UnEARTHING BUNDABERG
Some of us have a taste for poetry. Some of us want more than just a taste. That's what Queensland Poetry Festival gave us when it comes to Bundaberg in September.
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This past Saturday (September 13-14) there were two wonderful free poetry workshops held at the BEC. Julie Beverage, director of the Queensland Poetry Festival and program coordinator for the Queensland Writers Centre, gave us an introductory course on ‘one way to write a poem’. Us poetry newbies, as well as the seasoned bards, were able to fashion a poem using her technique in the space of the three hour workshop, which I thought was pretty darn amazing. She started us off with an exercise she called a ‘brain dump’ where we wrote stream-of-consciousness directly to paper for a few minutes. The ‘dump’ killed off that nasty empty-page fear that plagues so many diligent writers. From there we gleaned the good bits out; crafted them; turned up the edges just so, and voila! A poem. She made it look so easy, who were we to argue?
In the afternoon, Graham Nunn, published poet and founding member of the long-running SpeedPoets event in Brisbane, helped us share his love for Haiku. ‘Introduction to Haiku’ was chock full of insights and possible paths to travel in the well worn trails of Haiku poetry. We read, analysed, and composed our own haiku. Then we took apart, or ‘unpacked’ as Graham had said, our poems and recreated them. We were haijin for a day. We learned the rules and freedoms of the style, and improved our perspective by sharing our work.
After all that excitement, there was more to come. In the evening we came back for ‘UnEarthing Bundaberg’. Julie, Graham, and poet in residence for the 2008 QPF Michael Hofmann read selections of their work. Then they turned the mic over to our Bundaberg (and Harvey Bay) audience. Wine, cheese, and poetry in a friendly, close, cosy atmosphere, what better way to spend a Saturday night? The poetry was beautiful, and we were quite fortunate to have Michael Hofmann reading for us. He’s on a whirlwind tour with the festival, so it was generous of him to make time for Bundaberg.
If you’re thinking, ‘This is all well and good, but I’m not a poet, there wouldn’t have been anything there for me.’ I’d beg to differ... and not just because I love a good argument. Many treasures from poetry carry over to prose. “A short poem need not be small” was one quote that stuck in my head from Julie’s workshop. This absolutely applies to more traditional writing, short stories, and non-fiction, even. These workshops were fabulous for opening up new channels of thought on familiar writing styles, and offering a chance to see how successful, prolific poets work. We were gifted tools to add dimension and heart to our writing. It was an invaluable experience. So maybe next time around some of you adventurous novelists who wouldn’t normally stray into the vagaries of poetry will join us for a line or two.
Thanks go to Jan Sullivan for instigating and organizing this treat for us. She had approached Julie and Graham at last year’s event, and made it easy for them to bring their talents up to Bundaberg. Thanks to Julie, Graham, and Michael for a lovely, informative Saturday of poetry!