What the night will have

I am sitting here, like never before.  What I want is something other than all.  What I want is to sit beside the sea as it laps up against me, and sense what I know most.  Despite the night, we crawl.  Despite what I have said in leaves of autumn, I will believe once again.  But when the treasures of the dawn are at their most solemn edge, here the lack will cover us in our golden thread.  Believe me when I say I do not have the stomach for this.  But that is fine, for when the dancing of the twilight is near at hand, here sense will prevail in darkest places.  But what we must not be sure of, is that which hounds us to our dying day.  And that is that when the shards of inconsistency are at their most precious, we will find a way to survive, and have it come to us like we never knew how.  Be quiet now, there are things we must not say.  And in saying them, I will hear forever in that lonely stream that has glass on its bed, and the dreams of everyone as its demise.

Appearance on ABC 1

This Tuesday (the 15th) I will be appearing on ABC 1 at 5:15am.  It is a replay of my performance at the 2012 Emerging Writers Festival in Melbourne. The show has been broadcast previously on ABC News 24, but it is special to have the program broadcast on ABC 1.  I was in fine form, and speak about my PhD, my books, and my life with schizophrenia. I also speak about some of the volunteering I have done with Mind Australia and the Mental Illness Fellowship of Victoria.

For those interested in my books, you can buy them on Amazon.  You can buy my Diary of a Schizophrenic here on the Amazon site.  It was a diary I kept in 1998 during a psychotic episode.  It speaks about writers such as William Blake, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Homer, Virgil, Walt Whitman and the artists such as the Pre-Raphaelites.  I was reading all the great classics during my episode and was about to commence my honours year at Melbourne University.

My second book, A Schizophrenic on Artaud, can also be bought on Amazon here.  It is a poetic exploration of the French poet and drama theorist, Antonin Artaud.  Artaud lived at the start of the twentieth century, and was in about 20 silent films, wrote great poetry, and his theories of drama are still very highly influential today. He suffered from schizophrenia.

Hope you enjoy the show!

Leaves Literary Journal

I have recently published the first edition of my new poetry journal called Leaves Literary Journal.  It was great to gather up some of the great poems by some of Melbourne's best poets, and have them readily available to be read by the world. In this first edition we have Initially No, Stu Hatton, Matt Hetherington, Anna Ryan-Punch, Bronwen Manger, Bronwyn Lovell and Hoa Pham, and me.  There poems are great, and you can read them here at Leaves Literary Journal. Please consider submitting for the next edition, and happy reading!