Book Review/ Interview: Paul Harrison Corrugator. 48th Street Press, Philadelphia, 2013 (56 pages).

This is Perth resident, Paul Harrison’s second collection of poetry and it almost did not see the light of day as he explains in the interview which follows this review. Corrugator consists of fifty short pared down lowercase underground poems. The writing is raw but highly accessible. Many of the best poems are first person confessional narrative poems which document Harrison’s misfortunes, in particular, his failure to sustain love, his self doubt as a poet, his abuse of alcohol and his deteriorating physical and mental health. The epigraph from Thomas Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge suggests to the reader that Harrison, like the tragic character Michael Henchard, is his own worst enemy, ‘It was a part of his nature to extenuate nothing, and live on as one of his own worst accusers.’

The book’s title Corrugator is an obscure reference to the corrugator supercili muscle which is located above the eyes and is also known as the frowning muscle. The cover’s black and white photograph of Christ, taken by Harrison, furthers this suffering motif. Despite the grim misery of much of the subject matter, Harrison never demeans himself by grovelling in self pity, and instead,  he carries with him a glimmer of hope and a defiant dignity as he stares down and smirks at the abyss.

On Relationships

About a dozen poems in the collection represent different takes on Harrison’s relationships with women. He characteristically sees these encounters as initially intense before the ‘spools’ inevitably unwind and the pair go their separate ways. In ‘i dump my cum’ Harrison graphically describes a heady affair with a voracious woman and wonders ‘how long will this one last.’ In the  micropoem ‘cock raw’ he quips matter-of-factly, ‘I lie here/ early morning/ thinking of someone else’. In the aphorism ‘she was the one’ eventually/ he wasn’t’. ‘With hindsight’ uses an extended metaphor of a boat to describe the failure of yet another relationship, ‘a boat that never set sail// a boat not even/ moored.’

There are a couple of tender moments in Corrugator when love rises above its transitory state and endures. They provide us with a brief reprieve from Harrison’s relentless laments. One of the better poems is ‘there will be no sadness’ about a couple who sit together and take in the immensity of the blue sky. The poem concludes, ‘just us// the 2 of us// & to our right/ a wide open expanse of light// the sky/ so blue/ &/ limitless.’ In ‘reasons to go on’ Harrison reveals another side to him- his love for his daughter, ‘and this time round/ i can only think/ of one// i’ll see her tomorrow/ this sunday/ forever.’

On Writing

Harrison writes tributes to Kerouac (‘memory babe’) and to his late friend and poet F.A. Nettelbeck (‘outpouring’) in which he asks him ‘to keep/ us a barstool/ BRO.’ On his own writing, Harrison is full of self doubt- sometimes to the point of self loathing.  In ‘to write poetry’, he infers that it is ‘worthy’ to write about those heroes who stopped the tanks in Tiananmen Square but ‘not this’. Similarly, in ‘i think’ after reflecting on the writing process and the reasons why he writes, he concludes, ‘even this is pointless/ a ritual before the death’. In ‘for the record’ he explicitly states, ‘i don’t believe in poetry/ anymore.’ Furthermore, in ‘tonight’ he tells the reader ‘you/ are reading/ a gravestone// walk on’. In an early poem in the collection, ‘this ain’t’ he even questions whether he is writing poetry at all: ‘this ain’t the poetry/ of despair// addiction// or love// because/ this ain’t/ poetry// it never/ was.’

In this vitriolic spray of negativity about his writing, when asked if he is on his last legs as a poet, Harrison is upbeat, ‘Well at times i've felt that way. who knows ? i'd like to think not. i'd still like to write that one good poem, to influence someone in the way that many poets have influenced and touched and affected and comforted and renewed me and continue to despite all my doubt and ambivalence and cynicism... still, the fact remains that some things are more important than poetry and sometimes we get pissed off with scenes or ourselves or the things and people we love... i went thru that, might be coming out and some of the poems merely reflect and report back on that place.’

In ‘i drank’ he provides another take on his writing, on how alcohol has fueled his creativity. He images his own death and cynically quips to the reader that he has drunk for years in order to gift us his ‘break thru’ poem:

i drank

15 beers

every night

for years

to bring

you

these poems

the better ones

laced

with gin

& vodka

cones &

pills

& this

is my break thru

poem

my legacy

my gift to you

a so so career

cut short

(reprinted with the poet's permission)

On the Abyss

Perhaps the best writing in the collection relates to Harrison’s frank admissions about his alcohol abuse and his tortured descent into depression and ill health. They show a man suffering intensely, confused, sometimes fearful to the point of paranoia.

In ‘today’ he sees himself as unable to escape the pain, as ‘an insect/ without its wings/ an insect before/ the heel.’ In ‘i drank myself’ he expresses his disgust how he drank himself ‘out of arms/ out of hearts/ out of touch…drank myself/ away/ squandered it// drank myself to death.’ In ‘self-portrait before the mirror’ Harrison concisely sums up his physical and mental collapse, ‘i am covered/ in rashes and skin disorders/ scars and sweat/ my neck and heart/ both broken/ i am almost 20 kilos/ overweight/ smoke 50 a day/ and drink/ like the ghost of Dylan.’ In the powerful poem ‘there is an emptiness’ Harrison explores the insatiable hunger of emptiness ‘greater than any stadium’ and the futility of capturing the essence of its sad ‘cloying’ embrace.

Yet Harrison never throws himself over the edge. He hangs on long enough to realize that ‘no fucking higher power’ (‘been an addict’) is going to save him and that he ultimately needs to accept and take responsibility for his behavior and the decisions he makes (‘there’) . In ‘the abyss’ he tells himself calmly as he enters the void, ‘now flick your hair/ & practice/ your very best smile.’

Conclusion

This is a tight, highly worthy collection of confessional poetry. It is easy to follow and deserving of multiple readings. The writing is honest, and at times, confronting. Despite the overwhelming tone of gloom in Corrugator, there are poignant shades of light and humour which counterbalance the arrival of more of Harrison’s ‘black ships’. This is an important short collection by an Australian writer which blows rings up the ass of the usual unreadable academic excrement which passes as poetry.

INTERVIEW WITH PAUL HARRISON  2 JULY 2013

It is a coup for an Australian to be published by the American small press publisher 48^th Street Press. Paul, how did you score the gig and how have your dealings been with publisher Christopher Byck in the lead up to publication and afterwards in the distribution of Corrugator?

chris was a friend and publisher of the late, great f a nettelbeck and i believe fred talked about me when chris used to visit or call him. from there chris started following my stuff on the old blog and then i remember he invited me to contribute to the series of broadsides that he's been publishing for a few years now. of course that in itself was quite an honour when you consider that a lot of the poets he's published were and are legends of the small presses... (which reminds me, john dorsey has a chapbook forthcoming from 48th street press later this year...) anyway i think we started communicating after fred's death... 

to be honest, corrugator almost didn't happen because i'm pretty poor at corresponding and for a while there had pretty much withdrawn when out of the blue i got a very short message from chris like 'hey man' or something which i almost didn't reply to but i did and then suddenly we were talking about doing a chap which of course came as quite a shock because (a) i was kinda over the whole poetry thing or at least full of doubt and (b) chris had previously published work by the giants douglas blazek and nettelbeck and now he wants to publish some of my shit... anyway  i sent him a couple hundred poems and over a few weeks we discussed and selected what appears in corrugator. i gotta say chris has been a pleasure to work with and has a great passion and knowledge of the whole history of underground and small press poetry and a lot of goodwill and friendships therein. i hope he won't mind me saying this but when he's not teaching 'oil and diplomat kids' in caracas hahahha he's usually visiting poets all over the world. as i write he's in wales giving a copy to peter finch, last week it was LA and into the hands of fred voss !! i couldn't be happier with the distribution chris has arranged with some of the best independent book stores in the states and of course like i said he's getting copies into hands and sending it out to other poets...and yea, chris has always been very encouraging of my stuff and has told me that he's really happy with the book that we 'birthed'... i think i replied the eraserhead you mean !! 

that's a bit about how it happened by chance or almost didn't and yes, i'm grateful. very.

I’ve been trying to work out the meaning of your title ‘Corrugator.’ According to Wiki, the corrugator supercili muscle lies above the eyes, is also known as the ‘frowning muscle’ and ‘may be regarded as the principle muscle in the impression of suffering.’ If I can correctly join the dots, does this mean your book is essentially focused on the notion of suffering?

 you're quite right in your deductions and research about the title george. i wasn't sure if it was a bit of an obscure reference. to my mind it sounded like a good made up word/name to describe someone who suffers. and yes, corrugator, like meet me, has a fair bit to do with suffering but also other things. some of your readers may also be interested to know that each and everyone of us has another corrugator muscle located in our assholes... ha !

I wasn’t aware on that! The cover photograph taken by you appears to have been shot though household curtains. It features a statue of Christ with out-stretched hands holding fairy Christmas lights. Why did you select this photo for your cover?

it just seemed appropriate for some reason and hopefully it suggests or provokes different responses, associations, ideas or memories in different people that might read the chap. the image was taken on 12/12/12 at midday. i used to notice this statue which sits in the front yard of a big fuck off mansion on my way to housing appeals. back then i wasn't taking photos but when i did get into taking pics, one day on the way to another appeal i thought i'm going to snap this because i'm always looking at it, reacting to it each time i drive past... anyway 12/12/12 was the day. i like it. and yea fairy lights, but also the statue of liberty hooded and tortured like a prisoner in abu ghraib... now there's suffering.

You include less narrative poems than your first collection and the overall style is pared down considerably. Many of the poems are 40 words or less. Some only a few lines. Can you explain this shrinking of language in your poems?

i'm disappearing man !!! but seriously you're right on all counts. why ? well, i was finding it difficult to write or express myself in any other way. i've also always been interested in the short poem form and haiku. i'm not a big fan of really, really, long poems to be honest, and long poems at readings, well unless it's outstanding someone like me will probably zone out after 44 seconds... i guess i was experimenting with the idea of less is better and maybe more immediate and direct...maybe also the place/head space i was in only allowed that form. like i said before i don't over-think my poetry so i can't really explain why the paring... just is. for now. maybe i'll go back to longer more narrative driven poems. i know some people think i should ! 

In a few of your poems ‘as the rain’, ‘so fucking drunk’ and ‘thirsty work’ you mention your day job as a tenant advocate for a community legal centre in Perth. Can you tell us briefly about your work and especially why so many Housing Commission tenants are being evicted by the RTA (Residential Tenancies Act)?

for the last 8 years i've worked in community legal centres as a tenant advocate advising tenants of their rights and responsibilities in both public housing and the private rental market. if a client for whatever reason or disadvantage can't advocate effectively for themselves i'll assist them with letters, appeals etc and court representation. i believe in social and economic justice and that affordable, appropriate and secure housing is a basic human right, in fact that's what keeps me going in a poorly paid and at times stressful job. i've nearly burnt out on a few occasions over the years but hey i'm still carrying the flame... 

why so many public housing evictions ? ultimately because neo-liberalism is in ascendance, because the government finds it expedient to play to and stoke populist 'law and order' sentiment rather than admit WA has been in the midst of a housing affordability crisis for years because of their policies and their continual under-funding of state housing and that by evicting the most dispossessed and marginalised and traumatised people in our community they're doing something about the massive waiting lists they are ultimately responsible for. there's got to be a better way to support and deal with these tenancies, the vast majority being aboriginal. every wednesday and thursday i see 10 or 12 public housing terminations at various stages listed in the Court that i attend most regularly. btw there are 4 other metropolitan Courts and plenty of regional ones. so yea, state housing evictions by the housing provider of last resort are escalating as directed by government which is obscene in a resource rich, boom state like WA. 

Thanks for your insights. In many of the poems in the collection, you create the impression that your writing is ‘pointless’ or unworthy and that your reader is ‘reading a tombstone.’ In one of the last poems in the collection ‘for the record’ you write that ‘I don’t believe in poetry/ anymore.’ Are you on your last legs as a poet or is there something deeper in the well?

well at times i've felt that way. who knows ? i'd like to think not. i'd still like to write that one good poem, to influence someone in the way that many poets have influenced and touched and affected and comforted and renewed me and continue to despite all my doubt and ambivalence and cynicism... still, the fact remains that some things are more important than poetry and sometimes we get pissed off with scenes or ourselves or the things and people we love... i went thru that, might be coming out and some of the poems merely reflect and report back on that place.... now, writing this response removed from a lot of the pain, hurt and doubt that the book came from i'd like to think the well is half full ! and legless, yes, sometimes no doubt, last legs we'll see...

Paul, you used to write hundreds of poems on your blog ‘The Last Disciple’. What happened to that project?

it went into desuetude. i just stopped. all things end. 3 years is a long time to write a 'poem' every day and when i decided to pull the plug about a year and a half ago i was in a dark and painful place and feeling very fucking ambivalent about poetry and certain poets. ha. never say never again tho, right ? i think facebook now holds the copyright to my shit. hahahha...

You recently started a photo blog with Coral Carter called once you see once http://onceyousee.blogspot.com.au/ What do you enjoy about photography? Why the obsession with crucifixes?

well, about 4 years ago my brother gave me a pocket digital camera as a present. of course it sat unused for years until one day about a year ago, god knows why, i decided to start using it. what i do know is that taking photos caused me to see things anew and that it was truly therapeutic... i started to appreciate the now, the moment, started to go for walks, started moving from a place of pain to one of acceptance and how, life, can be beautiful, goes on and always will...

i only have a basic camera and very little technical know how but i'm glad i picked that gift from dave up, started using it to see, record, remember, write 'poems' without any words...

as for cruciforms i see them everywhere like garth madsen describes in his poem ha ! i'm also very conscious of the mythology and symbolism of the cross and its effect within our culture and myself but no george i'm not obsessed with crucifixs, i'm a fucking proddie !! then again... corrugator.

Thanks Paul. All the best with Corrugator.

 i look forward to seeing what you've made of corrugator. thanks again, george.

best
paul

 To purchase Corrugator contact Chris Byck here: 48thstreetpress@gmail.com


Further Resources:

Here is a recent review of Corrugator on MemeoMemeo. Also discussed is Christopher Byck's outlaw poetry broadside project.: http://mimeomimeo.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/exile-on-48th-street.html

A review of Corrugator by Karina Bush: http://www.karinabush.com/close-up#!other

 

BOOK REVIEW- PAUL HARRISON- MEET ME AT GETHSEMANE, Mulla Mulla Press, Perth, 2011, 60 pages.

and somewhere

inside my throat

lies a song

and a scream

‘the sun is setting on the south china sea’

This is the first chapbook collection by the Perth poet Paul Harrison. He started writing about three years ago and is best known for his poetry blog ‘The Last Disciple First’ http://thelastdisciplefirst.blogspot.com/. This is an eclectic mix of  thirty-six outlaw inspired poems. He uses fashionable lower case and the minimalistic style of the underground to convey his spin on ‘the agony’ of contemporary living. These are highly self reflective poems intensely written and worn like a hairshirt by Harrison. These are songs which sometimes emerge as screams, the cadence of the poems often breathless as intimate moments are recalled and then stripped of their joy, as the derangement and despair of loss returns.

The title of the book ‘meet me at gethsemane’ refers to the famous haunt of Christ’s where he regularly met his disciples and where he was eventually betrayed by Judas. The book’s epigraph is a quote from the Book of Luke, ‘And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.’ This statement appears to be ironically juxtaposed with the cover photo of the crumbled Major Mitchell Cockatoo, a victim of road kill- suggesting symbolically, a meeting with an angel will never take place for Harrison.

As he explains in the interview which follows, Harrison is not a Christian but he finds comfort in the gospels. In the opening poem ‘lord’ the speaker sees ‘the ashes’ of decay and death everywhere. He directly appeals to Christ to help guide him out of his wilderness of despair and hopelessness. This quest for certainty and the release from the agony and the betrayal of life is contrasted with his thirst for the irrational rush of the void. In ‘holy, holy, holy’ the speaker shows admiration and respect for the sadhus and their holy life of restraint and self discipline but he is in the end drawn towards ‘the void’:

i can’t wait

till evening

and a good long draught

of the void

Some of these poems first appeared in raw and uncompromising magazines such as tree killer ink, deuce coupe, zygote in my coffee, eviscerator heaven, black-listed magazine, alternative reel, opium poetry and other leading edge underground publications. Harrison’s language is unadorned and devoid of pretension. His style is simple and straightforward, reminiscent of John Yamrus. As Harrison says in the interview he ‘tends not to think his poetry’- he just writes the stuff.

Harrison is particularly influenced by the outlaw poetry of  f.a. nettelbeck and Steve Richmond. In the interview he says, ‘i admire their longevity…the fact that both in their own ways were true 'outlaw' poets…that both are neglected geniuses…that both were experimental and avant garde... that both said fuck you to the poetry guardians and arbiters of taste and just did their thing, endless creation, endless reportage.’

Harrison is a developing writer and has set himself huge goal posts in attempting to emulate his two iconic heroes. In ‘what i dig about richmond’ he makes clear what the focus should be on his own subject matter:

what i really like

is the way he describes

incessantly

the mundane

quotidian acts

of everyday living

or that which we call life

like cleaning the toilet

or taking a shit

Harrison is often at his best when he describes the ordinary. Like in ‘doll’ when he hires a lap dancer or ‘love one another’ when he suffers the consequences of urinating in a police van or in ‘that’s entertainment’ where he picks up a girl at a Cruel Sea gig. His examinations of underclass portraits are also worthy of close reading, such as ‘no laughing matter’ about a junky flatmate and ‘mary inconsolable’ about a mentally ill woman with a phantom pregnancy who is hopeful of being discharged from a psych ward.

Many of the poems in this collection are narratives which often venture forward in a fragmented, impressionistic style- as if the world of the poet has disintegrated- ‘like god has just spilled another jigsaw’. In dredging up painful personal memories as in the deeply evocative poems ‘i picture us tonight (and once)’ and ‘entwined in dissolution’ Harrison is creatively putting together the Humpty Dumpty of his guilt-ridden soul to perhaps atone for some of the mistakes of his sorry-assed past.

Harrison is largely apolitical but comfortably moves from the personal to the political in his work. In ‘against forgetting’ he writes a poem in which he collectivizes those who have faced the wrath of authority in the gulags and concentration camps but who have continued to write on ‘in their own blood and faeces’ in an expression of personal rebellion. In ‘some things are known’ he lists what he has learned in life, including that democracy is a con and ‘that the privilege to write poetry/ badly/ with line breaks and not much else’ is founded on the ‘aggravated theft’- presumably the plundering of developing country’s resources and the subsequent deaths of millions of their innocent children’s lives through disease and colonial exploitation.

Although the tone of this collection is sometimes bitter and angry the poems never wallow in self pity or self indulgence.  There are many moments of humour which reveal Harrison’s underlying spirit of resilience and hope for personal transformation. ‘some advice for aspiring poets’ and ‘some of the better, famous, unknown small presses’ are clever underground lampoons of mainstream values which aptly express the poet’s  critical but positive intent of his writing.

The world is awash with writers trying to outbuk Bukowski. Who deliberately engage in suffering for the sake of art. Harrison writes simply because he is compelled to. Without pretension. Without embellishing or fabricating experience. He writes from the heart. And if you take the time and the care you begin to realise Harrison is a new and original talent and one of the best emerging new voices from the Australian underground.

INTERVIEW WITH PAUL HARRISON

1. Can you explain the behind the scenes dealings which lead to the publication of gethsemane? For example, who is Mulla Mulla Press, how did they approach you and how smooth was the editing process?

it began as a mistake or rather it started as a joke. back in early december 2010 i was leaving a reading in perth with some friends and poets a bit pissed and joking about black sparrow and john martin and bukowski. at some point walking up william street i said to my friend, the poet coral carter, and now my publisher how's about you give me a lot of cash and you can have the rights to all my poems. altho i work, like most people i'm constantly skint and scratching around.. anyway, coral wisely declined to become my patron but did mention that she'd been wanting to start a publishing venture for quite some time. so i said well why don't you publish me, every other poet out there has a book bla bla bla. anyway and luckily for me she liked my work so before we reached the pub we shook hands on her publishing my first book meet me.. within a few weeks i'd sent mulla mulla a manuscript, well actually a word doc with about fifty or sixty poems and we started the editing process. i think that that process was harder on the publisher than me.. i have a pretty strong personality when i want to and was quite stubborn about not changing the poems around too much. so really the edit was mostly about selection, spelling, grammar etc. and in that regard i am grateful to zan ross for proof reading and making suggestions about the latter. to be honest i would probably never get away with what i did in different circumstances and with a different editor but hey that's how it happened and i take full responsibility for the work as it appears.

2. Gethsemane is the place where JC & his disciples often met & where he was finally betrayed by Judas & arrested. Can you explain the underlying meaning behind the title of your chapbook ‘meet me at gethsemane’ and how this concept is reflected within the book & also the front cover photo?

well the title actually started life as a short poem which i'll quote in full- some advice for the lovers/ meet me at gethsemane. my work has been described as having the ecstasy of sadness and i guess if there's any motif running thru the book it's that we'll all experience agony and betrayal at some point in our lives or quite regularly in some cases. at the same time while not being a christian except by birth i often find comfort in the gospels and of course any serious writer that doesn't have some knowledge or use for the bible and other religious texts is kidding themselves... as for the photo that's a major mitchell cockatoo taken by the publisher.. she was showing me some of her work one night and i was a bit stoned and said that looks like a fallen angel pointing somewhere.. and i reckon it would make a great cover for the book and tie in with the bible verse quoted on the dedication page, can i use it ? and of course we did..

3. Overall, your book is an eclectic mix of varied underground styles & perspectives. In your poems you mention Bukowski, Dransfield, Todd Moore & others. I am more interested in lesser known poets such as f.a. nettelbeck- who you dedicate your book to- & Steve Richmond, who is idolised in two of your poems. What do you admire about these two American poets and what features of their writing have you tried to incorporate into your own work?

i tend not to 'think' my poetry and well, my admiration for both of those poets was and continues to reside at a gut level. my friend f.a. passed away recently and i believe richmond died on the 155th anniversary of rimbaud's birth altho to me they're both very much alive thru their work. i guess i admire their longevity (both wrote and struggled as poets for over 40 years).. the fact that both in their own ways were true 'outlaw' poets..that  both are neglected geniuses ( and i don't say that lightly).. that both were experimental and avant garde..that both were part of the mimeo revolution.. that both said fuck you too the poetry guardians and arbiters of taste and just did their thing, endless creation, endless reportage, in richmond's case at a very personal, almost psychological level but universal too.. i mean his gagaku, his beautiful, incessant, lyrical gagaku must count as one of the truly outstanding explorations of mind and place in the history of C20th literature.. in fred's case he wrote for over 40 years about his love/hate affair with the USA, about the horror and dissonance and dumbing down of life all around us and he did so by using and abusing and playing with language and the written word on many different levels… it's actually hard for me right now to reflect on his work because i still miss him a lot and like i said i'm not really into academic critiques or reflections. anyway their work will be around long after most of the other almost fellows are wiping their arses with their first chapbooks in a nursing home..

4. In an illuminating interview with Ben Pleasants entitled ‘Twilight of a Dope Fiend Poet’ http://www.hollywoodinvestigator.com/2007/richmond.htm Richmond states that the vast majority of art is produced while intoxicated. In his book ‘Gagaku’ he produces ‘microscopic examinations of the self’ most likely under the influence of heroin. When you write your stuff is ‘intoxication’ sometimes your method of choice?

well having several addictions i'm 'intoxicated' to some degree most days. that said not all the poems in my first collection were written under the influence.. sometimes the idea for a poem and its execution just hits like a rush and there's no substances involved except ink.. i'm also not convinced that my writing benefits from my 'lifestyle' but that's just the way it is at the moment and has been since my teens.. for the last year or so i've been trying to write something every day and for me that usually involves getting home from work and loosening up with a few drinks or whatever.. then seeing what happens. anyway i don't subscribe to the idea that you need to be drug fucked to be 'an artist' altho we all know the old saying in vino veritas..and honesty in poetry and life i hold in high esteem.. i'm pretty sure SR wrote a lot of his stuff stoned, high, coming off, coming down and you know for some people that works but hey, there's nothing particularly glamorous about dying of liver disease or whatever. do i write under the influence.. yea, sometimes i do. next question.

 5. I have followed your blog ‘The Last Disciple First’ for over a year http://thelastdisciplefirst.blogspot.com/ The 700-800 poems archived there are largely confessional and you have attracted a wide international audience. You note in your blog’s profile, ‘i wrote my first poem when i was twelve. a twenty seven year hiatus followed. one day i would like to write a good one.’ Can you recount the events which lead to your emergence as a poet in your late thirties? What continues to drive your vision? (By the way, can you explain your blog’s name?)

 good question. i started the blog and writing about 3 years ago and whether anyone reads it or whether my poems are accepted in the magazines is not that important because it's something that right now i need and want to do. i can't say exactly why i started writing in my 38th year but it's probably got something to do with the fact that we're all going to die but also because i'd been meaning to for a long time and i thought well if i don't start now i never will. i was also hanging out with a crew heavily involved in the spoken word scene here in perth and i guess in different ways those people encouraged me to give it a go. i've always loved books, reading, literature and over the years people have been telling me i've a way with words or that i talked like a writer or hey man you should start writing so yea, here i am, giving it a go…why the last disciple first ? i guess the blog's title reflects my politics filtered thru a religious upbringing..
maybe i should have called it pretty words or something !

6.You have been involved in many open mic events in Perth. Can you describe what the scene is like there.

well i can't really compare it to over east or the states cos i aint familiar with those scenes but yea i'd say it's pretty healthy or normal as far as scenes go. ha. slam poetry events organised here in perth by al and tonya boyd regulary attract audiences of fifty plus and probably up to 40 spoken word/poet entrants over the various nights.. cottonmouth is a monthly poetry/music fest again attracting audiences of over fifty.. the perth poetry club every saturday always gets good crowds, attracts national and international guests, emerging and established writers and has a generous open mic policy… i think that's where i read my first poem  back when it was at the Court Hotel.. then there are readings in fremantle and a good monthly night at the fringe gallery organised by terry farrell and amanda joy.. i know i've probably missed a few readings but overall i'd say there's definitely a scene or rather different scenes thriving here in good old redneck perth, the most isolated city in the world.

7.What’s next for you? Any plans?

well i plan on staying upright. and i might start submitting to magazines again. i might also look into self-publishing another chap book..other than that no plans, really.. i don't do plans.. ambition.. all that stuff.. to write a few good poems and to be a decent father, friend and stranger is probably enough.

cheers george and thanks for the interview,

paul

Mulla Mulla Press can be contacted here: http://www.mullamullapress.com/books