good news - regional arts development - funding approved

I heard earlier this week that my grant was approved and will be sent to council for ratification next week. A modest sum of $2,500 to assist me to complete my research and writing project on the Shoalwater area.

I plan a poetry cycle based on the environmental, political issues surrounding this area north of Yeppoon in Queensland. The Australian defence force utilise the area in conjunction with the American and the Singapore defence forces. Many locals use the beach as a roadway to the area, some use boats (only the defence force can use the roads in). Many birds and marine life visit the area for breeding or migration stop overs.

The military conduct live firing in the area. Many of the men who went to fight in the Vietnam conflict were trained in the area. Many men who have gone to serve in the current conflict have trained in the area. It is a beautiful place with a diverse and important environmental significance.

I am hoping to develop the poetry cycle informed by some specific issues that I'll explore and that the completed sequence will be included in my 2009 ms for Small Change Press .
As part of this project, I'll also be working on some poetry based on prints of the Shoalwater Series of paintings completed by Dieter Irving during his residency in the area.

I'm delighted that I'll get some financial assistance to develop this project. The Regional Arts Development Fund is the 'outside the city base' funding programme of Arts Queensland. Prior to the Queensland amalgamations the local partnership in our area was through Livingstone Shire. This is the first funding round since amalgamation. Great to get a little 'love' for a poetry project.

pre splat splatter

banging sounds begin in my kitchen (new wiring or something equally

important) these bangings are disrupting my writing and my thinking

are banging and banging (are irritant) are raining too much sound

it's cold and it's wet outside (and in here) it's louder than my tinnitus

i already miss so much

if i knew miracles it would be sand not water that i'd part
just to see what's under (how it looks) and what i seek
is so much and so varied it needs a microscope, or a
fact sheet, a true and certain thing

^^^

in the nursery (how the nursery used to look once)
viewing through the window glass tiny cribs in rows
in each one a child new to its breath ( a few hours old
or a day) for the first time breathing the same air as

^^^

in a corridor, in a heart, a prayer is wailing and
wailing is prayer going on in someone, in
someone else's voice, someone else's shock
hits what the breath marks when it stops

^^^

(i don't see, but) i think about a time we all take
the same inward breath (all at the same time) in and then
the breath rushing out would spin us off balance
in a chaos, in an endless turn, in a heartbeat

^^^

waves pound and roll on a beach
little feet get wet chasing at the edge
of so much movement

sand is a bucket house when sand gets tipped
but only sand that's not too dry or too wet

digging holes in the sand, all the water the bucket
holds fills and the water in the hole leaks
back, over and over, into sand

^^^

deep in the
deep going down
water over and
no air i
learn how to
float tiny bubbles
in my blood
so i can
drift back so
i can gasp
so i can
suck air in
and god is
my breath then
is the sun
is the air

^^^

sand blows loose in the wind
settles somewhere else when the
wind stops and i don't try
to tag a grain's progress

in that thought, as each grain scatters
each grain is displaced on the shore, and
if i knew how, i'd part the sand, try to
find all the exhaled breath underneath