July 2018 ~ Helen Hagemann

Monday, July 16, 2018

Prose poem: Black Pottery

Black Pottery

Pottery is charm a shape nicely a vase, an urn, a holdall for ash and plant. Earthenware may not be strange in colour if cooked in dirt and fire, there need not be distress if the clay cools to black; black pottery not painted, not strange if change is taking place in the kiln. Colour is cunning in nature. So then, the order is round, pear-shaped or statue; life-size is something suggesting honour, a founder of factory and home. It is not disappointing to visit, it is not, it is so rudimentary to analyse and see fine art lovingly lovingly held in masterly hands, it is, it is earnest and stuttering to be art, to remain art, to remain not as loss but worthy of its cause and sign. The perfect way to preserve is to buy its shape and post the solid vase in a corner window or under an arbor of roses where a rose is a rose and black pottery is back and black is back.

Hut

A hut suggests nothing except it is old and a measure of length and height and made of stone. It appears lost and alone sitting beside a field on a gravelly road, yet the right reason is utility and certainly it is not negative which means it has a purpose. There’s a strong panting when the wheelbarrow is offloaded and a winter’s fuel is stacked delicately, delicately so as not to fall. Certainly the wood is placed upright wall to wall, never looking out. It’s not necessary for timber to have a view, timber has a purpose to return again to the wheelbarrow and be trundled out of the hut and possibly there is an aching and sweat dripping to the hearth. It’s quite fitting then to have a hut beside a road in a farmer’s field close to the woods with no window, the dry succouring a colour change within.

Great News! Dorothy Hewett Poetry Award name dropped!

VARUNA RESIDENTIAL FELLOWSHIPS

Flagship Fellowships are offered to writers whose work shows a striking and original voice in fiction, short stories, narrative non-fiction, environmental writing and/or poetry.

The Flagship Fellowships are:

Eleanor Dark Fellowship - Fiction: Established in memory of Blue Mountains writer Eleanor Dark, this writing fellowship will be awarded to a fiction application of outstanding quality.
Eric Dark Fellowship - Non-fiction: Established in memory of Blue Mountains writer and social activist Eric Dark, this writing fellowship will be awarded for a non-fiction application of outstanding quality in social, historical or political writing.
The Varuna Poetry Fellowship: This fellowship will be awarded for a poetry application of outstanding quality.
The Mick Dark Fellowship: Established in memory of Mick Dark, who bequeathed Varuna House to the writers of Australia, this writing fellowship will be awarded to outstanding Environmental Writing.
The Henry Handel Richardson Fellowship - Short Story Writing: Offered in partnership with the Henry Handel Richardson Society, this award promotes the life and legacy of Henry Handel Richardson as a significant Australian author and encourages excellence in Australian short story writing. This award is offered every second year and will be offered in the 2019 program.