Riverbend Poetry Series

Well it was a wet, rainy night for the Riverbend Poetry Series II at Bulimba, but it was lovely to see so many poetry lovers out at the event and I have a great time reading some of my poems. It definitely is getting easier! I very much enjoyed the performances of fellow poets David Stavanger, Julie Beveridge and Max Ryan. So many unique voices on the one bill. I will post up some photos in the next couple of days but in the meantime you can head to the Queensland Poetry Festival website: http://www.queenslandpoetryfestival.com to see coverage of the event. Unfortunately Memory Bone was not available for purchase on the night, but once it is available I will post details on how to obtain a copy.
In the meantime, here’s a new poem which I performed at Riverbend:

Acceptance
Oh how this leaden aching
has short changed memory

tonight, only the
silhouettes of us remain

two beige truths,
pummelled slowly into a fiction

and when I peel you down to
heartwood to bury you at last

I am punch-drunk by
the idea of permanence

So, will any of this even matter?

For when the stars stand a little brighter,
marking out our previous conversations

the sky will still haemorrhage with light.

Vanessa Page, 2011

Stylish bloggers

My dear friend Robyn from the Siren of Brixton has given me a wonderful shout out on her blog. Thanks girl…your writing is amazing!

 

Stylish bloggers.

For a boy out west

For a boy out west
He plays out the same three nights
on an outback cinema screen
finding the shape of the face he once
knew in the stars, and using fingertips
thick with timber kisses to move
in his mind’s eye, so tenderly,
that he’s barely moving them at all
travelling that pair of hips, more than
once, using the roadmaps in his hands
to find a way through his mind
then wrapping the last of love
like a winding sheet close to his bones,
to bind the thought to his body
and when sleep passes him over,
he lies awake, just breathing.
anaesthetised beneath the night sounds.

© 2011 Vanessa Page

Preview at Another Lost Shark

Graham has kindly profiled me for the upcoming Riverbend Poetry Series at Bulimba.