Photographer and Melbourne poet Michael Reynolds has been following the 2009 Overload Poetry Festival around, camera in hand, for nine days. With two days left of the festival, we’re taking a look back at the launch of Overload 2009.  That’s right folks: the festival hasn’t even ended yet and the nostalgia’s already setting in.

At the Overload 2009 launch, Reynolds snapped Jack Charles’ spirited Welcome to Country, Overload President Jon Garrett’s speech, The Heart Chamber’s Matt Hetherington, Lia Hills, Tom Joyce, Michelle Leber and Marian Spires, MC Myron Lysenko, poet Jennifer Harrison, and Santo Cazzati declaring the start of the 2009 Overload Poetry Crawl. Michael has been there, eagle-eyed despite the torturous schedule, at most Overload Poetry Festival events, crouched low on musty carpets, adjusting his camera lense from the back of the room, creeping up toward the podium for that rare close-up. Here are just a few examples of the moments Reynolds captured at the Overload Poetry Festival launch:

 (anti-clockwise from right: Jack Charles’ welcome to country, Overload President Jon Garrett, MC and poet Myron Mysenko & poet Matt Hetherington of The Heart Chamber.)

(Above: The Heart Chamber, and poet Jennifer Harrison delivering her heartfelt Dorothy Porter tribute).

Poetry crawl MC, poet Santo Cazzati, declares the launch officially over and points the way to the first poetry crawl venue, emphasising the point with, well, what looked like some kind of mountain-goat herding horn.

Overload photographer and poet Michael Reynolds will be appearing tonight in the Skype Slam between Overload at Bristol Poetry Festival at ACMI.