Overland literary journal

Rebellion in poetry

Ghazal Games
Roger Sedarat
Ohio University Press

Experimenting with traditional poetic form is not a new concept. John Keats wrote his poem ‘On the Sonnet’ warning of the dangers of constraining the ‘muse’ to strict form. Imagist poets like Ezra Pound and Amy Lowell adapted the haiku form to English-language verse. Where there are rules, there are rebels.

But the act of experimenting with form is arguably less about rebellion and more about determining what said form is really capable of achieving by exaggerating its conventions. In hindsight it can be said that most poetry is to some degree a reaction against the poetry that came before it, but that the act of ‘reacting against’ is in itself a kind of homage. Poetry that deliberately sets out to experiment with form is the most transparent kind of poetic homage, validating the traditional form for its potential relevance to contemporary culture. ... read more

Written by Tara Mokhtari on 25-08-2011, 3 user comments

Ali Alizadeh’s ‘Ashes in the Air’

Anger and frustration shades many of the poems in Ali Alizadeh’s new collection published by UQP. If you learned about social injustice and cultural displacement by emigrating from Tehran to the Gold Coast as a teenager, you too would probably be angry and frustrated at your observations of racism, religious and cultural hypocrisy, and conservatism at two supposedly opposing ends of the political spectrum. But these poems aren’t strictly political or necessarily activist in essence, they also dwell partly in the realm of confessionalism – offering personality and warmth to the politically engaged subject matter. ... read more

Written by Tara Mokhtari on 1-06-2011, 1 user comment

Review: Out of the Box: Contemporary Australian Gay and Lesbian Poets

Out of the Box: Contemporary Australian Gay and Lesbian Poets
Michael Farrell and Jill Jones (eds)
Puncher & Wattman Poetry

I’ve put off reviewing this book. During the whole of 2010 I must have reviewed one too many collection of academic lyricism which clashed violently with my academic burnout. The result was that every contemporary poem I read – I’m sorry to say – sounded like it was written by one of the same two imaginary people: ‘Jane Masters’, the female lyric poet doing some kind of postgrad creative writing course and preoccupied with how to overwrite everything, and ‘Joe D’oh’, the punctuationally challenged experimentalist who can’t (or can’t be bothered) editing his stream of consciousness for the reader’s sake. ... read more

Written by Tara Mokhtari on 17-03-2011, 6 user comments

Poetry review: The Bee Hut

The Bee Hut
Dorothy Porter
Black Inc.

Whatever you think of her poetic style, Dorothy Porter was the contemporary godmother of narrative poetry in Australia. Having read and watched the Joanne Davis performance of The Monkey’s Mask, and having also thoroughly enjoyed What A Piece Of Work, I learned some important lessons about how to manipulate time and space using poetics in the writing of a verse novel. I was curious to read Porter’s collection The Bee Hut to find distinctions between the micro-narrative style that drives the plots of her novels and the standalone free verse of her other poetry. ... read more

Written by Tara Mokhtari on 16-11-2010, 3 user comments

Poetry review: The Best Australian Poetry 2009 | UQP

The Best Australian Poetry
Alan Wearne (Ed.)
UQP

Some months ago I wrote a brief critical review of Black Inc.’s Best Australian poems. Remember – the post that was met with a surprising amount of confusion, discussion etc? Well I left writing this follow-up review of the rival The Best Australian Poetry 2009, edited by Alan Wearne, published by UQP, so long, the 2010 editions must be due out pretty soon. My main points about the Black Inc. anthology were essentially as follows: ... read more

Written by Tara Mokhtari on 16-08-2010, 11 user comments

Review – The Best Australian Poems 2009 | Black Inc.

Reading The Best Australian Poems 2009 has proven to be a challenge for this shunned poet. Not only for my belief that somebody in this country needs to initiate a Best Un-Australian Poems annual collection, but also because at least 60 of the 108 poems are about rain, or the sea, or other large bodies of water in motion, and the most overwhelming impact the whole book had on me was the constant need to urinate. Black Inc. should really have titled this year’s book Wateriest Australian Poems. ... read more

Written by Tara Mokhtari on 8-04-2010, 40 user comments

How poetry ruined my life, episode 4

A question for the poets: What do you do when you're at a party, and some unimaginative guest asks you what you "do", and you have that moment where the following thoughts collide in a mangle of mild discomfort in your mind:

1. Do I bypass the details of how I have a menial day-job to support the poetry?

2. He's going to think I'm a wanker if I say I'm a poet.

3. But I am a fucking poet, I even got published in Overland once!

4. I studied writing and everything, does that justify me or make it sadder that I'm still fixated on it even though Penguin still don't want my verse novel manuscript?

5. I mean, I did the Diploma at RMIT/I did the Bachelors at RMIT/I did the Masters at RMIT/I did a fucking Ph.D at RMIT and I teach the subject now, that's got to count for something...

6. Look at this dork, he's probably got a Ph.D in Quantum Physics, I can see it now, the beer coming out his nose when he snorts and says "you can do Ph.Ds in creative writing these days? Really?"

7. I'd have loved to do a Ph.D on Quantum Physics. If only I could remember how long-division works. No, seriously.

8. Maybe he's one of the polite ones who will smile and nod and say "I never liked poetry much, to be honest",

9. and if that happens, note to self: Resist urge to tell him he just hasn't read the right poetry yet. You know he stopped at Shakespeare sonnets in high-school which brought down his University entrance score to 98.9, and his left eye still gets that nervous pulsating twitch when he thinks about it 15 years on. He's probably not willing to believe you when you tell him there are as many poets and poetic styles and genres as there are musicians and musical genres - and EVERYBODY has at least one kind of music they love. It's just that poetry isn't passive, you can't really read it while you cook your nightly pasta sauce. I mean you do, but he's probably particular about not getting tomato on his books, even the ones he hates. More likely he'd be worried about burning his dinner. His reaction would be "Well I'll read a poem when you do a quadratic equation", which wouldn't be so bad except you really don't remember how to do long-division.

10. So change the subject if he gives you the smile'n'nod.

11. Better yet, lie. Say you're in marketing. You market... something... something people actually need and love. Toilet paper, asprin, organic chickens, breath mints, gym memberships...

12. Don't be stupid, excuse yourself. Go stand in the line for the loo. Nobody will ask you personal questions there.

Anybody?

Got a few newies at: http://taramokhtari.wordpress.com

Written by Tara Mokhtari on 12-01-2010, 13 user comments

How poetry ruined my life, episode 4

Does anybody else get literary hangover? You know, when you finish a major piece of writing and you get sick/exhaustion/brainlessness/depressed immediately after for a period of about two weeks? When I was a playwright, I’d unvaryingly get struck down with tonsillitis the day after every closing night. I just finished writing the last chapter of my verse novel. My studio is filled with late DVD rentals and OK magazines; the TV has been on rather a lot. I’ve discovered 2 for 1 packets of Doritos at the local servo and my couch has developed a bum-shaped indent that wasn’t there before.

Is this me burning out? Or am I just in recovery mode?

On the upside, the new Ashbery is bliss, like I’m walking around his streets with him every morning after my coffee and before my regular writing session. My poetry feels his influence, the lines are unabashedly growing longer, caesura are breaking the rhythm, there’s a meandering balance evolving in the stuff I’ve written since picking up the book. Lowell sits beside the bed, waiting for me to get to him. And I will.

If you want an example of my latest Ashbery inspired poems, go to: http://taramokhtari.wordpress.com

Written by Tara Mokhtari on 13-12-2009, 11 user comments

how poetry ruined my life, episode three

Cordite Poetry Review's Epic edition is now online. The issue's guest editor, Ali Alizadeh, writes of his interest in the epic poem being met with rejection and ridicule on a poetry forum, and the form is self-consciously referred to as archaic. I'm here to tell you that epic/narrative poetry is far from past its expiry date, and that the verse novel is on the rise. Yes, it happens that I'm putting the finishing touches on my own second verse novel manuscript - this is, in part, shameless promotion of my chosen genre.

Famous literary examples  are easy to spot: Dante's Divine Comedy, Homer's Iliad. Not to mention Ferdosi's Shahnameh (Book of Kings) written in Iran approximately one thousand years ago, consisting of 50,000 couplets wr

Written by Tara Mokhtari on 3-12-2009, 9 user comments

How poetry ruined my life, episode 2

If you're paying $120 per session, the last thing you want to hear from a shrink is "Oh well, you'll probably always be a bit disturbed". Some days I'm almost sure I've morphed into Stevie Smith, the subject of my Ph.D. thesis. Some days I think I would even consider performance poetry if I could dress as a schoolgirl with conviction and sing my poesy in an off-key caterwaul, just like Stevie did.

Some months ago I perused an article in The Age about how psychiatric diagnoses are best used to ascertain how much your doctor likes you. If they find you endearing, they'll tell you it's bipolar like Ben Stiller; if you're a prima donna then you must have borderline-personality disorder like Marilyn Munroe is speculated to have had. The neurological phenomenon synesthesia is reserved for crazy artists and musicians, including Franz Liszt and Wassily Kandinsky. The rock stars are depressed and/

Written by Tara Mokhtari on 26-11-2009, 29 user comments

How poetry ruined my life, episode 1

Welcome to my first blog for Overland. This poet will not be posting poetry here. I'll let you know if I post something half worth looking at on my own page: taramokhtari.wordpress.com, if you seek toilet reading material (I know you all take your iPhones to the loo with you for Tweeting purposes these days).

I've banned myself from distractions lately while I try to write up the final few chapters of the verse novel I'm working on. Mind you, last weekend I reverted to my groupie-former-self and drove up to Maitland, NSW for a reunion with my beloved Toohey's Old which is oh so hard to find in Victoria and to see Pinky Beecroft play songs from his band's new album (The White Russians - Pretty Black; if you like heart-on-sleeve rock'n'roll, stripped back to its most intimate skin, played by a tight Oz super-group: Get thee to an iTunesery)... ... read more

Written by Tara Mokhtari on 22-11-2009, 10 user comments