world I was always filling with journalism. Poetry utterly collapsed that space.” Show notes Erik Jensen Acut...
Ep 191. John Forbes, a Pastoral pt. 2
31 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
‘…& said quietly, ‘Sir, sir’ / & heroin let him leave the room.’ With thanks to Ken, Lou, Alan, Ben, Aidan, K, Cameron, Liam, Matthew & Elea...
Ep 190. John Forbes, a Pastoral pt. 1
29 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
‘it’s fun to take speed / & stay up all night…’ With thanks to Eleanor, Lou & Liam. Show notes the sealey challenge Red Room’s Poetry Month ...
Ep 189. Tracy Ryan: Infinite pie
22 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
“I don’t believe rules are absolute.” Show notes Tracy Ryan’s books include Scar Revision, Rose Interior & The Argument Judith Wright Sylvia P...
Ep 188. Ursula Robinson-Shaw: Beast Mode
15 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Contains adult themes. Show notes Ursula Robinson-Shaw’s chapbooks Noonday and YEARN MALLEY sick leave Dissociating the Novel (review of New Animal ...
Ep 187. Peak poetry
08 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The black swan of trespass is coming for us all. Show notes Missy Elliott’s Under Construction Peak oil The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb Marg...
Ep 186. Sensitive New Right Guy
01 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Is poetry ever propaganda? Show notes “And I have always felt sorry for people who didn’t grow up next to an ocean, who couldn’t find a similar ...
Ep 185. Big sad poetry friendship
25 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Or, When Robert met Lizzy. (With yet more thanks to K.) Show notes Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowel...
Ep 184. Gareth Morgan: Vagabond
18 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
“We live in such a strange world. It’s weird to create monuments to it.” Gareth Morgan’s books Dear Eileen and When a Punk Becomes a Spunk sic...
Ep 183. Poets on film (a tragedy)
11 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
“You must be a poet. You talk funny.” When I’m among a Blaze of Lights by Siegfried Sassoon Master of Crying Terence Davies The Veleta (which I ...
Ep 182. Nicholas Powell on taking cheeky seriously
04 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On tour in Australia from Finland, Nicholas Powell walks me through his new book, Trap Landscape. Joan Fleming’s launch Reagan Sova’s book trailer...
Ep 181. Midwinter Day
27 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Recorded on Tuesday June 21, 2022. (More on that.) Show notes Bernadette Mayer Midwinter Day Mayer, Al & the gang talking about 19th century high scho...
Ep 180. Lucy Van on privacy, prizes, truth, and tennis
20 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
No really. Why do we live here? Show notes Lucy’s collection The Open Gareth Morgan’s review Shitheads: well are we doing this? Lucy’s interview...
Ep 179. Solace and trash
13 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Leave poetry alone! Show notes John Berryman Dream Song 14 & Berryman’s reading in Dublin in 1967 Olivia Laing’s The Trip to Echo Spring Poetry Un...
Ep 178. Why do poetry journals keep rejecting me?
30 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Kate Middleton returns to talk about her role as Island’s poetry editor. Plus, some unsolicited advice. Show notes Iowa Writers’ Workshop Fiona Wr...
Ep 177. Kate Middleton on the death of Luke Perry
23 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
90210. Dickens. Buffy. Henry James. Show notes Kate Middleton’s books Fire Season, Ephemeral Waters & Passage A poem from Television Luke Perry ‘M...
Ep 176. Autumn Royal on the inescapable
16 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Autumn Royal on writing poems in Roxby Downs, sessional teaching from a hot desk, appearing suss at art galleries, reality eclipsing her first book, a...
Ep 175. Pam Brown returns
09 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Pam Brown is back to talk new work, readings, myths, prize culture & the NBN. Show notes Stasis Shuffle Collected Works bookshop Ep 104. with Pam Sapp...
Ep 174. Eleanor vs. the Ocean Vuong Phenomenon
02 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Beware the Alley of Prosody. Show notes Ep 150. Nerding out with Eleanor BookTube Ocean Vuong’s Time is a Mother Warsan Shire’s Bless the Daughter...
Ep 173. Follow the money
25 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Following on from last week, David Latham from fund the arts shares some hair-curling statistics about arts funding as it stands in the lead-up to the...
Ep 172. The Wizards of OzCo
18 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Unfortunately, your application was not successful on this occasion. Ep 170. with Kent MacCarter 2014 is a rich and radical time in Australian poetry ...
Ep 171. People you’ve never heard of
04 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In/significance in poetry. Show notes I Was Minor by Olena Kalytiak Davis and her interview on the Commonplace podcast Poem by Weldon Kees The Disappe...
Ep 170. Kent MacCarter: The publisher’s Kuiper Belt
28 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The managing editor of Cordite on acceptances, rejections, guest editors, money, book making and risk. Show notes Cordite Books, which has published p...
Ep 169. No one missed poetry readings
21 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Hey Jane. Get me offa this crazy thing. Show notes So I Married An Axe Murderer (1993) Woman! Woman! (breakup) Harriet! Allen Ginsberg reads America J...
Ep 168. Cassandra Atherton: On finding your people
14 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Cassandra Atherton is extremely patient with my prose poetry skepticism. Show notes The Ordinary and the Unreal by Cassandra Atherton and Paul Hetheri...
Ep 167. Just like Scorsese
07 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Drawing lines and immediately walking over them. Show notes Scorsese on Marvel Movies Why do crickets chirp? Ep 163. with K Boys for Pele (1996) The H...
Ep 166. Rachael Nielsen: “Quote unquote real poetry.”
28 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Clutching my pearls over Instapoetry with Rachael Nielsen. (Write to me! [email protected]) Show notes Rabbit issue 24 Emma Watson Interviews Ru...
Ep 165. “This is why people hate poetry!”
21 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Please give the academics more wine. Show notes T.S. Eliot: The Search for Happiness (2019) Death in Venice by Thomas Mann The Politics and Play of Te...
Ep 164. Thabani Tshuma: “It’s just gonna work out.”
14 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Extremely reasonable and talented human being Thabani Tshuma talks me off various ledges. Show notes The Melba Speigeltent The Melbourne Spoken Word P...
Ep 163. A map, a memory, a seal
07 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
K & I walk the Yarra River while tracking Nam Le’s post-lockdown poem Abbotsford I. Show notes Nam on Wikipedia An interview with Nam for Wyoming PB...
Ep 162. Rilke vs. Mondays
31 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
“To wake up and be like the weather to be no longer the broken hearted servants of mad kings.” Show notes Robert Montgomery The Great Resignation/...
Ep 161. A deadly sin
18 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
“Who on earth would sing, if song were merely an effortless warbling until kingdom come?” Show notes Vagabond’s new work campaign Julia Cameron’...
Ep 160. “What’s a poet?”
10 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
And what is the fastest fish? Show notes Archives Fine Books My interview with Shastra Deo Helen Allan John Blight Two absolute icons
Ep 159. Shastra Deo: Pressure, persona & the ‘I’
03 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Just before New Year’s I got to meet up with Shastra Deo in Brisbane. She spoke about expectation, regret, her award-winning collection The Agonist,...
Ep 158. Matthew Buckley Smith: Angels and ministers of grace defend us!
14 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Matthew Buckley Smith is a poet who makes a podcast called SLEERICKETS. You’re welcome. Show notes SLEERICKETS Ep 33: Pudding Day More starter episo...
Ep 157. pov ur the hot ex
06 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Turns out I just really like pop music. p.s. Since recording this I’ve learned that A. E. Housman rushed out his Last Poems hoping straight boy crus...
Ep 156. Quitting.
29 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Giving up on poetry, the luxury of regret, and relapse. With help from Liz Taylor & Van Johnson. Show notes Jennifer Mills’ piece On Quitting Poetry...
Ep 155. Luke Beesley: There is no puzzle
22 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
I interviewed Luke Beesley on a rainy Friday, keen to ask about some of what came up when I spoke to Matthew Buckley Smith on Sleerickets episode 30, ...
Ep 154. The big sleep
15 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A story. With thanks to ford. for allowing me to use his beautiful track Dusk as the outro here. Also to Lauren Bacall, Andre Prévin & Dinah Shore. S...
Ep 153. Jennifer Compton: Poetry as Cassandra
08 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
I ask the inimitable Jennifer Compton about her poem Dear Les, why we have no boys in our poetry group, and gaining control by losing it. We also chat...
Ep 152. Nonsense and crying
01 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
I fail to explain poetry. With thanks to K, who only agreed to this after the fact.
Ep 151. Peter Goldsworthy: ‘There are 25 million poets in this country.’
25 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Peter Goldsworthy (poet, novelist, Medal of Australia recipient…) describes himself as a doctor-writer. In this last Poetry Month interview, we talk...
Ep 150. Nerding out with Eleanor
18 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
My dear friend Eleanor Smagarinsky joined me for this episode, in which we gossip and laugh about workshops that work, workshops that don’t work, an...
Ep 149. Maddie Godfrey on teaching & joy
11 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The inimitable Maddie Godfrey shares their thoughts on poetry’s public profile, what’s exciting about hearing new poets share their work for the f...
Ep 148. Loki Liddle: ‘There are no Aboriginals in On The Road’
04 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Loki Liddle is a self-described mischief maker, so I thought I’d I ask him whether he ever gets any pushback for not being ‘serious enough’ in h...
Ep 147. Dan Hogan: ‘Somewhere a landlord is kissing another landlord’
27 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
‘Work sucks. Do a PhD.’ So my big sister advised me, and I don’t think she was wrong (at least about the first part). In this episode I talk abo...
Ep 146. Maxine Beneba Clarke: ‘Art does not live on art alone.’
20 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
I went into this interview with Maxine Beneba Clarke with a bunch of very earnest questions. Our conversation reminded me that it’s ok to have fun, ...
Ep 145. John Kinsella on community & empathy
14 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In my first interview for Red Room’s Poetry Month, I spoke with John Kinsella about why poetry needs many voices, the critical response to False Cla...
Ep 144. Poetry Month preview
20 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The podcast is coming from inside the radio! Throughout August, Poetry Says will become part of Red Room’s inaugural Poetry Month. Across four episo...
Ep 143. Impossible Machine
06 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A conversation with my friend and co-producer, Shane Henry, about white-knuckling it through poetry open mics, learning a new art form, building somet...
Ep 142. Ep-i-tha-la-mi-ums
22 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Can’t pronounce their proper title, but here are my thoughts on what poems do and don’t do when they show up at weddings, with help from Sarah Jes...
Ep 141. ‘You have to be brave.’ Thuy On’s Turbulence
08 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It was a joy to speak with Thuy On about Turbulence, her 2020 collection from UWAP cataloguing heartbreak, passion, loss and pleasure. She talks about...
Ep 140. The poetry of insomnia
24 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
I’ve never been very good at sleeping. Luckily, there are plenty of poets who share this deficiency. Show notes Robbie Coburn & I interview Jordie A...
Ep 139. Ella O’Keefe on process, offcuts and going slow
11 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ella O’Keefe‘s poetry works with ‘the grit and offcuts we collect in the course of living’. With her new book Slowlier just out from Cordite B...
Ep 138. Workshop.
27 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
For the past five weeks I’ve had the pleasure of studying the sonnet with a fabulous group of poets, led by Joshua Mehigan, in a weekly workshop thr...
Ep 137. Christian Bök’s poetic moonshot
12 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Where to begin summarising the work of Christian Bök? He’s a Canadian poet, the author of the bestselling experimental poetry collection Eunoia, a ...
Ep 136. Bella Li: ‘What went we out into this wilderness to find?’
29 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Open Bella Li’s collections Argosy or Lost Lake and you’ll immediately be struck by the beauty of her imagery. In this chat, recorded on a rainy M...
Ep 135. I’m feeling very iambic today
16 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Thoughts on a workshop I got to do with Brooklyn Poets, led by the amazing Jay Deshpande, on prosody and the decolonisation thereof. Also on Emily Dic...
Ep 134. Justin Clemens: The inbox at the end of the world
02 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
I got to speak with Justin Clemens—Melbourne poet and academic—in person in mid-February 2021. Melbourne had just come out of a five-day hard lock...
Ep 133. Michael Aiken: Working outside the lines
16 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Describing Michael Aiken as a ‘poet’ only tells a tiny part of his story—Michael’s creative interests span everything from fiction writing to ...
Ep 132. Anne-Marie Te Whiu: Weaving a moment
01 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
If you haven’t yet come across Anne-Marie Te Whiu‘s writing, you’ve definitely felt the ripple effects of her work in poetry. She co-edited UQP’...
Ep 131. Fiona Wright: Beyond the narrative map
02 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Fiona Wright’s work resists classification in the best way. Through some magic combination of essay and poetry—by both zeroing in and staying open...
Ep 130. Letter from Melbourne
19 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Mid-October, 2020. Some more thoughts on energy, writing, not writing and the lesser poems of Anne Sexton. Show notes Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s...
Ep 129. The Empty Show
06 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
My first full-length poetry collection, The Empty Show, is now officially launched. What a crazy thing to be able to say! I’m so grateful to everyon...
Ep. 128 Oscar-worthy poems
21 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Poems have weird jobs when they show up in movies. Sometimes they have to make up for a broader lack of meaning, or frame the theme of the movie in ju...
Ep. 127 Liam Ferney: ‘Poetry is a galaxy’
08 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
I first encountered Liam Ferney’s poetry on an afternoon trip to Hill of Content. I liked his book so much it made me jealous, so I didn’t buy it ...
Ep 126. Michelle Cahill: A flowering of voices
24 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Speaking to me from Alyawarre Country in the Northern Territory, Michelle Cahill shares how this new environment is shaping her poetry and her thinkin...
Ep 125. Letter from Melbourne
11 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Mid-August, 2020. Some thoughts on energy, podcasting, poetry, the news, and why I dropped out of journalism school. Show notes The Poetry Gods Ocean ...
Ep 124. Gayatri Nair reports from Western Sydney
28 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Gayatri Nair is one of the many women of colour who are part of Sweatshop—a literacy movement out of Western Sydney that aims to empower ‘cultural...
Ep 123. ‘What was terrible was simple.’
14 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
I discovered Hilda Morley and her poem ‘Song of the Terrible‘ while hunting for something else, but this was exactly the poem I needed in the mome...
Ep 122. Antonia Pont: ‘Pessimism is very imprecise.’
30 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Every interview I do for this show offers its own rewards. Speaking with Antonia Pont, I got to hear a message of truly radical gentleness that helped...
Ep 121. ‘Are all poets depressed?’
15 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The other side of having a border collie brain is, occasionally, having to look after ‘the black dog’. In this episode I look at the persistent my...
Ep 120. Ellen van Neerven: Love poems, comfort and writing ‘Throat’
01 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Mununjali author Ellen van Neerven’s new collection Throat, just out from UQP, has incredible breadth. The book moves from themes of love, sexuality...
Ep 119. Hypochondria vs Poetry
19 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
I used to be (still am?) a hypochondriac. When I read Anne Boyer’s new book The Undying recently, I was reminded of some long months (years?) spent ...
Ep 118. Alison Whittaker on First Nations poetry and unanswerable questions
05 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
‘If this book can be a memory for us, then I would consider it successful.’ So says Alison Whittaker of the new anthology Fire Front: First Nation...
Ep 117. David Stavanger on community, self-care, burnout and dog minding
21 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
‘The poetry community is a living thing,’ David Stavanger says. With all in-person poetry events on hold when we recorded this interview, that sta...
Ep 116. Daniel Swain: Straight men, tarantulas and institutional absurdity
07 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Daniel Swain describes himself as ‘a gay man but also so much less than that.’ Self-depreciation aside, Daniel is just as funny and intriguing as ...
Ep 115. Michael Farrell & the swimming pool of poetry
23 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On March 19th, 2020 I sat under a tree with Michael Farrell – one of the most influential poets working in Australia today. We were meeting at a str...
Ep 114. On publication
10 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
There are as many paths to publication as there are writers. Still, I wanted to share the process of bringing my first full-length collection, The Emp...
Ep 113. Rejection.
25 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Rejection is part of writing for publication. Here are my strategies for dealing with it, thoughts on how it can function in poets’ lives, and an ex...
Ep 112. Laurie Duggan: ‘Fragments, fragments, thefts and blunders.’
10 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
I had the chance to talk with Laurie Duggan at the end of 2019 on a smokey day in Sydney. We began with the Malley poems (what else?). From there we c...
Ep 111. Poems that got me through 2019
18 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
I’ve keep these poems within reach all year. Here are my 2019 go-to poems and the reasons why they’ve been so important to me. Show notes Walt Whi...
Ep 110. Elena Gomez on Marxist feminism and Friday Night Lights
03 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In this chat with Body of Work author Elena Gomez (which also features my cat early in the piece), we dive deep into the thinking behind this intrigui...
Ep 109. The frustration of Five Bells
20 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Kenneth Slessor’s Five Bells has frustrated and eluded me for years. In this episode I wrestle with its strange legacy, entertaining the idea that t...
Ep 108. Bonny Cassidy on image, history and reckoning
07 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode I finally sit down with my friend and poetry mentor Bonny Cassidy. We talk about her relationship to visual art, how she sees her earl...
Ep 107. Joanne Kyger’s triple rainbow
23 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
I previously wrote off Joanne Kyger as too enamoured with her first drafts, but after reading Robert Adamson’s Bolinas Bay, an Ode (dedicated to Kyg...
Ep 106. David Brooks on opening
09 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
‘Some of the things we hold most dear about poetry may be things that we have to clear our minds of, in order that we see other things more clearly....
Ep 105. A found poem for spring
26 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Look, I don’t love e e cummings. But his influence is hard to ignore completely (even if I have ignored it for 104 episodes). Here I look at a poem ...
Ep 104. Pam Brown: Skeptical optimism in a post-human age
12 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Plastic orchids, a foggy morning, the differences between ‘basically’ and ‘literally’ – Pam Brown could make any material into a poem and it...
Ep 103. Finally reading Donald Hall
29 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
I’ve resisted reading Donald Hall for so long, probably as a misguided act of loyalty to my favourite poet, Donald’s late wife Jane Kenyon. Recent...
Ep 102. Chris Wallace-Crabbe on ‘Rondo’
14 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In this conversation, Chris Wallace-Crabbe discusses his latest collection, Rondo, which brings together around a decade’s worth of new writing. He ...
Ep 101. Letting go of poetry books
01 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
My dear friend Eleanor Smagarinsky is one of the most diligent readers I know. In this episode, we talk through the books she’s considering letting ...