Helen Hagemann Interviewed on Radio

VISION AUSTRALIA RADIO INTERVIEW - 23rd October 2009Since my visit to the Emerging Writers Festival in Melbourne in May and also because I am published in Melbourne by the Australian Poetry Centre, it appears that I have an affinity with this fair city. I have been interviewed on Vision Australia Radio. The program called "Hear This!" has now gone to air in Melbourne (with...

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Poem for the Day - Percheron Horses & Carriage

Percheron Horses & Carriage In Melbourne you move between two sidewalks as the wind lashes the leaves from trees. It's time to look at the city beyond its people, people who will never change their looks. You've waited for a friend who didn't come & now with deceptive tenderness you watch two white horses, nodding at the curb. Feather-plumes float like breath. You unfurl fingers beneath a horse’s snout. The coachman stirs. There are...

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Poem for the Day - Fitzroy High School

Fitzroy High SchoolOverload Poetry Festival The day after your arrival is a high school reading. We agree as poets it’s been a long time between classes. Our eyes are pressed in outward glances at closed doors, Headmaster's office, a walk in the past. Fear means we’ve survived school days, a hijacked front seat, the less kind at assembly, sports-day in F-team. Yet here, school bags and lunch boxes are full of tomorrow. It’s spring and everyone is...

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OVERLOAD POETRY FESTIVAL 2009 REVIEW

2009 OVERLOAD POETRY FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTSI had never been to the festival before and I was charmed by the friendliness of Melbourne poets. They kiss & cuddle! Or was that after the beers? Nevertheless, the festival gigs that I attended were exhilarating and the poets more so. My first poetry call was the Northcote Social Club on Wednesday night, 9th September. The Slam Heat got off to a great start, MC'd by a lively and well-spoken Ninja in a...

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2009 WA SPRING POETRY FESTIVAL LAUNCH 28th August

Launch Event at the WA SPRING POETRY FESTIVAL 2009: Friday, 28th AugustSoon-to-be, and recently published poets, including Graham Nunn (QLD), Scott-Patrick Mitchell, Gary Di Piazzi, Vivienne Glance & Helen Hagemann will read from their new collections at the launch. Special mentions by invited speakers, including Roland Leach will introduce each poet and talk about their latest successes & how WA poets are reaching further than their own...

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Poem for the Day - Street Puppet

Street PuppetIn the middle of Swanston Streetin wires of rain, cross-walk lights,a puppet skips over puddles.In a cache of strings, a jiggled turn, a rise of torso.The wooden man is small, barefoot, slightlyhidden under quivering shadows. The puppeteerassures him there is no danger, as he guideshis puppet through the sidewalk crushlifting his blue tattoos to the sky.On the pavement, two living beingstap out the rhythm of the dance;the puppet in ragged...

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Poem for the Day - The Drone of a Single Bee

The Drone of a Single BeeA single bee collects all morning,a sense for the endless storing of honey.She knows the way in, the way out.Her drone busier, softerthan the swarm of home.Her legs brush against stamens,forsythia crammed with sweetness.Her saddle-bags are strappedand yellow against the light.She knows she cannot stay, already theretoo long; the hive a world humming away.She knows this winter there's anabsence of rain, fewer blossoms.The...

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Poem for the Day - a haiku

Tibetan temple a worn rattan mat welcomes the bleeding sand...

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Poem for the Day - The Intruder

The IntruderThe heads of the flowers are purple. Even the scattered wood pile is aromatic. Shrubs explode into green splinters and the air is super-heated. Dwellingup in January, and you sense by noon a tactile touchdown on floral sheets. Your compassionate friend has given you her house, a page of notes: the way the light falls, how the heat works its way through the house. I've made up the front room, please eat all the food! In the table centre...

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Supermarket in Ohio - Poem for the Day

Supermarket in OhioWhat are you thinking tonight, Mr. Ashbery, because I can see you walking the aisles away from pressing thoughts of words and kin? Are you by chance on holidays back in Dreamland where you felt comfortable in? Positioned near the oranges, zucchinis, avocados for colour & flair. There's more to see when you shop for images. Walt Whitman left the streets of New York to be near the melons, wives & babies with cheeks ripe as...

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Poem for the Day - Concert

Concert for Emmylou HarrisThe stars are on the stage tonight. I'm spun out by her sound, the melody entrusting you with its strength; clear, crystal. I love how she tattoos the air with her presence. Her blonde hair getting whiter with years. It floats exquisitely like her voice. Her guitar held as a woman might hold a newborn. The child in me - dancing, humming a song within a nearby "hush!" Her sad story of a soldier dad, telling me its poignant...

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Evangelyne & Other Poems by Helen Hagemann

New Collection by Helen HagemannMy new collection is now available. You can purchase from the Australian Poetry Centre or visit my website on the le...

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Poem for the Day - Evangelyne

EvangelyneIn the days coming to your doorfrom school, you practising Mozart & Liszt,I wanted to climb inside your songbook.Your fingers searched a Viennese waltz− a melody I longed to play.Evangelyne, you made lullabies of flight, lifting meas a heron stretched from a lake.In the practice of scales, I flew with blue wrensatwitter in the shadows of leaves.Where are you now, Evangelyne,so many winters gone from home?Are you still selling apples...

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Poem for the Day Percy Wright's Carousel, circa 1932

Percy Wright’s Carousel, circa 1932The horses are green and scarred. We are gazing at Percy Wright's carousel seventy-odd years from its turning. Voices travel on radio waves, and we hear the volley of summer, think of women mingling at the water's edge, a lifeguard above our heads in a little yellow cap. We do not miss our town, as we walk along the jetty, climbing grass dunes scattered with firs. Carnival shouts, sounds of tent pegs, a horizon...

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Poem for the Day - Camping WA

Camping WAWhen the days seemed longer,the road wider, we headed south,panel van & surfcat hitched.You knew where the road led, through acresof Tuarts, valleys that searched the sky.Ahead were thick forests in sleepy canvas,first pee at Margaret River, before a coast roadto Walpole, smell of dieback as thick as theleafy glare that fluttered through windows.The kids' heads doing a backward poundinginto upholstery. Their hands scattering toys,knuckles...

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Poem for the Day - Kewpie Doll

Kewpie DollLittle doll, good luck charm, fairy wings,rustles her blue taffeta skirt in the wind.She is part of carnivalé, as old as Ray Lawler'splay, Summer of the 17th Doll.Flocks of morning light glaze her pink headwith only one dent, having been held too many times.Her faded lipstick pouts an "O" as the mouths of girls,words forming seduction in their heads.She has lost her wand, her diamond ring,but not her kiss-curl, her good luck heart.At the...

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Robert Adamson & Mark Tredinnick at PIWF

Perth Writers Festival - Sunday 1st March 2009: 5.00 - 6.00pm @ the Dolphin Theatre UWA.PoeticaRobert Adamson and Mark Tredinnick will consider themes that shape their poetry and share some of their recent writing. Chair: Johanna Featherstone.Robert Adamson's books, including Inside Out grace the shelves of my poetry library. I have all but two, however, his latest collection The Golden Bird includes poetry from those collections. I am yet to discover...

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VARUNA NEW POETS 2008-2009

2008 VARUNA New Poets to launch their first collections during the 2009 Sydney Writers FestivalAs part of SWF 2009, Varuna Writers Centre has invited the Varuna Longlines Poets to their regional festival 17-19 May. The four poets, Helen Hagemann, Andrew Slattery, Ali Cobby Eckermann & Kimberley Mann will have their books launched in the newly renovated Gearins Hotel in Katoomba. Readings and book signing, plus sales of books & panel discussions...

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Poem for the Day - Oysters

OystersOysters are the barnacles at land's edge.Tangled together, we prise them from rock,gather their gritty caves, as if leaving the reefwrecked with tiny-white burrs of empty skulls.Now the sea is touching our tongues,our minds not listening to each otheras we slide the muscle between teeth;taste the oyster, if only in one gulp.We work all morning, the tide inching its highwatermark, renewing a chipped & mottled look.We bend & stiffen...

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Creative Writing at the Fremantle Arts Centre

Writing at the Centre – Fremantle Arts CentrePoetry classes are run by Shane McCauley alternative Fridays to the Prose class. The class concentrates on the form, enabling new, emerging, or published poets to enhance their poetic writing skills, knowledge and technique.Prose classes are run by Helen Hagemann who guides writers through a broad range of literary techniques and forms, including prose poetry, creative non-fiction, memoir and life writing....

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Poem for the Day - Christmas Parade

Christmas ParadeOn the train my children are heldtoward the sunlit window. They sway insilence to a landscape not yet filled withFat Cat or Humphrey B-Bear; my son wishingfor Star Wars men & Yoda to appear.We pass factories of ochre roofs, car yardslike gods of steel. Shops and cafés stringpast in reminisce of tangy fish & garlic,movie days of Thai food, coffee & cake.My son interrogates me with blue eyes, his cool mouthalmost pouting,...

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Helen Hagemann's Poetics - The Female Voice

Identity and the Female PoetLike the old catchphrase, 'what comes first the chicken or the egg?' - poetry also has this dilemma for the female poet. To establish her identity in her work it is a case of what comes first, language or voice? In terms of language she must work within the confines of a male-loaded language, e.g. chairman, mankind, brotherhood, freshman, etc. These distinctive features are predominately sexist. Dwight Bolinger explains...

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Poem for the Day

The Last Tree StandingEarthbound, the last tree stands.You look up, a fleeting shadow crosses your path.This tree is one of life's tragedies, quietlytempering itself to be alone. What else can it do,but drip leaves, wait for shattering rain,watch its forebears roll past? A rumbling sounddisturbing root and twig. Double lorriestrussed with logs, a girth as wide as a stoneHercules might roll. Relocation, destruction.The space will bear out: untidy...

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Poem for the Day

The Paradox of Green On the Destruction of Old Growth Trees, Dwellingup When the day is twice as hot as the last day of winter, when a visit to the country opens its secrets, 'doubt' like a downward curve touches your shoulder. Suddenly you realise they're still raping the land. Trucks criss-crossing the forest you used to know. They bend to the task of filling up trays; lorries...

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Robert Adamson

The Hawkesbury River One of my favourite rivers is the Hawkesbury. This pic was taken from the punt that crosses over the river at Wiseman's Ferry.   Robert Adamson Australia - International Poetry Web A Visitation All night, wild fire burned in the tree tops on the other side of the river. Now it's morning. Smoking embers from the angophoras are landing...

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From a Feminist Perspective

This cartoon is totally irreverent, but nevertheless from a feminist perspective (& not just the woman in the pic), it's such a hilarious, subversive juxtaposition re "woman as sexual objec...

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Poem for the Day

South-West Woods                                     Tea Tree Cottage, Dwellingup i This year, like an inkling for shade we head to Dwellingup: its wrinkled forest of leaves, tree walks,...

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