November 2013 ~ Helen Hagemann

Monday, November 25, 2013

Helen Hagemann: of Arc & Shadow to be a High School Text

of Arc & Shadow

So very proud that my second full collection of
poetry will be a study text next year for Year 10s
at Applecross Senior High School, WA.
I will also be talking to students about poetry,
poetry reading and writing with their lovely
teacher Veronica Lake.

Poem for the Day: Hawkesbury Letterboxes

Hawkesbury Letterboxes

In a deep gumtree valley
along a Hawkesbury River Road
messages come from within an
array of canny letterboxes.

The mailman knows that today
and every other day, on this side of the
mountain, his hands will guide
silent voices into several slots.

The mailboxes are fashioned at home as
personal monikers or simply with the letters
RMB. Others don helmets, lampshades,
roofs similar to their larger home above.
There's a cat carrier for the busy spendthrift.

Deeper into the leafy avenue,
as a honed log waits on a stump,
an assortment of makeshift tin stands as sentry
to railway lanterns, a safe with a lock fastened
as a hubris for a failed combination.

How amazing to find oil cans, drawers, and
outboard motors re-shaped as tender entries
for bills, postcards, and brochures; junk
hanging as tongues over a "no trash" sign.

With the fresh river air breezing the morning,
birds flash up from wildflowers and boxes, not like
the crowded pigeons of Rome, but more like hungry
crows awaiting news of food and the weather.

The "Poetry d'Amour 2014 love poems" edited by Liana
Joy Christensen will be launched on Thursday 21st November
from 7pm at Mattie Furphy House in Swanbourne, WA, for
the reduced price of $15 to contributors and entrants of the
2014 Love Poetry Contest (plus $2 postage and handling).
If you are unable to attend and would like to pre-order your
copy, or copies, so that they can be posted prior to the launch,
please deposit the total required amount into the Poetry
d'Amour Bendigo Bank account;
BSB 633000, Account 1506 36322.
Please place your surname in the required field so that we can
track your order. OR send a cheque made out to
"WAPI - Poetry d'Amour Account" for the total required

amount to WAPI - Poetry d'Amour,

9 Bushland Retreat, Carramar. WA 6031.

This is the third collection of love poems by Poetry d’Amour and published by WA Poets Inc.

The volume counts 108 new and unpublished poems by 64 poets, including some of

Australia's most prominent. 2013 Blake Poetry Prize winner Anthony Lawrence, and

Mark Tredinnick as well as WA's finest and emerging writers.

“The playful, silly and humorous are as much a part of love as the deeper, darker passions.

Poets from across the nation have sung their hearts out. The anthology contains many new

voices together with more complexly orchestrated harmonies from professional poets.”
Liana Joy Christensen, Editor

Your purchase of "Poetry d'Amour 2014 love poems" supports the ongoing impetus

of the hard-working committee of the West Australian Poets Inc.

Birthday Celebrations

Family Birthday Picnic
We spent a gorgeous day on the river yesterday (16th November) celebrating two birthdays, mine and my son's, although mine had passed, and his was yet to come on 30th November. And to mark the occasion my family gave me this great travel book (Eyewitness Travel). It has a large map inside of the City of Barcelona, transport maps and all the history and information you would ever want to know about this Catalonian region. I will be well-prepared and also given a Spanish phrase book. I can now go beyond Hasta la Vista to Soy de Australia!

Pics taken around 4.00pm and at dusk of my beautiful granddaughters dancing. And what a sunset with an eyeshadow palette of cloud, and the moon poking its white eye into the scene!

I have been awarded a Writing Residency in Barcelona!

Writing at Can Serrat, Barcelona 1st-30th June, 2014

So thrilled that my application was accepted into Can Serrat, Barcelona. I will be spending a month in residency at a 200 year-old villa, along with other artists. It's very exciting. I have booked my airfares and place for June 2014. I hope to complete my novel The Ozone Cafe as well as a new children's collection of poetry titled Miniscule! I might add, I will be travelling, esp. to Barcelona, and seeing the sights, and the Montserrat Monastery. Friends who have been to Barcelona say it's fabulous esp. Gaudi!