I’m grappling with this question as I prepare lesson plans to start the new writing term. Putting myself in the shoes of prospective students. I know some of my past students are returning – they’ve already been in touch, checking dates and times with several looking forward to continuing their projects, meeting up with old friends, learning new techniques and returning to some structure to their week.
But why do we write?
I’ve been addicted and passionate about words and writing all my life so it’s a question I’ve often asked and been asked!
Is it a desire or need to scribble thoughts on paper, record imaginings, in a belief it is important, or fun, urgent or pleasurable – or a combination of all of these?
So many people express the desire to write and record their story ‘if they had time’ or ‘when I finish work’, ‘when the kids leave home’, or numerous other excuses. Just as many start a book and don’t finish.
And despite stating how much I love writing, I can identify with all those categories and excuses!
Maybe that’s why I love teaching writing classes – it keeps me writing, keeps me motivated and engaged, and keeps the dream of the printed word alive.
The novel may be unfinished but hundreds of stories and poems are written, shared, and published.
Emotion, Trauma, Social Justice – Strong Motivators For Writing
A life-changing experience or strong feelings often encourage people to pick up a pen or switch on a computer. The opposite, of course, can be true – many people write from boredom. They need the adrenaline rush of exercising their imagination and writing the books they love to read!
I am always fascinated by the variety of responses to a single prompt.
Students can fill a page with characters and plot, or pluck beautiful prose from their memory, write original metaphors and similes and then weave the words into remarkable settings to immerse readers and listeners in the power of story.
Or they address and simplify concepts, share life-transforming events that speak to profound truths and touch the heart…
Writing Poetry And Short Stories Can Solve Dilemmas
“A problem shared is a problem halved,” Mum used to say.
“Sleep on it” or “take a walk and mull it over” some other good advice if a burning resentment must be exorcised, difficult decisions faced, or a dilemma solved.
Rather than real life exposes or rants, writers can put characters in a situation, give them the problem to solve, the ethical conundrum, the family feud, the injustice to fight – work it all out on paper.
It’s useful and even therapeutic to have characters take the criticism or kudos, make the mistakes, work through the issues.
Many people have a need to be creative and writing may satisfy that need. You may not have the stamina to produce a novel but exploring poetry can be exceptionally satisfying and fun.
Wordplay, riddles and even returning to childhood rhymes and fairy tales and writing new ones all valid and satisfying writing projects.
Form poetry a good starting point and everything from affairs of the heart, the devastation of war, to the meaning of life can be expressed through poetry.
Writing isn’t all about entertainment or amusement nor does it have to be obscure or difficult to understand but it does have to connect with the reader in some way.
Playful And Powerful – English Has A Word That Fits…
English… What’s That?
Mairi Neil
English is definitely a funny language –
funny peculiar and funny ha ha!
So many words with double meanings,
unusual spelling – can drive you ga ga!
Let’s take a word like mean,
an average word you understand,
unless like Scrooge you won’t share
or be a bully – and don’t care.
So many words that sound the same,
they’re annoying and confusing,
their meaning drastically different –
mistakes often highly amusing.
Some words sound how they look,
so clap for onomatopoeia and be glad,
but knowing phonetics doesn’t stop
those silent letters making you mad.
You can pinch a pinch of salt,
and we know a flea can flee,
that ship’s sail may be on sale –
but no way can a pea, pee.
The pale moon won’t fit in a pail,
but every tale can have a tail,
a little mite has a lot of might
and that rite may not be right.
A mayor can ride a mare,
he may stand on a stair to stare,
and eat local fare at a fair,
their jobs are always there.
Your genes may fade like jeans,
and I’ll shed a tear over a tear,
worry about the whole of a hole,
being the sole keeper of my soul.
Criticisms of English usage has weight,
when you can eat a date while on a date
and meet a terrible fate at a fete,
by discovering pâté on your pate!
A male can deliver the mail
and a hare without hair is rare,
but both can be weak for a week
if bones creak because of a creek.
And English has many phrases,
difficult for learners to understand,
like ‘pot calling the kettle black’
oh, the language is underhand!
Advice ‘from the horses’ mouth’,
‘without a shadow of a doubt’,
advises dreaded cliches to avoid –
but it’s hard weeding those phrases out.
English language confusing and amusing,
yet its richness can be rewarding –
once mastered, you’ll be addicted,
and it’s not banned or even restricted!
Henry Ford advocated lifelong learning
Do You Need to Write or Just Want to Set Your Imagination Free?
I’m looking forward to the start of another teaching year. Meeting new and old students coming together to write. Each one will have their own voice and style and a dream or project.
All will be united in their love of words.
Some will write fact, others fiction.
Some will struggle with the blank page. Their words dripping like a slow-leaking tap, while the ink from the pens of others gushes like Niagara Falls.
Stories that have waited a lifetime to be written will astound, others will be fictionalised to be more palatable or easier to write.
Short story fantasies or gritty realism, profound poems or funny doggerel – all shared to inspire each other.
Passions rekindled and new passions created as genres are explored. From comfort zone to brain challenging learning. Each class new friendships will form as we become a writing community.
The price of wellbeing rarely factored in when the beancounters in government look at community education today. It is all about being job ready or being digitally and technologically savvy.
Wellbeing, not a word to use when applying for education funding apparently.
Yet, some of the most talented writers in my classes have lived 80 years or more. They still want to learn, still want to write, and are producing wonderful stories and poems. Seeking employment and digital glory, not their highest priority!
They create a legacy for the next generations, they focus on writing and building new friendships for a few hours a week… forget age and ability … they have aptitude and attitude!
They’ll embrace new techniques and tools but it’s about the words, emotions and engagement.
WHY WRITE?
Mairi Neil
A has aspirations to write a novel B likes to play with words C has a loveless life and seeks romance D thinks Mills and Boon absurd E loves family history F reads and journals a lot G creates settings with descriptive flair H just loves to plot! I preaches grammar absorbed from school J admits to being a hopeless speller K always suffers from writer’s block L is an expert storyteller. M adores purple prose N employs similes galore O aches to be published one day P escapes household chores Q uses metaphors imaginatively R nurtures the inner child S writes for children but libertarian T is erotica gone wild U is definitely a poet V writes doggerel and verse W fears rejection X is tense and terse Y dramatises everything writing drama to entertain
and Z – well – Z writes to understand the world – the musings society’s gain!
On Wednesday evening, my daughters and I went to Southland to see the latest film release of Michelle Williams – All the Money In the World.
As I’ve mentioned in other reviews, she is a favourite actress. We love to support her films and this one seems especially relevant for our times when we have supposedly one of the richest men in the world as President of the USA and people divided as to his character.
Are wealth and business acumen an indication of character? Are they the most important attributes of a man/leader? Or is all wealth and power from wealth corrupting?
The film, directed by Ridley Scott, will also be forever linked to controversybecause of the #Me Too Movement, Kevin Spacey’s hurried exit, and also the pay inequality exposed by the reshoot when the disparity of Michelle and co-star Mark Wahlberg’s payment made headlines.
Definitely a movie for celebrity-obsessed, social media times!
The Power Of Story – Does Everyone Have A Price?
All the Money In the World inspired by real-life events and based on a book about the 1973 kidnapping of teenager John Paul Getty 111 (played by Charlie Plummer).
(The latest film about Churchill and WW2 released at the same time and on my to see list suffering a similar fate.)
However, as I said in my review of The Greatest Showman if you are seeking historical accuracy and “the truth”, which, in my view, is almost impossible to ever discover, please don’t expect it from Hollywood, an industry first and foremost about entertainment!
There are libraries, museums, historical documents and research institutes aplenty – seek your own facts but as far as movies are concerned, accept that stories inspired or based on real people or events will be dramatised to fit into a 2-3 hour window and suspension of reality.
Creative non-fiction is a literary genre and movie scripts based on fact aim for authenticity but sacrifice accuracy for the power of story too.
As Entertainment ‘All the Money in The World ‘Succeeds
From July – November 1973, the period the film is set, I was travelling in the UK while enjoying a year away from my university studies in Australia.
I can remember the newspapers being obsessed by the kidnapping central to the film. At 19 years of age – not much older than John Paul Getty 111, and far from home and family, I could only imagine his terror and how his mother struggled to cope.
I received regular letters from my Mum and every time I rang home (reverse charges!) she would always end with ‘when are you coming home?’
How does a family cope with something as horrific as a kidnapping?
How did Paul’s mother, abandoned by husband and powerful father-in-law patriarch negotiate and survive this traumatic turn of events in a world where women were only just beginning to assert themselves? A world, where authority and power were dominated by males.
Michelle Williams as Gail, the teenager’s mother, captures the emotional havoc wreaked by the heinous act, compounded by the seemingly cold, calculated indifference from John Paul’s grandfather ‘the richest man in the world’ and his refusal to pay the ransom.
Her body language, the tone of voice, range of emotion in facial expressions a stellar performance. Believable and engaging.
Her expression in the closing scene, as she looks at a particularly significant piece of Paul Getty Senior’s priceless object d’art collection, sums up how I think every viewer would feel about the billionaire played brilliantly by Christopher Plummer, in an exceptional performance for someone called in as a last-minute replacement for Spacey!
A major thread in the movie is Gail’s ability to stand up to the Getty empire and the powerful Paul Getty Senior. In a divorce settlement she eschews the Getty money for herself and only wants money for the children and sole custody to protect her children from a drug-addled father – hence her dire straits when the kidnappers want $17million for the return of her son.
Money she doesn’t have.
The tension in the film is all about changing the grandfather’s mind from an initial refusal to pay the ransom because in his reasoning, he had 14 other grandchildren and he would soon have no money if he paid the kidnappers and invited criminal activity.
There is a suggestion that young Paul planned the kidnapping to get back at his grandfather and have a slice of his fortune. A sub-plot that allows Mark Wahlberg’s character, the grandfather’s head of personal security to figure large in the story and have a transformational journey.
However, when the boy’s ear is sent to a newspaper office to prove the kidnapping is serious and the boy’s life is at risk, the grandfather finally agrees, albeit to offer a much lower sum that is ‘tax deductible’.
The scenes of the frightened teenager shackled in caves and barns, stripped of his wealth and privilege, abused and later mutilated (a harrowing, edge of the seat scene), are visceral and heart-rending and contrast with the luxurious, yet cold and soulless lifestyle of his grandfather.
There is one kidnapper who develops a friendship with young Paul and nurses him through illness. He is genuinely astounded that a family so rich would value money over life and you wonder if his life circumstances were different would he be a hard-working farmer, factory worker, orprofessional living and contributing to society or would he succumb to the trappings of wealth and be corrupted… is there ever justification for criminal activity, excuses to be made for bargaining with someone’s life?
Did Marx get the divisions and problems of society right?
We certainly see the lumpen proletariat in action in this movie as well as the capitalists with and without conscience or integrity, and the bumbling, corrupt, brutal and ultimately efficient authorities.
A Movie of Our Times?
In a world still reeling from the effects of the GFC and a rising disgust for what many perceive as the failure of capitalism, the excesses of neoliberalism – this movie doesn’t pull any punches regarding the lack of morality of those who have so much money they become increasingly richer with little or no effort – money makes money if you are prepared to:
manipulate stocks,
break or manipulate laws or misuse legislation and tax havens
ruthlessly buy and sell works of art regardless of provenance or legality
ignore family responsibilities and treat people as commodities
The 1% don’t come out looking honourable (or really happy) – although by making Paul Getty Senior their representative, the film makes them larger than life. This richest man in the world revealed to be in a class of his own!
The film also exposes those with an insatiable greed and desire for money – other people’s money – people who don’t want to put in the time, investment or effort to earn a living honestly.
Mafiosi running the networks within the Calabrian underworld who kidnapped Paul Getty 111. They have no honour, no ethics, no integrity and no vision except self-service and dog eat dog.
Economic inequity is not new and All The Money In The Worldcreates the historical background and setting well – Getty made his money by exploiting the Middle East’s oil.
The changing social mores of the 60s turned into the revolutionary and alternative 70s – and Rome was one of the playgrounds of the super-rich.
Hash and marijuana the drug of choice, along with alcohol, soon to be surpassed by cocaine and heroin a scourge of emotionally vulnerable, including the wealthy.
Paul Getty 111, still too young to be an all-out wastrel and bad guy but a rich teenager with more freedom than most. Aware of his status and mixing in adult circles more than the average teenager there is a hint his life will be as aimless as his drug-addicted father.
His kidnapping a brutal shock but not entirely unexpected.
There is the reality of the rise of various terrorist groups, urban guerrillas and ‘freedom fighters’ in the 70s demanding society’s perceived wrongs must be addressed. The Red Brigade operated in Italy and were early suspects in Paul’s kidnapping and although they professed higher ideals their methods just as questionable as the various criminal groups seeking money.
A heady mix of strong characters and action for the movie to handle and it does it well without descending into sensational car chases, shoot-outs, boring stereotypes and gratuitous violence.
Telling a well-known story is always difficult – writers and directors have to find a new angle or techniques to spice up the story to keep people’s interest.
Actors have to capture the essence of the character and try to make them believable but not descend into caricature or be so far removed from reality that those who remember the ‘real’ people reject the story out of hand.
(As an aside, one daughter commented on how busy the wardrobe and hairdressers on set would have been to capture the authenticity of the period so well!)
Through powerful acting and good storytelling, All the Money in The World has focused on what it means to be human – what all art wants to do – confront, challenge, explore the human condition!
I’m sure this film will generate lots of dinner conversations – least of all the controversies around the making of it, the differences between the script and history, Hollywood’s sexual and pay equity scandals…
However, regarding the actual movie – go see and enjoy.
The production values are top shelf including some stunning cinematography and some memorable acting performances and scenes.
Think About…
What are the most important values for society to adopt?
Why do we revere the rich or cling to trickle down economics or accept the notion that being rich means being successful?
What are our own personal benchmarks?
Regardless of status or wealth is it the choices we make that decide our decency and humanity?
Is the pursuit of wealth in some people’s DNA?
How much is too much wealth?
Is it loving relationships, family, friendship and a feeling of belonging that provide true happiness, respect, and self-worth?
When Paul Getty Senior paid the ransom in All the Money in The World he facilitated the release of his injured and permanently traumatised grandson but didn’t buy happiness or heal damaged relationships – it takes breath and flesh to do that!
The original card a fundraiser for the Isle of Iona
When I first began teaching creative writing it was a volunteer in my children’s schools. A steep learning curve for me as well as for them!
But it did encourage me to do more with my desire to write including a return to university aged 57, to achieve a Masters in Writing.
The early experiences in schools and community groups inspired me to become qualified to teach in Neighbourhood Houses. I have been privileged to be with and help other passionate writers for over 20 years.
A wonderful journey, exploring the power of words and learning new ways to express feelings, observations, and thoughts – playing with genre and form and having fun with the flexibility of the English language.
And So I Discovered The Cinquain!
The cinquain is a five line poem that follows a pattern.
Cinq is the French word for five.
Cinquains do not rhyme.
The most commonly found is an American derivative of the haiku and tanka.
It consists of five lines, of 2, 4, 6, 8 and 2 syllables respectively.
UNSW image Barry Eggleton
Although this form appears simple, it isn’t necessarily easy to write well, or with the subtlety or nuance, many people expect from poetry.
However, it is a good starting point for anyone intimidated by ‘Poetry’ – perhaps harbouring feelings of inadequacy (or nursing a dislike) – because of what or how they learned at school.
Form poetry like the limerick and haiku provides a useful framework for the inexperienced writer to experiment with words and experience some early success.
It doesn’t matter if the lines don’t have exactly the right number of syllables – what is important is that the writer has created a word picture and has had access to a framework for support.
I use pictures for inspiration, making it even easier! Another way of recording memories…
The traditional cinquain may be based on a syllable count but modern cinquains use a formula of word type.
line 1 – one word (noun) a title or name of the subject
line 2 – two words (adjectives) describing the title
line 3 – three words (verbs) describing an action related to the title
line 4 – four words describing a feeling about the title, a complete sentence
line 5 – one word referring back to the title of the poem
Writing A Cinquain
On the first line choose a subject
On the second line, write two adjectives describing the subject
On the third line, write three action words (usually ending with ‘ing’) to describe what the subject might do
On the fourth line, write a phrase describing what the subject may mean to you or others
On the fifth line, write a synonym for the subject
It can even work for personal stories, themes or special days like Mother’s Day!
Mum and me 1953!
If you Google “what is a cinquain” it will say:
A cinquain is a five-line poem that was invented by Adelaide Crapsey. She was an American poet who took her inspiration from Japanese haiku and tanka.
A collection of poems, titled Verse, was published in 1915 and included 28 cinquains.
Originally, Crapsey created the form for the American cinquain with five lines.
There were stresses per line –
• The first line has one stress, which was usually iambic meter with the first syllable unstressed and the second stressed.
• Line two has two stresses.
• Line three has three stresses.
• Line four has four stresses.
• Line five has one stress.
Following the invention of this form, Crapsey made changes and included a certain number of syllables per line. The most popular form I mentioned above of 2, 4, 6, 8 and 2 syllables.
Even though iambic feet were typically used in these cinquains, it was not a requirement of the structure.
Aaron Toleos hosts a cinquain blog and for his master’s theses studied Crapsey and the various forms of cinquain that existed prior to her “American cinquain” –
Adelaide Crapsey did not invent the five-line poem. The Sicilian quintain, the English quintain, the Spanish quintella, the Japanese tanka, and the French cinquain all predate hers. What she did invent, however, is a distinct American version of the five-line poem. Inspired by Japanese haiku and tanka and based on her advanced knowledge of metrics, she believed her form “to be the shortest and simplest possible in English verse…
Her interest in Japanese poetry has also led some critics to link her to the Imagist movement that became popular shortly after she died and was led by the likes of Ezra Pound, H. D., and Amy Lowell.
Louis Untermeyer, editor for many years of Modern American Poetry, for example, called her “an unconscious Imagist.” Although her untimely death precluded any chance for her to collaborate with these poets, Crapsey was undoubtedly influenced by some of the same factors that fomented their movement including a desire to pull back from some of the excesses of the Georgian poets. Like Crapsey’s cinquains, Imagist poetry is characterized by the precise use of imagery and economy of language…
Although modeled after Eastern forms such as the haiku and tanka which are almost never titled, Crapsey titled all of her cinquains. Furthermore, her titles were not casual but usually functioned as active “sixth lines” which conveyed important meaning to the poem
Although it was likely a matter of fashion rather than a meaningful poetic decision, Crapsey used initial capitalization exclusively for each of the cinquain’s five lines.
Aaron quite rightly asks – How could the Crapsey cinquain be the American cinquain when no one is writing cinquains in a way that is consistent with the formula she established?
The form has devolved into something much simpler: a verse of a 2 / 4 / 6 / 8 / 2 syllabic structure or a simple form based on word type, ‘an exercise in metrics regardless of meaning“.
Variety Spicing The Writer’s Life
The term cinquain is also used for any five-line stanza, along with quintain, quintet, and pentastich.
John Drury’s, The Poetry Dictionary, second edition, by Weiter’s Digest Books 2006, defines key terms helpful to every would-be poet:
quintain – a five-line stanza, sometimes called
a cinquain (although the term is now usually applied to a stanza developed by Adelaide Crapsey),
a quintet (although the term suggests a musical ensemble), or
a pentastich (especially if the stanza is unrhymed). Various rhymed schemes are possible.
Examples are given of aabab, ababa, ababb and a reminder that the limerick is a quintain!
IMAGISM – a poetic movement invented by Ezra Pound around 1909 and intended as an antidote to the rhetorical excesses of Victorian poetry and the pastoral complacency of Georgian verse.
Pound, along with Hilda Dolittle and Richard Aldington announced three principles:
1. Direct treatment of the ‘thing’ whether subjective or objective
2. To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation
3. As regarding rhythm: to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in sequence of a metronome.
Imagist poems strongly influenced by haiku and other eastern verse, were short, written in free verse, and presented images without comment or explanation.
Amy Lowell later led the movement, which expired near the end of WW1
In her own cinquains, Crapsey allowed herself to add or subtract a syllable from any given line. (That’s what is great about making the rules – you can break them!)
And really the resemblance to what is generally regarded as the cinquain seems tenuous…
Niagara Seen on a night in November
How frail
above the bulk
of crashing water hangs,
Autumnal, evanescent, wan,
The moon.
Snow
Look up…
From bleakening hills
Blows down the light, first breath
Of wintry wind…look up, and scent
The snow!
Adelaide Crapsey 1878-1914
To Sum Up
At the most basic level, a cinquain is a five line poem or stanza. The poem has one topic and the details describe the topic’s actions and feelings.
A Cinquain can be written about any topic, unlike traditional haiku which focuses on nature or seasons.
Choose any of the methods mentioned above – or follow Adelaide Crapsey’s style – and perhaps create a book of verse of memories, travel experiences, observations of daily life… most importantly just ‘have a go’… you’re a poet and didn’t know it!
Share a memory, make a statement, express yourself in a simple stanza…
Haiku is a Japanese poetry form using a few words to capture a moment and create a picture in the reader’s mind. A tiny window into a much larger scene or event.
The poet’s eye like a camera, the words hinting at the emotion or thought felt at that time – not telling the reader what to feel but hoping they understand or sense what that moment meant to the poet.
Traditionally, haiku is written in three lines, and when I was first introduced to the form I was told to have words making five syllables in the first line, seven syllables in the second line, and five syllables in the third line. ( 5,7,5 = 17 syllables)
Poets writing in Japanese do not count syllables – they count sounds.
The most important content is a strong image or an imagistic moment, therefore, we shouldn’t (and modern poets don’t) get fixated on the syllable count.
However, to many poets, a haiku is still a Japanese poem with 17 syllables, written in 3 lines. They find having that definite structure helpful:
First line — 5 syllables a frozen puddle
Second line — 7 syllables a trip back to my childhood
Third line — 5 syllables worth wet socks all day
A syllable is a part of a word that’s pronounced as a unit, usually made up of a single vowel or a vowel with one or more consonants.
‘fragile’ has 2 syllables: frag-ile
‘secluded’ has 3 syllables: se-clu-ded
However, many English-language haiku do not follow this exact structure and concentrate more on the poetic power or essence of the form rather than the syllable count.
This allows a freedom to express thoughts and feelings and not be shackled to word or syllable count. An unnecessary straightjacket when you consider the difficulty of being able to translate exactly the nuances of any language into another.
Typical qualities expected from haiku may be –
A focus on nature.
A “season word” such as “spring” telling the reader the time of year.
Somewhere in the poem a shift of focus from one detail to another. The relationship between these two parts perhaps surprising.
Mindfulness is a word that has become a popular concept translated to ‘living in the moment’ – essentially what a haiku can be: a moment; a vivid image that seems to make time stand still for the poet and hopefully transmitting that feeling to the reader.
I’ve been having fun writing haiku inspired by random photographs I’ve taken. The images help jog memory as to what I was thinking and feeling at the time.
I don’t always get it to work the way I would like, but ‘practice makes perfect’ is a good maxim or the childhood advice ‘if at first, you don’t succeed, try, try, try again’!
Haiku does not have to rhyme and many today are on any topic or about any subject.
They don’t have to have a title either, but you can give them a title if you like.
Postcard from the Park
Petals fall from trees like pink ashes and the wind brings the smell of dog poop
Guillermo Castro in The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Writing Poetry
Words can make pictures in your mind
Think of haiku as a snapshot – a piece of time frozen forever. A snapshot can freeze people, places, objects, creatures, events, feelings, even random thoughts.
The haiku … was an important influence on the imagists – poets like Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams and H. D. – and later, the Beat Generation, in love with Zen…
Children are very good at haiku. They naturally achieve that freshness of perception necessary for all poetry, and for haiku in particular. (They also like the fact that they don’t have to write very much.) Economy and observation are the two main qualities of the haiku – and these are good disciplines, however old you are…
… it is also possible to write one, two or four-line haiku, and that the syllable count can vary enormously. The extreme minimalism– absolutely no unnecessary words – and the presentation of a defining moment are the most important requirements.
Linda France, Mslexia Guide To Poetic Forms
Traditionally, haiku always refer to the natural world and present the human relationship to that world.
The season, an essential context suggesting an association with time passing and continuing.
However, in contemporary Western haiku, this is no longer necessary and the form easily adapts to be terse verse focusing on the world around you – the weather, your mood and observations.
Remember The Senses
The first most obvious sense is sight – writing what you observe.
But it also can be touch or sound.
More Advice From Linda France
The first line usually establishes a time or a place, a setting for the subsequent action, which usually takes the form of a powerful sensory impression.
Brevity requires the language to be succinct, striking and accurate. No rhymes, similes, or excessive ornamentation should be used – and few adjectives.
It is important to present the thing itself, the simple truth. No tricks.
The line-endings reflect the neatness of the form.
Each line is self-contained, evoking a new image.
Punctuation is kept to a minimum. The dash is used to establish settings without a preposition and link them to what follows.
All of these haiku are on disparate themes. But if they were related in some way – via subject, mood or setting – they would form a haiku sequence.
The haiku is the perfect form for journeys and visiting new places, recording all those powerful moments that would otherwise evaporate.
There are cultural differences that can make a haiku in English seem the very opposite of natural and authentic.
Linda France
Take the opportunity to practice writing haiku – forget about syllables – concentrate on the idea of a snapshot of what you see and feel, and write three lines.
Each year in my class at Godfrey Street in Bentleigh we collaborate with the art classes and do just that – write our poems to their pictures and the calendar is sold as a fundraiser.
With today’s technology, this is a project anyone can attempt – adding a poem to special photographs and making a calendar or a diary.
Think of how you experience the seasons – how does it differ each season?
What do you do?
Where do you go?
Think of your daily routine
Choose a setting:
What sounds are specific to this place?
How does that sound change according to the season?
How does that make you feel – how do you react?
How do you feel emotionally?
How are you or the place transformed?
When we examine each work of art for the calendar – we put ourselves in the scene – we respond/react as in the scene or the one creating the scene.
If you don’t have a calendar for inspiration, look at postcards, or an album of travel pictures. Write a short, dramatic, poetic response but most of all enjoy immersing yourself in trying to find the right words, play around with nuance, move out of your writing comfort zone.
Sitting at my desk
captured memories recalled
in haiku dreams…
Please feel free to share your haiku because ’tis true – you too can haiku.
On Tuesday, January 9, 2018, I attended a talk by Dr Gregory Moore OAM about the value of trees and public open space, hosted by the Kingston Residents Association.
It was a timely talk in more ways than one to make us aware how important a tree canopy is not only to healthy living but sustainable survival:
Kingston Council is seeking submissions regarding a Tree Management Plan with January 19th being the closing day so please HAVE YOUR SAY!
The latest statistics regarding climate change and increased temperatures in Australia show more bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef – and it’s changing the sex of turtles!
The severity of the devastating landslide in California is being blamed on the tremendous loss of trees from earlier bushfires.
A perfect storm of land development, fire, wind and then rain conspired to create the deadly avalanche of mud and debris that levelled homes in Southern California this week.…
USA TODAY
Councils and governments often ask Dr Moore for advice from regarding Tree Management Plans and has been a member of the National Trust of Victoria’s Register of Significant Trees since 1988.
He has been on the Board of Greening Australia (Victoria) since 1989 and chaired TREENET since 2009 which is an Independent Non-profit Organisation dedicated to improving the urban forest.
Dr Greg Moore, Honorary Senior Fellow Melbourne School of Land and Environment was a lecturer and Principal at Burnley from 1979 to 2007 with interests in horticulture, plant science, revegetation and ecology. He is a well-known advocate for arboriculture and urban trees.
Greg is an active contributor to industry and community standards, and professional associations in the field of trees in the urban environment and revegetation. He is regarded as an international expert in tree biology and tree management.
How ‘Green’ Is Melbourne?
Remember when Victorian number plates proudly boasted ‘The Garden State’? (1977)
People were outraged when Premier Jeff Kennett not only changed the colour from green and white but also the slogan to “On The Move” as this articlefrom 2012 relates.
It also states some statistics about why Melbourne was considered the ‘greenest’ city, including:
Victoria has the most public parks and gardens within 5km of the CBD of any state, with a total of 124. 16 parks covering 480 hectares are located within the City of Melbourne alone.
The City of Melbourne has 60,000 trees valued at $650 million amenity value
Victoria’s nursery and garden industry is the largest of any Australian state, with an estimated economic value $2.72 billion, and employing over 15,000 Victorians
it is now 2018 and Dr Moore shocked us when he announced Melbourne is not as green as we think with less than 20% of the 30% tree canopy considered necessary for our health and well-being.
Kingston has less than 12%!
Melbourne has less than Brisbane and Adelaide and considerably less than London, England, which has 50% green space with 22% of a canopy classified as forest.
A frightening picture for Melbourne was revealed in a 2016 article in The Age when the effects of global warming hit home in a report commissioned by the State Government.
Winners and Losers
Australia is a continent – the world’s driest continent – but not everyone will be affected the same way by climate change. There will be winners and losers. Some areas will be able to grow crops they can’t at the moment, others will be unable to sustain the crops they now grow.
According to CSIRO modelling, Victoria, some consider the nation’s food bowl, “cops a whacking”. Mostly out west and inner parts of Melbourne.
view from the train leaving city heading north-west
Why?
Throughout Melbourne, tree canopy and vegetation are lost at the rate of 1-2% a year from private land, mainly because of private development.
Dr Moore warned that in Kingston there will be a battle as developers aim for golf courses. If not protected, privatised golf courses will be sold for redevelopment or will apply to have vegetation removed. It has happened in other areas and we must remain vigilant.
Reality is that developers and those pro-development have control of Plan Melbourne and planning laws in their favour. The Housing Industry Association a powerful body Australia-wide.
I live opposite the railway line near Mordialloc railway station, and development is happening at a rapid pace. Sadly, I watch familiar trees being removed and wonder what shrubbery will replace them:
Time Running Out
We must take biological changes caused by climate change seriously – the change of sex of Green Turtles a huge shock, yet we’ve had 30 years to prepare.
At Burnley College, the first question about the effect of climate change appeared on exam papers in 1988.
We have squandered lead time.
The pathetic shenanigans over the Carbon Tax, the political point scoring and response over Energy needs (policy and cost) have led to ridiculous decisions and nonsense by politicians.
While they play party politics, the consumers and citizens pay the price.
The Victorian Government has a reasonable track record with good bipartisan policies, but it is not good enough. Most people are too ignorant and unaware of the urgency – more needs to be done regarding educating for changed behaviour and for local councils to act and the State government to pick up the slack when councils don’t.
In the Docklands there is an iconic sculpture ‘Cow up a tree’.
The artist John Kelly’s sense of humour also made a statement about Australia:
Cow up a Tree is the conjunction of two Australian histories – Australian floods and Dobell’s cows -– which contain these opposites. Floods occur frequently in Australia, usually wreaking destruction and tragedy. But they can also have absurd outcomes, such as objects ludicrously stranded in trees.
A future affected by climate change threatens increased floods and storms and unless we change, there may not be many trees to collect stranded items!
Projected Future Temperatures
10% less rain
higher rates of evaporation (so probably be 15% less rain in summer)
temperature change + 4 degrees
Recently Melbourne had a 42 degree day, which dropped to 22 degrees within hours.
We joke about four seasons in one day but climate change means a permanent increase resulting in too many storms, plus biological and lifestyle consequences.
Reality not Fake News
Northern Europe may have 5-8 degree rise, Mediterranean 4-4.5 degrees, USA 4 degrees.
In the developed world it may not be catastrophic, but in poorer countries, it will be devastating.
Warmer winters
Hotter summers
More frequent storms
In Victoria more days above 30 degrees (This prediction now a fact)
Double the number of days above 35 degrees
Some crops may grow better but others will fail – energy patterns demand change.
Connectivity to Public Space Paramount
For better biodiversity outcomes, we need bigger interconnected systems to yield better benefits.
Parks and public open space linked for walking, jogging, cycling, running…
Kingston does well with Braeside Park and if the foreshore links improved, it will be a valuable connecting link with other areas of Melbourne. (Bayside Trail)
Contrast Kingston to the restricted access to open space experienced in western and northern suburbs.
Melbourne’s Western and Northern suburbs have the least canopy cover.
they have poorer health outcomes
they have the least connectivity of existing open spaces
the imbalance not fair or equitable
some new suburbs the capacity tree cover only 10% because of development, sub-divisions and available land
THERE IS NO SPACE FOR TREES!
Alma Park and the Esplanade St Kilda – treed and leafy.
Black Saturday
We remember Black Saturday when 173 people died in bushfires
But 374 excess deaths in the period 26/1/09 – 1/2/09 because of heat.
The deaths clustered in northern and western suburbs where few or no trees. (This correlation so strong health authorities warn ambulance and allied health workers in those suburbs to be worried and on alert on hot days.)
66% of such deaths in 75 plus age group
in new estates there may be no deaths because usually younger residents, double incomes and can afford to run air-conditioners.
Leafy suburbs keep cooler in the shade, sheltering homes and streets. The West green with envy! Tree breeze blows better health outcomes!
Dr Moore showed two pictures published in the newspaper during a period of excessive heat.
One picture of a railway worker in the west hosing rails to stop them buckling.
The other picture showed a shady eastern suburban corridor where tramlines had trees for protection and no need of hosing.
** powerful to publish the truth – some suburbs luckier than others.
Trees Perform a Function and Service
Whether you live under Marxism or Capitalism, the tenet is if something is worth dollars then it has a value.
The Victorian Department of Health wants people to exercise outside and encourage activity – a report in 2010 about the health benefits is confirmed every year.
$274 million saved in health costs if people can exercise outside in safety.
Build an open space and people will come.
Health expenditure is double what is spent on maintaining trees.
In 2016 a Treenet symposium in Adelaide dedicated to trees heard speakers from the medical profession conclude that $800 million per annum saved in treating Type 2 Diabetes and adding High Blood Pressure and its consequences $4.2 billion can be saved.
Trees provide links through time – often spanning several generations. There is the emotional attachment, heritage, sense of connection, identity with an area, symbols of events, individual beauty… all these add to the community’s wellbeing.
Jeff Kennett, the Premier who abolished the Garden State slogan, underestimated the anger Albert Park residents felt about the Grand Prix. They protested the destruction of heritage and history when trees were removed and maintained their rage for years.
When building City Link, the trees were dug up and saved and replanted when job completed. Kennett learned that politicians, mayors and CEOs lose jobs when they make wrong decisions regarding parks and open space.
It is a tragedy when Red River Gums die. These trees can live to 800 years old and are a link to the pre-colonial past.
We have a host of attractive trees in Mordialloc, some ancient, others adapting to suburbia:
Urban Heat Island Effect (UHI)
Urban development is something that we and our audience are passionate about, and the process in which our cities grow is certainly paramount to our future prosperity as a community and society.
However, there is a phenomenon discovered by Luke Howard in the early 19th century that gets a bit lost amongst the construction and development. This phenomenon is known as the urban heat island effect (UHI) and it occurs when urban development replaces natural permeable surfaces such as grassland or bushland with dry and impermeable surfaces such as concrete and asphalt.
UHI is defined by a metropolitan area having an increased temperature of 1-3 degrees Celsius higher compared to that of surrounding rural or vegetated areas.
Further to temperature changes, UHI can also affect localised meteorology by altering wind patterns, creating fogs and clouds and changing the rates of precipitation.
The main cause of UHI is that buildings block surface heat from radiating into the relatively cold night air as the changes in thermal properties of the surface materials and the lack of evapotranspiration (i.e. natural cooling effect in vegetated areas) significantly alter the heat capacity and the thermal conductivity compared to rural areas.
The elevated temperatures from UHIs during the summer months can affect the community’s environment and quality of life.
Increased energy consumption: Higher temperatures in the summer periods increase the energy demands from people trying to keep cool and in turn add pressure to the electricity generators.
Compromised human health and comfort levels: As UHIs are characterised by increased temperature, they can potentially increase the magnitude and duration of heat waves within cities.
Impacted water quality and aquatic life: As the storm water is not absorbed naturally, the increased temperatures of pavements and rooftop surfaces transfer their excess heat to storm water after a rain event which then drains into waterways.
Grounds of Exhibition Buildings, Carlton
Rainfall in metropolitan Melbourne:
Melton 600ml rain
Kingston a metre
Ringwood 1200ml
When we pay for water, it is not fair to have this disparity between eastern and western suburbs. UHI definitely matters!
Shade prolongs life of tarmacadam and bitumen, and of roads and buildings
trees keep them cooler
trees help soil stabilisation
if more humidity in the air it helps asthmatics
trees absorption of water can reduce the risks of local flooding and remove the need for storm water gutter and pipes,
tree canopy can hold water and slow a deluge
climate change means heavier rainfall and increased flooding, therefore, we need trees.
trees offset carbon emissions
trees give social and psychological benefits – more vegetation less violence and graffiti
shade lowers evaporation from soil, saving water.
WHAT IS DOLLAR VALUE OF TREES?
Savings in energy estimated at $180 a year, if running a 6kw air conditioner. (Studies estimated an unshaded home cost $360, this bill reduced by $50 if one shady tree and reduced by $90 if two shady trees.)
After the death of a school student from lightning strikes, the government ordered the removal of trees and the installation of shade sails. The value of shade by the trees quantified – $5000 over ten years.
There are an estimated 100,000 trees in Kingston – using the Gillard Government’s $23 value for carbon offset they are worth $30 million!
Everybody knows the damage done to footpaths by tree roots, but not how much shade saves the life of bitumen on roads.
Why are there no trees planted in parking areas and school grounds?
The biggest polluters in Victoria are power companies, yet they are the ones chopping down trees in case of fire, or damaging trees to protect overhead lines. WHY AREN’T LINES UNDERGROUND?
Trees prolong the life of bitumen and tarmac. The shaded life is triple or quadruple in North America, here it is 50%.
the only shade at Brighton Beach railway Carpark
Maintenance Cost Versus Value Added
In Adelaide in 2002, high school students studied elms and plane trees and worked out citizens get $171 value every year because of the previously listed benefits, yet government only spent $10 per tree in maintenance.
It was considered there were lots of indeterminable in the high school study, so a PhD study in 2009 redid the research. The value more than doubled in seven years to $424 per citizen!
Real Estate Turf Australia in 2014 worked out –
A good tree in your front garden adds about 5.4% to domestic property value ($25,000)
A green lawn worth $75,000 added value.
A tree-lined nature strip added $30,000 to properties.
More trees present higher value but if over 30%, people tend to not like it and values drop.
The City of Brimbank changed their planning laws – developments must have room for two trees in frontyard and one tree in the backyard. They had a very low amount of canopy cover and are worried about climate change.
The current Minister of Planning sat on his decision for a year before approving and allowing Brimbank Council law to go ahead. THIS IS NOW A PRECEDENT – councils can act to implement important planning decisions to protect and/or increase tree canopy.
Planet Ark statistics:
Tree roots stabilise soil and reduce erosion
A forest is defined by a tree canopy cover greater than 30%
To maximise benefits you need to be at 30% canopy cover
Melbourne Council aiming for 40% so better chance of getting 30%
Kingston currently at 10%!!
possum spied crossing road in daylight in Albert Street – searching for a new home?
What Can Be Done?
When council receives a request to remove a tree, they should insist on a tree being planted as a replacement.
Councils need to follow up if developers plant the trees and vegetation they promise in submitted plans. Make developers submit photographs one year on perhaps?
What is the budget for trees – in Kingston is it 100,000 X $10? Most of the budget is probably spent on parks, so how can we know? Councils don’t have the staff to inspect every tree – perhaps strengthen Friends groups, ask residents to adopt a tree?
A tree canopy is the most benefit if height more than 8 metres but not that much benefit if 30 or 60 metres, therefore 2 trees @ 30 metres better than one tree of 60 metres.
A diverse canopy – shrubs turf etc provide benefits just as much as trees but there is no benefit from artificial turf at all as far as Urban Heat Island effect.
Planting indigenous trees better but years ago oaks and elms were planted outside lots of post offices and police stations and other public buildings. These can be replanted as a link to heritage.
Remember, a tree is a loss of habitat too – insects, possums, birds – a whole ecosystem.
New development Ashmore Avenue Mordialloc with designer garden
This is a review of a book written to promote the importance of books and reading.
Even if you don’t work with words or are not a self-interested writer like me, it is well-worth reading – if you are a bibliophile, you already agree with many of the points the authors make, but their reasoning, experience and arguments may challenge or change your thinking.
Stop What You’re Doing And Read This!, a lovely ‘thank you’ gift from Denise, a student in my Writing Creatively Class at Chelsea, who knows all about the value of reading, being a retired Primary School teacher and a current volunteer teacher of ESL at U3A.
Grab a Tea or a Coffee – This is Reading Not Skimming…
As a writer, and a teacher of creative writing and life stories and legacies, I may not be the target audience for the publishers – that would be preaching to the converted – however, I enjoyed the essays immensely, gleaned some wonderful quotes and ideas for prompts to use in class, and have excellent fodder for debate if anyone challenges the importance of reading, not just for knowledge, but also for pleasure.
This book is also a timely reminder to reflect on the value of novels, poetry and the range of non-fiction literature that helps our society to progress.
Maybe give you a break from working out what is ‘fake’ news and what is real!
The essays give insight into the lives of the writers as they explain how important reading and books have been and still are to their personal growth and their professional development.
Journeys fascinating and enjoyable – some poignant, others humorous, all interesting.
The importance of literacy and literature is a conversation we need to have, especially in the digital age where so much of learning is now visual. Instant gratification expected but not always achieved.
Stop What You’re Doing And Read This! published in 2011, in the UK by Vintage, after a report revealed:
“that there are thousands of children across Britain who cannot read competently…One in three teenagers reads only two books a year, or fewer, and one in six children rarely reads books outside of the classroom. Many parents do not read stories to their children, and many homes do not have books in them…”
If you keep up with reports regarding literacy in Australia, the issues raised in this book merit discussion in 2018, especially since the writers touch on how and what we are taught to read as well as the benefits of reading widely.
Reflecting what language and literature, plus books and reading mean to you personally, your family, and to our culture, should be done often – especially in our “fast-moving, dislocated technology-obsessed world.”
My passion for words, writing and reading no secret. I’m glad I also influenced my husband to read more for pleasure as well as his job-related material because when he became very ill, reading and discussing books something we could still do together.
As a parent, I attended workshops about reading and writing, volunteered in the school library, reading recovery programmes and encouraged my children to love books just like my parents did for me.
Unashamedly the family ‘bookworm’, I’ve produced two bookworms!
Most of my close friends are just as passionate about books and reading as I am, but living in this ‘mutual admiration society’, it is easy to forget there are lots of people who don’t read.
Stop What You’re Doing And Read This!, may not specifically be aimed at people like me but I think it relies on and encourages all bibliophiles to become proselytisers, to exhort as many people as possible to read a book, be inspired, and become an ambassador for reading:
“The book is a manifesto. In a year of rude awakening to low levels of literacy and a widespread apathy towards books and reading, this book demands an interruption… these essays… aim to convince you to make reading part of your daily life.”
I recognised many but not all of the contributors.
The ten essays by award-winning and lauded writers, researchers and industry professionals in science, technology, and publishing are as varied as their writing and professional life.
But they are all advocates of the transformative power of reading whether to encourage you to see different perspectives, introduce different worlds and ideas, entertain, improve knowledge, relieve loneliness, soothe a troubled soul and enrich living.
However, perhaps the book’s appeal could have been expanded if some genre or ‘populist’ authors had been included so that when the blurb or inside pages are scanned it won’t be dismissed as ‘too academic or highbrow’.
The essays are all well-written and rich in revealing the layers of a single book, story or poem have an impact, influence, power, perspective, resonance, and can be a trigger for remembering…
As usual, I wear several hats:
as a reader and lover of books
as an essayist interested in writing style, content and engagement
as a teacher of creative writing interested in the use of language, the application of craft techniques, references and evidence of research
as a teacher of life stories believing in the power of story, seeking the authenticity of personal experience, language and style, use of quotes, the books and research referenced, the emotional impact of the story
as a writer and a poet passionate about words who wants to be immersed in different worlds and awed by images, language, clever use of words and the senses
Read a novel… to travel in time and space… quicken your sense of ordinary existence… Read a poem… it might help you uncover and articulate a thought or a feeling previously buried deep… Read a story… it imposes a unique period of peace and concentration into your busy life… Read out loud, to your children, to a partner… reading together casts a potent and intimate spell…
The Contributors – A Stellar Line-Up!
Zadie Smith
Zadie Smith authored the novels: White Teeth, The Autograph Man, On Beauty and NW, as well as The Embassy of Cambodia and a collection of essays, Changing My Mind. She is the editor of The Book of Other People, a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and listed as one of Granta’s 20 Best Young British Novelists in 2003 and again in 2013.
White Teeth won multiple literary awards including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Guardian First Book Award. The Autograph Man won The Jewish Quarterly Wingate Literary Prize. On Beauty was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won the Orange Prize for Fiction and The Commonwealth Writers’ Best Book Award (Eurasia Section)
Zadie’s essay Library Life shares her journey from a bookish, working-class, immigrant familyandextols the virtues of libraries, their importance to marginalised sections of our community, and their necessity in helping to establish some sort of equity in society:
It has always been, and always will be, very difficult to explain to people with money what it means not to have money. If education matters to you, they ask, and if libraries matter to you, well, why wouldn’t you be willing to pay for them if you value them?
They are the kind of people who believe value can only be measured in money, at the extreme end of which logic lies the dangerous idea that people who do not generate a lot of money for their families cannot possibly value their families as people with money do…
Like many people without a lot of money, we relied on our public services… as a necessary gateway to better opportunities… paid our taxes… to establish shared institutions from which all might benefit equally.
This essay reminded me of being at university in 1971, only there because I won a Commonwealth Scholarship despite being one of only 500 students throughout Australia chosen by the Australian National University in a pilot program designed for those most likely to succeed academically. My migrant parents had six children and no way could they find money to send me to university, never mind support me living away from home!
The scholarship paid fees and gave a modest $22 a week living allowance but no book allowance. I lived on campus for $21.50 a week, food and board only. I can’t remember if I even got the 50cents to spend!
Needless to say, the campus library was my second home.
Thank goodness, it was one of the best-resourced university libraries in Australia, and I got to know the staff very well, pestering them for books and always being the last to be chased out the door each evening.
This is a free mini library I saw in Ballarat and a homeless man I spoke to used the service all the time!
Blake Morrison is the author of bestselling memoirs, And When Did You Last See Your Father? (winner of the J.R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography and the Esquire Award for Non-Fiction) and Things My Mother Never Told Me. He wrote a study of the Bulger case, As If and the novels South of the River and The Last Weekend. He is a poet, critic, journalist and librettist.
Blake’s essay Twelve Thoughts About Reading covers almost everything reading and books can mean to people but also to those who write them. There is plenty of food for thought and discussion.
In The Great Escape, he illustrates how ‘lives are transformed by books.’ They can influence your choices and what direction your life takes. Books can be a ladder to freedom.
In Giving and Taking, he states ‘All writing depends on the generosity of the reader.’ And in Ownership, he argues ‘once it is out there in the world, the book has a life of its own: Authors may flinch and protest… but they have to let go.”
In Ownership: an extreme case of appropriation, Blake tells a story from the memoirs of Tobias Wolff when as a young writer “Found guilty of plagiarism and of bringing the school into disrepute, Wolff is expelled. yet he commits his crime in all innocence… an extreme case of a common phenomenon: reading as ownership, reading as appropriation. As Horace said, ‘Change the name and the story is about you.’ ”
I haven’t read Wolff’s memoir but even the teaser mentioned in Blake’s essay would initiate a very lively debate among writers. Methinks it is a case of what is omitted is more interesting than what is shared!
Blake teaches creative writing in London and in Daring to say ‘I‘, explains most of his students are life writers, working in prose, however, “the poets and life writers have something important in common: the use of the first-person pronoun. Speaking in one’s own voice – ‘daring to say I’, as one student put it – is no easy thing.”
In Blake’s thoughts Why poetry mattersand Another reason why poetry matters he talks about reading poetry as solace and refuge (a point expanded by contributor Jane Davis). Its association “with profundity – with the uttering of thoughts that lie too deep for tears.”
He warns that early drafts must be reworked and shaped. “The therapeutic element in writing doesn’t come from pouring things out or ‘washing your dirty linen in public’, but in finding the right words, ordering the experience, and making the story available to others.”
In Reading catatonicallyBlake quotes Francis Spufford’s The Child that Books Built and reminds us there are times in life when losing yourself in a book helps us cope.
Blake prefers to read in solitude and quietness but in Company and solitude, he observes that “literature creates a sense of companionship… we meet characters… And as a result, we feel less lonely.” He also acknowledges the importance of sharing a book with others, especially if you have enjoyed it!
His thoughts Forbidden pleasure, and The canon, almost flipsides of the same coin. “Forbidden is the keyword. Just as some of the most powerful books ever written have been samizdat (works banned…) so the experience of reading is often most intense when it is surreptitious – when we feel we shouldn’t be doing it…”
Regarding set texts and books the literati say are must-reads, Blake admits “Some books are simply better than others. Or last the course longer. Or grow richer the more they are reread.” And the canon is ever changing or should be…
Blake’s final thought, The more, the merrier the mantra of writers and publishers regarding books “We’ve no investment in keeping them to ourselves. Let the whole world have them. The world will be better for it. And the words will remain the same.”
Carmen Callil
Carmen Callil, born and educated in Melbourne left for the UK in 1960. In 1972, she founded Virago Press and ten years later became Managing Director of Chatto & Windus. In 1996, she chaired the judging panel of the Booker Prize. She is the author (with Colm Toibin) of The Modern Library: The 200 Best Novels in English since 1950 and the highly acclaimed Bad Faith.
Carmen’s essay True Daemonstruly engrossing, and triggered memories of childhood reading choices and the influence the different reading habits of parents can have and is forthright declaring, “Books are shields against a terror of boredom, the curse of most childhoods… if the human race was separated from words and thoughts and stories, it would die.”
She touches on the digital revolution in the publishing world,
“A machine can never look like a book: books are far more beautiful. Books are like gardens; a Kindle or an iPad like a supermarket – it makes life easier, but one doesn’t want to loiter in it. You can fiddle with books. Like gardens, they can be wonderful to look at. You can cuddle them and use them like a hot-water bottle; a machine can’t do any of these things…
… the human race has been telling stories and trying to record them on papyrus, on manuscripts, on stones, since the beginning of time. Whether we read on the printed page or on a machine is beside the point. It is the ideas and stories that count.”
Tim Parks
Tim Parks lives in Milan after moving to Italy in 1980. Author of novels, non-fiction and essays, including – Destiny,Europa, Cleaver, A Season with Verona, An Italian Education, Dreams of Rivers and Seas, Teach Us to Sit Still and Italian Neighbours. He has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize, won the Somerset Maugham Award, the Betty Trask Prize, The John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, the John Florio Prize and the Italo Calvino Prize.
Tim’s essay, Mindful Reading, explores why we read certain books – in childhood, they are often chosen for us, also chosen in school; then there’s peer pressure, being sucked in by marketing hype and the desire to be fashionable – “Can’t remember the name of the author. Who cares?”
He reminds us of the importance of context, the wonder of enchantment, the pleasure of awareness, the rhythm of language, the power of words to enthral and most importantly, “You have every right to put a book down after a couple of pages, which is why it’s always wise to read a little before buying. Life is simply too short for the wrong books, or even the right books at the wrong time.”
Ah, yes – we all have those piles of TBR books by the bed or in the study! Or, ones started but never finished and we guiltily cling to them, telling ourselves they will be read ‘one day…’.
Mark Haddon
Mark Haddon is an author, illustrator and screenwriter who has written fifteen books for children and won two BAFTAs. His bestselling novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time won seventeen literary prizes, including the Whitbread Award. His poetry collection, The Talking Horse and the Sad Girland the Village Under the Sea, was published by Picador in 2005, and his last novel, The Red House, was published by Jonathan Cape in 2012. His most recent title is short story collection The Pier Falls.
Melbournians are currently being entertained by a stage adaptation of Mike’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and his essay The Right Words in the Right Order is as memorable as the title of his novel.
The essay is refreshing in its honesty. He contradicts many of the statements the others say. Despite having award-winning children’s novels to read at twelve he can only remember avidly devouring Erich von Daniken’s pseudoscientific overhyped Chariot of the Gods! and books about man’s fossil ancestors.
This reminded me of being a teenager at home with my brothers in the kitchen as one read passages from von Daniken’s book. In the discussion that followed we offended my mother by poking fun at claims in the Bible. Of course, the claims in Chariot of the Gods questionable but the style of the writing a lot more readable than the King James Bible.
When Mark started reading ‘proper adult novels… The words remained inky shapes on the paper…” he didn’t understand ‘the importance of taste and timing‘ and that ‘a vital part of loving literature is hating certain books and certain writers… “
For Mark, writers must push boundaries, love language and be humane and generous even with flawed characters. Virginia Woolf captures ‘the texture of life itself‘ like no other writer. He can’t read Chekhov or Flaubert in English without feeling that he’s ‘missing something of vital importance, rather as if I were listening to a symphony rescored for piano.’
He challenges the assumption that reading has a special power to soothe the troubled mind… “when my mind is troubled, like many people, I find reading hard, if not impossible, and fiction, in particular, becomes a country from which I feel painfully exiled…”
Mark acknowledges the speed of technological change but praises Faber’s iPad app of TS Eliot’s The Waste Land –
which includes a filmed performance of the poem by Fiona Shaw, synchronised readings by Eliot, Ted Hughes, Sir Alec Guinness and Viggo Mortensen, original manuscript pages, academic interviews… It is the most wonderful thing…
Books can piggyback on these huge technological changes in a way that other art forms can’t, because they’re digital, and have been from way before Gutenberg, a string of symbols, that can be transmitted in any medium.
One of my daughters was recently commissioned to do artwork for a company in Melbourne that makes short films to explore classic texts on the school curriculum. The approach to Mary Shelley’s, Frankenstein, one I am sure will not only enliven the experience for the students but open the possibilities for teachers to encourage fabulous discussions.
Embracing the digital age in this way extends and not limits, the relevance of books.
Michael Rosen
Michael Rosen was Children’s Laureate 2007-09 and is well-known in the children’s book world. A poet, performer, broadcaster and scriptwriter, he visits schools with his one-man show to enthuse children with his passion for books and poetry. As an author and by selecting other writers’ works for anthologies he has been involved with over 140 books. He lectures and teaches in universities on children’s literature, reading and writing and set up The Children’s Funny Prize which gives awards to the funniest children’s books of the year.
Michael’s essay, Memories and Expectations, I found delightful and warm as he illustrated the pleasure of reading aloud and the power of a story to stay with you when you identify with or recognise the characters. Stories by writer Charles Dickens rich with memorable characters.
Michael remembers his local library as ‘a place that opened a window on the world and a door to a future life away from the area.’
He related how his parents quoted and referred to characters in the novels as the family went about their daily routine. It wasn’t necessarily an accurate quote but the essence suited the situation. This made me smile because my dad often quoted characters from RL Stevenson novels especially Long John Silver from Treasure Island. We knew a situation was dire when he’d say, “Them that dies will be the lucky ones!’
We learn a lot about Michael and his father in the essay, and his family.
“Part of the power of stories is the way in which we can see facets of this or that fictional person in the people we know, and scenes for the fictional world have echoes in the events of the real world.”
Jane Davis
Jane Davis is the Director and founder of The Reader Organisation (TRO), a national charity dedicated to bringing about a reading revolution by making it possible for people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities to enjoy and engage with literature on a deep and personal level. Their ‘Get Into Reading’ read-aloud groups reach people who may not otherwise read, including people living in deprived areas, the mentally or chronically ill, older people living in Care Homes, prisoners, recovering addicts and excluded children. The organisation started on Merseyside but has since expanded across the UK and beyond. Jane enjoyed writing as a hobby for a number of years but gave up her full-time job to dedicate more time to it and published the novel Half-truths & White Lies.
Jane’s essay The Reading Revolutiondetails the history of the group she founded based on people being prepared to read aloud in an inexpert, exploratory way.
… the text, poem, novel, short story, play or whatever is read aloud, in its entirety, by one or more members of the group. The group talks about the book as it is read, freely interrupting the flow of the reading, with personal responses… a short poem might take half an hour, a short story two hours, War And Peace eighteen months.‘
The proceeds of Stop What You’re Doing And Read This! go to Jane’s organisation and shared reading is now mainstream. It is not just for the sick, unhappy or economically deprived people in institutions.
Jane argues a compelling case for shared reading – a reading revolution –
We must reposition literature in settings – such as workplaces, mental-health services, dementia care homes, looked-after children services – where its profound worth will be seen for what it really is: the holder of human value, human meaning, and, yes, even the secrets of the universe…
When I started the public Readings By The BayI was astounded by the response and how hungry people were to share their poems and prose, but also to sit and listen to others read aloud. Sadly, Mordialloc Writers as a group is no more but there is a wealth of places now in Melbourne where you can go and read and listen to others read.
Jeanette Winterson
Jeanette Winterson OBE authored ten novels including The Passion, Sexing the Cherry and Written on the Body, a book of short stories, The World and Other Places, a collection of essays, Art Objects as well as many other works, including children’s books, screenplays and journalism. Her writing has won the Whitbread Award for Best First Novel, the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize, the E. M. Forster Award and the Prix d’argent at Cannes Film Festival. In her first novel, Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit based on her own upbringing she placed herself as a fictional character. She scripted the novel into a BAFTA-winning BBC drama and later re-visited that material in her bestselling memoir Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? She writes regularly for the Guardian.
Jeanette’s essay, A Bed. A Book. A Mountain, a beautifully crafted piece using reading Nan Shepherd’s book, The Living Mountain, ‘a geo-poetic exploration of the Cairngorms’ as a metaphor to prove ‘There is no substitute for reading.’
‘A book lets you follow a writer’s mind,‘ states Jeanette. ‘Books work from the inside out. They are a private conversation happening somewhere in the soul.’
Jeanette is quite adamant that “Attention Deficit Disorder isnot a disease; it is a consequence of not reading. Teach a child to read and keep that child reading and you will change everything. And yes, I mean everything.”
As I mentioned before there is plenty in this book to start discussions, incite debates, and keep dinner conversations interesting! She justifies her assertion about ADD –
The consequences of homogenised mass culture plus the failure of our education system and our contenpt for books and art (it’s either entertainment or elitist, never vital and democratic), mean that not reading cuts off the possibility of private thinking, or of a trained mind, or of a sense of self not dependent on external factors.
A trained mind is a mind that can concentrate…
Reading stills the body for a while, allowing rest without torpor and quiet without passivity. Reading is not a passive act. Engaged in the book, in company with the writer, the mind can roam where it will. Such freedom to roam reminds us that body and mind both need exercise and activity and that neither the mind nor the body can cope with confinement.
And if the body has to cope with confinement, then all the more reason to have developed a mind that knows how to roam.
Nicholas Carr
Nicholas Carr writes about technology, culture, and economics. He is the author of The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, a 2011 Pulitzer Prize nominee and a New York Times bestseller, but also wrote The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google (2008) and Does IT Matter? (2004). His books have been translated into more than 20 languages. (www.nicholascarr.com)
In his essay, The Dreams of Readers, Nicholas admits his ‘life has been punctuated by books.’ Boyhood favourites opened frontiers ‘ to wander in and marvel at far beyond my suburban surroundings.’ The ‘tumult’ of teenage ‘put into perspective‘ by a variety of books and then in his twenties some ‘were the wedges‘ he used ‘to prise open new ways of seeing and feeling.’
What a way with words!
I must explore his reading list and perhaps his word power and engaging use of words will rub off!
Pondering all the books and poems that have made an impact on me, I agree with his statement: ‘Who would I be without these books? Someone else.’
A great part of Carr’s essay deals with the effect on our mind when we read stories, he cites the work of cognitive psychologist Keith Oatley of the University of Toronto and his colleagues whose experiments suggest that ‘the emotions stirred by literature can even alter, in subtle but real ways, people’s personalities.’
Another researcher Nicholas quotes is Norman Holland, a former scholar at McKnight Brain Institute, at the University of Florida, who argues the mind we read with “is a different mind from the one we use to navigate the real world. In our day-to-day lives, we are always trying to manipulate or otherwise act on our surroundings…
But when we open a book our expectations and our attitudes change drastically. because we understand that ‘we cannot or will not change the work of art by our actions.’, we are relieved of our desire to exert influence over objects and people and hence are able to ‘disengage our (cognitive) systems for initiating actions.’ That frees us to become absorbed in the imaginary world of the literary work.”
Dr Maryanne Wolf & Dr Mirit Barzillai
Dr Maryanne Wolf & Dr Mirit Barzillai. Dr Wolf is the Director of the Center for Reading and Language Research at Tufts University in the US, and an Associate Professor of Child Development. She is the author of Proust and the Squid and has published hundreds of articles on reading and learning disabilities. Dr Mirit Barzillai, I assume is her colleague.
The final essay by Maryanne and Mirit is Questions for a Reader and begins with the assertion already covered by some of the other contributors. “Reading transforms the human brain, which transforms the mind, which transforms the life of every reader.”
They make the point:
“We were never born to read or write anything. Unlike vision or language, reading has no genetic programme that unfolds to create an ideal form of itself…
… learning to read lies outside the original repertoire of the human brain’s functions and requires a whole new circuit to be buily afresh with each new reader.”
A scientific explanation that explains why each child is different. Some struggle to read and others don’t… some enjoy it, others don’t… and
“The specific factors that affect the formation of the reading circuits take on special significance… as we move from a literacy-based culture to one dominated by digital tools and a digital sense of time.
Immersed and shaped anew by varied technological mediums, the reading brain as we know it will be changed and to some degree supplanted by a different reading circuit.“
We are still going through this historical transition period and we must ask critical questions now ‘before the reading brains of the next generation are fully altered.”
We have all read warnings about the time children spend ‘on screen’, the alarm that perhaps their first reading experience is with an iPad, the substitution of films of books in schools instead of requiring the reading of the text, the difference reading on screen to hard copy can make to memory and understanding.
There are myriad arguments for and against but many educators and literacy experts are concerned, including our own celebrated children’s author Mem Fox.
Maryanne and Mirit refer to Socrates, Proust and cognitive neuroscience and remind us to be unquestioning and that there are ‘no pat answers’…and ‘Technological innovation is critical to all of us if we are to advance… It is clear that today’s children, not tomorrow’s, require a new set of intellectual tools and capacities if they are to become productive members of their culture.’
Lots to think about in this book – definitely worth stopping what you are doing to read.
I don’t go to the movies as often as I’d like but the long summer holiday is a chance to indulge – if there is something that appeals. Unfortunately, I’m not the demographic most filmmakers try to please so it is often a fruitless search for a good movie at Southlands Village Cinemas, the easiest place for me to reach by public transport.
On Boxing Day, a traditional new movie release day, I went to see The Greatest Showman with my daughters. One of the stars, Michelle Williams, is a longtime favourite of my oldest daughter, Anne, and we have developed a ritual of going to see her film releases as a family.
Michelle plays Charity, the childhood sweetheart and later devoted wife of PT Barnum played by Hugh Jackman, the greatest showman referred to in the title.
The movie has had poor reviews from those who consider themselves professional film critics yet to date my friends and family who have seen it, absolutely love it.
It is not historically accurate (what film truly is?) but does not shy away from Barnum’s character flaws either. We see his selfish and cruel exploitation of everyone to pursue his idea of success. To be honest, I may not have gone to see the release of The Greatest Showman if Michelle Williams hadn’t been one of the stars because what I have read about the real Barnum is not complimentary.
Also, I’m not a great fan of musical movies and like most people, the bad ones (Russell Crowe’s dreadful part in Les Miserables) tend to be more memorable than the good ones.
As a lover of history, I prefer books and if on screen, choose documentaries or serialised dramas. Inevitably, there will be creative choices made condensing a life into what makes good entertainment rather than what may be accurate, especially if you only have an hour or so to do it.
But, taken at face value as a film, The Greatest Showman is entertaining – well worth suspending disbelief! It is freedom from the bombardment of doom and gloom from current media.
To sit in a darkened room enthralled by an imaginary world is great escapism. A bonus is a film for family viewing – no gratuitous violence or sex – and no hurt animals because they are CGI or animatronic.
I’m not surprised about the disparity in reactions and reviews – professional critics often look through an academic or superior lens, many demanding standards the movie-going public doesn’t particularly care about.
We bring our emotional and cultural baggage to any art form so healthy differences of opinion should occur but as much as I loved listening to Margaret and David,Australia’s ultimate film reviewers, their ‘star’ ratings never influenced whether I saw a film or not.
Since I was a teenager and reading Jim Schembri’s reviews in The Age Green Guide, I’ve been out of step with mainstream critics of any genre and prefer to make my own judgement. In fact, if some critics dislike a movie or a book, it almost guarantees I love it! (Surprisingly, I’m in step with Schembri on this one.)
It’s not often I leave a cinema uplifted and with the music and song lyrics in my head, but The Greatest Showman, a biopic on the life of PT Barnum of circus fame, written by Jenny Bicks and Bill Condon and directed by Michael Gracey, did just that for me.
Barnum, as mentioned is played by Hugh Jackman – a talented showman extraordinaire using the full range of his acting, singing and dancing skills. He plays a man you want to succeed despite his weaknesses and flaws. You fall in love with the people around him and if they’re prepared to forgive his foibles so can we.
He is ably supported by some stunning performances from a cast who deliver an engaging story and catchy, memorable songs. A couple of scenes in a bar are fabulous.
Anne went straight to JB HiFi and bought the soundtrack after leaving the cinema – the last time I remember any of us compelled to do that was when we saw The Lion King!
There will be debates about sugar-coating Barnum’s story, but the film portrays a man who came from a poor, powerless family and who rose to fame and fortune by gathering even more disadvantaged outcasts (people labelled freaks) and creating a show that ultimately led to being presented at the court of Queen Victoria.
In the film, visionary Barnum realised he needed someone to help him to appeal to more upmarket clientele and those with money to spend on lavish entertainment. He goes into partnership with a successful young playwright, Philip Carlyle, played by Zac Efron. This character is an imaginary persona not to be confused with James Anthony Bailey, the partnerin the legendary Barnum & Bailey circus.
Efron’s character falls in love with Zendaya’s character, Anne, and allows the script to explore the endemic racism and class divisions of the period just as the cast of so-called“freaks” explores gender, diversity, acceptance of the ‘other’, prejudice, intolerance, mob violence, and the meaning of family and friendship.
All relevant themes in this deeply disturbing time but they are not new. Like all good art, the film attempts to explore the human condition but it is a feel-good musical. If you want historical accuracy please research and read – there is information on Barnum available.
The story has plenty of dialogue that is not singing (one of the failings of previously mentioned and aptly titled film adaptation Les Miserables) and strong performances from others in the cast, particularly Zac Efron and Zendaya’s relationship.
The pacing is excellent and the 105 minutes disappears too soon. My favourite is a cleverly choreographed dance scene on a rooftop reminiscent of Mary Poppins (another musical film I enjoyed). It concludes with a magical light show. Aptly, this scene shows the romantic love between Charity and Barnum and the love they share with their two daughters.
The attention to historical detail regarding costumes and setting captures the essence of another century but the razzle-dazzle, upbeat music and meaningful emotional numbers are the best modern Broadway can offer.
I particularly love the scenes with the whole cast and the bearded lady (Keala Settle) leading the performance – amazing vibrancy and energy with a magnificent voice.
It was a fantastic and fun way to end the year and in the words of Jackman’s character, Barnum, when accused by a snooty critic (Paul Sparks) determined to expose him as offering fake entertainment with a cast of stage personas like ‘General Tom Thumb’, Barnum pointed to the rapturous audience and said, “Do those smiles look fake?”
My smile and enjoyment not fake either – go see the movie because what the snooty critic eventually realises and writes is Barnum’s show is ‘a celebration of life.’
And that’s how The Greatest Showmanfelt to the cinema audience as they spontaneously clapped at the end.
As the credits are announced, we see the making of the film employed 15,000 people and gave thousands upon thousands of hours of work.
An industry and movie worth supporting despite the critics!
The season’s festivities now dissipating, life is beginning to return to routine. I caught up with my walking buddy, Jillian, and as we made our way down to the foreshore we stopped beside probably the ugliest of the many housing developments observable in the neighbourhood.
I can sympathise with one wit who suggests it is ‘Welcome to Hell‘ by the building surveyor ‘Satan Himself“!
People want to live here because Mordialloc has the historical reputation of a beautiful seaside village but at the rate of development, that persona may soon disappear. Another sign of the horrible development is laced with unintended irony!
A Growing City Needs Houses
Melbourne’s population has grown and continues to grow at an amazing rate and people need somewhere to live but density development should be sensible and evenly spread. Most planning permission is provided by councils and for many of them, multi-storey development means the multiplication of rates without worrying too much about the quality of life of the people confined to ‘pigeon coops’ which many apartments are unless you are fortunate to afford “luxury”.
I don’t know anyone in my circle of family or friends who can afford to pay this rent in Mordialloc, which is still a considerable distance from the city!
These ‘luxury’ townhouses next to the railway line have a huge concrete wall as a noise buffer and whether occupants will be able to even smell the sea is doubtful because the area just behind is where the trains shunt and park, plus the train line hosts diesel as well as electric trains.
The land used to be a timber processing yard and later a hardware wholesaler – sometimes there is a good reason why land is zoned and used as industrial!
The Times They Are A’Changing
I realise the quarter-acre block like mine with a house and backyard is rapidly becoming obsolete and the demand for townhouses and apartments increases. However, despite the rising cost of electricity and gas, we still seem to be reluctant to move away from ‘McMansions’- with a lot of them built in Mordialloc in recent years.
A friend pointed out increased development brings jobs, cafes, services… and I know the ideal is to live, shop and work within a 20-30 minute commute.
I don’t disagree with this and it wasn’t luck that brought John and myself to Mordialloc to live within walking distance of Main Street, schools and the train station. (I’ve never driven or owned a car.)
Development, if managed properly and attached to a vision of a decent lifestyle is magnificent. This is how we progress as a community.
But the higgledy-piggledy mushrooming of private developments around what was considered ‘old Mordialloc’ has destroyed any neighbourhood character we can claim as well as a lot of our history.
The horse stables I wrote about in the 90s have disappeared, along with beach ‘cottages’, many Edwardian and Victorian homes, and Californian bungalows. (One of the last of those next door to me. Although it had been renovated it was bulldozed out of existence in 2009 and replaced with two double-storey townhouses. )
Not only houses are lost but trees too. Habitat for possums and birds who must relocate just like their human counterparts. Neighbourhood ambience forever changed.
Sounds Of Albert Street
Mairi Neil 1993
In the morning, at dawn break
in a dream-like state
I begin to wake…
some noises make my senses jar
the electric train’s whistle
the whine of car, after car.
In the distance, a noticeable rumble,
the roar of the sea
as the white caps tumble…
I can picture the waves crashing,
spewing debris on the beach
against pier and rocks splashing.
On the pavement, the horses make
a constant clip-clop
as daily exercise they take…
this familiar, steady tapping
announced in suburbia
by family dogs feverishly yapping.
The dawn chorus as birds begin to sing
curlews, blackbirds, thrushes
all heralding Spring…
twittering, screeching, whistling
magpies, sea-gulls and crows
their dewy feathers glistening…
One of the few Edwardian houses left in Barkly Street – but for how long? ‘For Sale’ signs proliferate from one end of the street to the other along with massive developments. Two beautifully renovated houses now the site of soon-to-be 24 apartments, while another two removed for a large corner development almost completed.
Increased density living also brings increased traffic congestion and new people may decide to eschew public transport and still rely on their car. The assumption that increased buildings near transport hubs will take cars off the road is a big leap for a society that loves the car.
Permit and resident parking seems inevitable.
People may choose to shop, eat, and holiday locally but they might also go elsewhere and if visitors can’t find a park they may bypass the place too. There is not a lot of capacity for Main Street to expand and in the 34 years, I’ve lived here the variety of shops has shrunk.
In Europe, many places have learnt from the post-war building of Stalinist-type monoliths and there are some nice designs of apartments that don’t look like matchboxes or toilet blocks.
At the moment, in Mordialloc, it all seems haphazard or potluck – do Kingston Council or the State Government care about the plans they approve? We have two level crossings to be removed at a yet to be determined future date – hopefully there has been thought as to how current development will fit in.
Houses built since I arrived have been or are being replaced!
Where are the functional and aesthetically pleasing design solutions?
Who is safeguarding standards – not only of decent living quarters but ensuring a quality of life and a balance between buildings and nature?
The development pictured above is not where I would choose to live and I haven’t heard one positive comment about it from friends, family or visitors.
Why are councillors and politicians allowing dwellings to be built that I am sure they would not choose to live in?
Is there enough attention paid to parking and the opinion of residents in nearby streets?
What of access to Emergency Service vehicles – even general access to get in and out of the site?
We need trees to breathe, and flowers to please. We need communal courtyards or mini parks – areas where residents can meet, become neighbourly and grow a community. Yes, the foreshore is nearby but this can be an impersonal space used by residents and non-residents alike.
Since coming to live in Mordialloc I’ve lost count of how many consultations and council workshops I’ve attended over the direction development will take and protecting the Green Wedge. I went to a recent consultation on neighbourhood character just for my local ward and it was attended by hundreds of residents.
Councillors know the pace, style, and consequences of development is an important issue in more than Albert and Barkly Streets…
What is The Future?
This is the 21st century, architecture and design must always be inclusive of people living with a disability. It can also be sustainable and add to the rich cultural heritage of Melbourne that we see on Open House Melbourne weekends.
I discovered an old photograph I took and a poem I wrote in the 90s – another boom period for developers that soon turned to bust as happens in economic cycles when the pendulum swings. The Crown Casino was being built amid controversy but is now an established part of popular Southbank.
A young Irish girl living with us at the time and travelling into the city each day with John mentioned an incident on Kings Way and said,
‘It was near the bottle.’
‘Where?’ I said.
‘You know, that big building that looks like a bottle…’
The nickname stuck and as each decade rolls by, ‘the bottle’ experiences makeovers, the surroundings may change but it still looms large and makes me smile.
I took a picture last week and pointed it out to family visiting from the UK.
Developers Can Drive You To Drink!
Mairi Neil (August 1994)
In Melbourne there are buildings
stretching towards the sky.
Great towers of glass and concrete
swaying hundreds of feet on high.
The Rialto being the most famous,
eclipsing well-known Nauru House,
Twin Towers, Menzies on Collins and
the Exhibition Buildings so grouse.
But in 1994 a city development
caused lots of consternation,
when the Crown Casino expansion
exceeded all expectations.
Entering the city through King Street
used to be over a scenic bridge,
quiet Yarra waters muddily flowed,
Polly Woodside’s masts full rigged.
Now an ugly, solid concrete mass
blocks out views on either side,
a neon-lit concrete tunnel
provides a hideously boring ride.
I dread driving into Melbourne
and viewing the Casino folly
but thankfully enroute, King’s Way
still has buildings unique and jolly.
There’s one viewed from a distance,
a recognisable, imaginative shape,
tall and straight for fifteen floors
and topped by wonderful nape.
Grandiose developers like the Grollos
I often could cheerfully throttle
but 222 Kings Way makes me smile
it could be a giant’s bottle!
Perhaps someone will smile and write a poem about the development at the end of Albert Street when it’s finished – or maybe a horror story!
If you have nicknamed a building or have a special memory attached to a building, please share. I’d love to know I’m not alone in my ponderings.
I haven’t blogged for a few weeks because of an unexpected health hiccup requiring a coronary angiogram and a host of other tests. I’m on the medical roundabout with some questions still to be answered and other specialist visits lined up, but at least feel more energetic.
I’m lucky to have a GP who is caring and thorough even although answers are elusive. However, broken bodies and minds can be healed and ageing bodies may need some help but they keep functioning! The philosophy of kintsukuroi good to remember.
Several of my students have also struggled with health issues this year, most are dear friends as well as students – maybe our bodies are in sync as well as our writing minds!
Here’s to a healthier 2018.
Stress versus Sense
In Australia, the end of semester two coincides with the festive season and the long summer break. As usual, I was busy organising class anthologies, submitting A-frames to secure funding for next year, and at Longbeach Place, in Chelsea, we held our first Open Day.
I prepared some of the work of current students to display and also offered a couple of workshops to encourage people to enrol in 2018. This year has been a wonderful class with some of the students from Mordialloc joining us for the second semester.
Writing Creatively Towards The Future
a featured class at Longbeach Place
learning all-important techniques of writing
to stay ahead in today’s digital race.
Words matter – they entertain, educate, even heal –
we write each week to practice skills with zeal!
There has been the inevitable Christmas get-togethers and catch-ups, shopping for presents and food, preparations for overseas guests, and the annual clearing of clutter for the new year…
I’m too busy to be sick was my first thought, but as my normally low blood pressure wanted to hover around 150-60 after soaring to over 200, and a Stress Echocardiogram indicated my heart ‘never slows down’, the cold whisper of Fate reminded me that heart attacks and strokes can be fatal!
I did some serious thinking.
Reflection – Rejuvenate or Retire?
In Life Story Class we discussed how genetics, personality traits and talents present themselves in families. I look back at what I wrote last year and wonder if, at 64 years of age, this latest health crisis is part of my inheritance!
A photograph of my paternal grandmother sat on the mantlepiece throughout my childhood. Granny died at 63 years of age during WW2. Her demise sudden, and in some people’s opinion, a happy death – if there is such a thing.
My grandmother was attending a ceilidh and sat beside her brother, John, who was stationed in Greenock because he captained a minesweeper. Granny’s daughters, Chrissie and Mary, were dancing a reel while Granny clapped and sang in Gaelic. Mouth music a common accompaniment at Scottish dances organised by Greenock’s Highland Society.
Granny turned to her brother and whispered, ‘I’m going, John,’ and slid to the floor. This massive, fatal heart attack a tragic shock to everyone even although Granny suffered ‘with her heart’ most of her adult life.
No wonder her heart was strained. Birthing thirteen children (Dad was the last) in twenty years, coping with the grief of losing many of them as infants, she also carried too much weight because treatment in those days involved ‘lots of bed rest and taking it easy’ – not the best advice for a heart condition that probably needed regular exercise and fresh air.
Chrissie, Dad’s older sister suffered angina and was 59 years old when she died of a heart attack. She was in her tenth year of living with a mastectomy.
Dad was in his 60s when he had his first heart attack, later followed by a stroke and then dementia.
I love writing, I love teaching writing and I love all the volunteer activities I do in the community but as I head towards retirement and a choice of whether to stay working or not, I realise life must change if I want to reduce stress and be healthy.
My daughters, wonderful as ever, demand I stop thinking negatively. In the words of Simon & Garfunkel, I’m told I just need to “slow down, you’re moving too fast”…
Some choices were made for me – my job teaching at Mordialloc Neighbourhood House cancelled via email in July after almost 18 years teaching. The brave new impersonal world in action…
I withdrew from coordinating the Mordialloc Writers’ Group last year – I needed a break. However, the numbers attending dwindled and in December the group decided to stop meeting. I won’t be reviving it – my energy will be focused on finishing numerous writing projects, including writing about the wonderful three months I spent travelling through Mongolia, Russia and the UK.
Perhaps that mystery novel will be finished and not end up a cold case, or my Mother’s life story woven into an entertaining memoir to do justice to her amazing fortitude and extensive legacy. Boxes of scribbled notes, short story outlines, ideas for children’s books and poetry — all need to be revisited, rewritten, expanded, edited and perhaps published!
I also decided to stop facilitating Chat ’N Chuckle a social group for people with ABI I’ve been privileged to work with since 2016.
I admire all the ‘chatty chucklers’ and their carers, their courage, resilience, and sense of humour. How would I cope if faced with many of their daily challenges? They kept me grounded and humbled; a reminder to count my blessings and not complain about minor physical ailments, breathe deeply of fresh air and give thanks for health. Make a choice to be happy.
The opportunity to meet this group of people and reflect on how quickly life can change an unpredictable but amazing gift, reaffirming I must indeed live and cherish the moment!
The group is now ready for those who attend to take turns facilitating and although I will miss those Fridays I’m glad for the small part I played in helping establish the group, encouraging friendships to flourish, and most of all, empowering participants to take charge!
Each time I look at the beautiful orchid the group gave me my spirits lift.
The support of family and friends made my breast cancer journey bearable and I am truly lucky having many people care about me. I know whatever problem scheduled tests reveal I’ll rejuvenate!
In Ownership: an extreme case of appropriation, Blake tells a story from the memoirs of Tobias Wolff when as a young writer “Found guilty of plagiarism and of bringing the school into disrepute, Wolff is expelled. yet he commits his crime in all innocence… an extreme case of a common phenomenon: reading as ownership, reading as appropriation. As Horace said, ‘Change the name and the story is about you.’ ”
Nicholas Carr
Anne went straight to JB HiFi and bought the soundtrack after leaving the cinema – the last time I remember any of us compelled to do that was when we saw The Lion King!
As the credits are announced, we see the making of the film employed 15,000 people and gave thousands upon thousands of hours of work. 
Up the Creek with a pen ... 