Archive: Sunday 2nd January, 2005

First published in fourW sixteen in 2005.

Sunday 2nd January, 2005

Even the cap-faced lilo man,
with his three rolls of whale white flab
folding from under his shirt,
is enjoying himself today.

Today everyone is free to be happy.

And even if the memory of another wave rises
with this paddle-pool surge,

even if we know
that every sandcastle, formed
with a son's shovel
and a father's care,
is sure to fall,

even if images
of broken hotels, stunned,
strewn,
inhaling and exhaling,
asleep on the water,
of broken children, sand in their hair,
lying in a row
on pillows
of shadowed morgue plastic
instead of towel
come and go with each foamy fall and retreat,

it was, at least,
a week ago,
and can be put aside.

Today, at least,
these holiday screams
are happy ones.

© Laura Smith 2005

Archive: The Lady's Prayer

First published in fourW 17 in 2006.

The Lady's Prayer

Our Mother
who art in nature,
harrowed be thy name.
Thy queendom's numb,
thy will's undone,
on earth
as it is in the ozone layer.

You give us each day
our daily bread,
and forgive us
our unsorted bins,
though we forgive Forestry,
who sin against you.

But please,
lead us not into dam rations,
but deliver us
from global warming.

For thine is the queendom,
the green power,
and the globe,
for ever and ever,
until the world ends.

© Laura Smith 2006

Call for Submissions – Cooking with Fire

Hello lovelies

Every day poets across the world scribble on napkins, or snack at their computers, while the Cafe Poet program has poets writing every week in cafes across Australia, in an environment that is all about food. Words brewed in this atmosphere are bound to be heavily spiced with foodie metaphor, so I'm putting together a hybrid recipe/poetry book to celebrate the word/food joy that is poetry.

Cooking with Fire will be a small chapbook disguised as a recipe book. Poets will be "paid" in copies of the book, which they can then sell on at any price they like. The launch will take place at BookTalk Cafe in Richmond.

I'm seeking:

a) poems that are themed around food, eating, cooking, growing, and
b) recipes that are inherently poetic.

Poems that are 30 lines or less would be ideal, but longer poems will be accepted if they are wonderful.

The submission deadline is the 20th of September 2010.

Submissions should be sent to cookingwithfire (at) live.com.au, and you can also email me if you have enquiries.

Thanks!

Laura

Whitmore Prize and Poetry Idol Final

Hello me dears

I’ve been shortlisted for the Whitmore Prize. This is an award run in conjunction between Whitmore Press and Poetry Idol, and the final prize is publication of a chapbook of poems... so fingers crossed, I could have my first book published soon! I’m pretty excited :)

I’ve also been randomly selected along with three other shortlistees to read at the Poetry Idol final on the 5th of September at Melbourne Writers' Festival. The Whitmore Prize winner will be announced on the same night. I’d love it if you could come along to witness my triumph and/ or humiliation.

Here’s the full shortlist of poets:

Diane Fahey
Toby Fitch
Jessica Friedman
Lisa Jacobson
Jamie King-Holden
Kristen Lang
Jo Langdon
Earl Livings
Julie Maclean
Laura Smith

And the poets that the judges commended:

Petrina Barson
Javant Biarujia
Kevin Hartshorne
Stephen House
Sharon Kernot
Peter Mitchell
Ling Jun Toon

Hope to see you there!

Bestest

Laura