Launch of Leaves Literary Journal

On Friday the 22nd of February, I will be launching my new poetry journal called Leaves Literary Journal at Red Wheelbarrow Books. We have a great night lined up of readings.  There will be Stu Hatton, Hoa Pham, Matt Hetherington, Bronwyn Lovell, Bronwen Manger, Initially NO, and me, Paul Fearne. Red Wheelbarrow Books is located at 105 Lygon Street, Brunswick East, and the festivities will commence at 7pm. You can read the journal here. It will be a great night.  Red Wheelbarrow Books is a store dedicated to the cultural life of Melbourne, and has had many great events there. Hope to see you there!

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!

Poem - There is no time

I thought for this blog post, I would simply publish a poem of mine.  Enjoy!

There is no time

slipping

and wheeling down steep slopes

the wind catches our ease

and sends us to outer reaches

where the dead sleep their ancient sleep

      and lullabies are heard no more

there is no time

to wind back the happiness we had

there is no time

to whisper secrets to tall fences

      it will take forever

           to answer

for all the wishes the day has given to evening stillness

a thought I once had

was to catch all the dust

from all the mantelpieces

that contain the bric-a-brac

     of lives still lived

         and put it into a bottle

seal it tight as air in summer

and give it to the ground

so that when time was right

and stars were aligned in shapes made of silk

the wantings of farthest wanderings

       would remember

           what the forest never could

(and that is the future

and all that has been given with good intent)

I will always be here

before any other move made

on any chessboard

I will always be here

and when the rest are gone

to scrape fire from their eyes

      I will give you water

           and you will douse the flames

of what should never be

and what will always be

in times of side glimpsed hope

and burnt down vision

and in this

the whole world will reel

it will nestle on window panes

and give back to spirited adventurers

a key

that none have yet used

    and it will open doors

          that sand never could

and in these places

rooms made of evil acts

will scare even the bravest

and their tongues will speak of war

but their hearts will yearn for peace

and then

before too long

I will have the sound you make

as you drift to sleep

     and we will cradle the dark

             and give rest to the wicked

Poem in Snorkel

A few weeks ago I had the great pleasure of being published in an online poetry journal called Snorkel.  Snorkel is a great journal, publishing Australian and New Zealand poetry and from around the world.  My poem is one of my oneiric poems, meaning dream-like.  The poem resonates with Holderlin's poetry, and has a line structure that is similar to Holderlin's.  The poem aims to find that fragmented and disjointed beauty we find in dreams.  You can read the poem here in the Snorkel journal. Hope you enjoy!

Award for Brainwaves

Last Saturday night our radio show Brain Waves won an award at the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia awards dinner. The award was for excellence in training.  When we were trained, we all did demos, and 3CR sent them in. The award is very large, and a national award, and everyone at Brain Waves is over the moon.  I got to go up on stage with my colleagues and the collect the award. I was wearing my top hat of course! Ben Rinaudo, our program co-ordinator, gave a great speech. Hopefully this award helps to lay another plank on the bridge towards the de-stigmatisation of mental illness in the community. Thanks to the Mental Illness Fellowship of Victoria who sponsor the show.