6 September 20096 September 2009 Main Posts who let the critic out? Overland Overloaded Overland Overloaded reviewer Alec Patric is on the prowl today, reviewing the Westwords and Voiceprints Overload Poetry Festival events this evening. Poets beware, this reviewer is unforgiving, with a sharp eye and a real knack for no-frills criticism. He’s armed with a notebook and ambivalence and is thirsting to be impressed. Stay tuned for his take on his Overload travels. Alec let us in on his mindset, as he gets ready to take on the Overload poets. “I can’t say I’m champing at the bit. There’s a few things I’m looking forward to. Mostly, I’m just mildly curious. Wandering around Melbourne to bars I’ve never been to before, to hear people I’ve mostly never heard of, read poetry which will mostly bore me I suspect, but hoping for that flash of illumination, the cutting insight, the combustible combination of images, thrown to the distracted air with pitch perfect panache. I’m ready for transport. Even if first I need to push this wheelbarrow of bones and organs over cobblestones. Because I’m tired before I’ve even begun this thing. Carrying your own life is enough work sometimes without taking on the extra weight of a festival. I mean it sounds like fun, on paper, but I’m not as bright-eyed or bushy-tailed as once I was. I walked home with yet more books last night from the store. I’ve got books I’ll never read piled up around me imploring me not to go gallivanting with Melbourne’s poets. One is a collection of poetry I bought just last night by Peter Bakowski. In his poem, ‘Portrait of the colour black,’ he writes, ‘Sometimes you throw knives at my heart/That’s your ace/and you play it,/blindfolded, while muttering the word eclipse.’ I don’t think he’s going to Overload but he does make me realize how hungry I am for good poetry.” Overland Overloaded More by Overland Overloaded Overland is a not-for-profit magazine with a proud history of supporting writers, and publishing ideas and voices often excluded from other places. If you like this piece, or support Overland’s work in general, please subscribe or donate. Related articles & Essays First published in Overland Issue 228 11 November 202211 November 2022 Main Posts On the last day of Subscriberthon, our amazing online editor gives you one last (very good) reason to subscribe Editorial team What's in store for the last day of Subscriberthon? First published in Overland Issue 228 10 November 202210 November 2022 Main Posts On the second-last day of Subscriberthon, our favourite editor-duo give you reason #1002 to subscribe to Overland Editorial team What's in store for the second-last day of Subscriberthon?