Final Thoughts

Mildura Writers Festival was a wonderful experience for me. I feel that I have learnt a lot about myself as a reader and writer through engaging with the sessions and fellow Writers in Action students. Prior to the festival, I had virtually given up on myself as a writer. At the end of this festival, I feel inspired and ready to start writing again without stressing about how it will turn out, just writing without fear. On our final day, we went on one of the paddle steamers to do a writing exercise. Look around and write about what you see, hear and smell. I found this particular exercise very useful as there was a lot to see, hear and smell, meaning there was a lot to write about! I wrote quite freely, starting purely with observations and creating small snippets of poetry from there. I felt rather proud of what I produced so I shall share some of it below. It was hard to say goodbye to my fellow students of Writers in Action. We all connected quickly with our common interests in reading and writing.  It was lovely to not only enjoy the festival events and get so much out of them but to also make new friends and learn from them, too. I’m keen to get back into writing again with all of this inspiration. As Emily Bitto signed in the Writers Festival book: “I feel like a writer again!”

Paddle steamer snippets:

Steam, gas, stench, strong, burning plastic, unpleasant.
Murky brown-green water.
Movement - slow, still, calm.
Water - unclear, unknown, mysterious - What is below? What is above?

Boat - juxtaposes the calm, stillness of the natural environment - blue plastic chairs - smell of burning plastic (but not quite plastic, something else).

Pipes coming down to the river - human meets nature (human versus nature) - a constant battle.

A flag to let us know where we are - identifier - we're here, not there. Victoria versus New South Wales, somewhere in between.  

Quotable Quotes

Although focusing on poetry, I have found myself being inspired by all of the writers at the Mildura Writer’s Festival. They’ve all shared their knowledge and wisdom on the process of writing and their inspirations for writing. This has been really valuable to me as someone who used to write frequently and suddenly stopped. Coming to this festival, I hoped to reignite my love for writing and reading. I want to share some of the quotes from the writers that really stood out for me throughout the festival. These were the quotes that I just had to write down as soon as they said them because they connected with me in some way. Throughout the festival, I threw some of these quotes up on twitter. Although I’m not a frequent user of twitter, sometimes my posts received some kind of reaction from the writers or organisers which gave me a buzz! Here are some of the quotes I put on twitter:

Here are some other quotes I noted down that resonated with me:

“The root of the word amateur is love” – David Malouf

“Fiction has that special element of connection because it is emotional” – Olga Lorenzo

 “I believe in the power of feeling over the power of thought” – Sunil Yapa

“There’s a real human being in that armour” – Sunil Yapa (on having empathy towards riot police)

“What does it connect with me that means I can’t let it go? That’s how writing begins” – David Malouf 

Some of these quotes have cemented for me that if you want to write you need to do it every day; practice, make mistakes, start again and repeat. You don’t have to show anyone, just write. You can edit later, don’t be afraid. This again made me think of childhood when you give everything a go and there is no fear involved. You draw a picture of your family when you’re a child and it doesn’t matter what it looks like, you’ve done it. There is a freedom with childhood that is forgotten in adulthood. Bringing out that inner freedom and dismissing the fear that it won’t be good enough is key to writing. That’s what I have learnt. Just write. 

Les Murray / Perverse and Poignant

Les Murray: a man of few words except in his poetry. And his poetry says it all. I discovered in this session, as I did in Jan Owen’s session, the diversity of Les’ poetry. From the perverse to an ode to his long-time friend, Les is able to arrange words to create a world, an image, a perspective. He is able to create poems that are perverse and poems that are poignant. His ability to do this amazes me and I loved hearing him read his own poems, often with a little dry laugh at the end of the witty poems. A continuing theme has become evident to me throughout these sessions: poetry is diverse and can be arranged in a number of ways. Anyone can write poetry if they just give it a go. I can write poetry if I just give it a go, like I used to when I was a teenager. Poetry doesn’t always have to be epic and wonderful and beautiful and poignant. It can just be honest and straight forward and even perverse. And that is what Les taught me. Poetry doesn’t always have to be pretty or about lovely things, because that isn’t accurate to life or people. Poetry can be imperfect, just like life and people. Perhaps, the best thing, as Les himself said is to just end a poem. Don’t stress and fuss over how it will end, just end it. I think I need to apply that attitude to my poetry writing from now on. 

Lovely and Cheeky / Jan Owen

The Jan Owen we saw yesterday was sweet, quiet, well-spoken and somewhat reserved. Yesterday, she read us one of her poems that she wrote about an old teapot that she couldn’t bear to throw away. She seemed polite and just lovely, the kind of lady you would like to have a sophisticated afternoon tea with. Today, we saw a very different side to Jan Owen. The side that writes cheeky little limericks that contain a fire and wit we didn’t see yesterday. One of her limericks included the expression “crack a fat” which I have not heard in a long time and caused much laughter amongst the audience. Not only is the expression funny and nostalgic, hearing it said by someone so sweet and articulate and knowing that she used it in one of her limericks makes it even better. Along with reading these limericks, Jan also read some French poetry that she has translated and it was absolutely beautiful. The contrast between the translations and the limericks was wonderful to see; poetry can take many different forms. It can be serious, it can be beautiful, it can be lyrical, it can be funny, it can be silly, it can rhyme, it cannot. The possibilities for poetry are endless and Jan Owen proved this with her diverse range of poems.

Seeing these two sides of Jan Owen made me think about the complexity of people and how everyone has many different personalities and traits. If we apply these varying personalities to poetry, we are able to write and explore it in a number of ways. I found this session very helpful in regards to my relationship with poetry. I can write silly things, I can write things that don’t make sense, I can write beautiful long pieces and it goes on. I can write. Poetry isn’t something I should be afraid to create because it can take such a wide range of forms and I don’t have to stick to just one form, I can experiment and play. After all, isn’t that what poetry is about? Playing with words, experimenting, discovering. We did that when we were children, it should continue on. Jan Owen in her diversity reminded me of this.

Les Murray and Jan Owen

Seeing Les Murray and Jan Owen together was really special. Les with his casual manner and dry wit compared with Jan’s sweet and careful nature. It was intriguing to see them together as their poetry and approaches to writing are quite the opposite. Les said he doesn’t have trouble ending poems as he just stops them. Jan, on the other hand, said she sometimes struggles for a long time to conclude a poem. I found these insights useful as it is reassuring to know that each poet does things differently and there isn’t necessarily one formula to writing a poem, it is about finding what works for you. I think I found this particularly useful as part of the reason I stopped writing poetry is because I thought I wasn’t doing it right and that there was some special formula. The only special formula is finding something that works for you and rolling with it.

This session was also intriguing as Jan and Les each read a few of their poems. It was good to hear their different styles and structures of poetry side by side as each is quite unique. Jan’s poetry is very polished and precise, whereas Les’ poems are a little bit rougher and perverse. The juxtaposition between their poems and personalities made for an intriguing interaction.

In terms of their inspirations for poems, they each said how sometimes it can come from everyday things. These everyday things included a pork sandwich for Les and a hand me down teapot for Jan. Another reason I stopped writing poetry is I never thought I had anything insightful or unique to say. To know that these two well-known and successful poets sometimes gain inspiration from simple, everyday things has allowed me to realise that there doesn’t have to be any unique idea or magical insight in order to write a poem.

This session taught me that poetry comes in many forms and that poets have varying approaches to their poetry. This has made me realise that I can continue to write poetry, even if it is about something as simple as a pork sandwich. 

A new focus / Things change

Since writing my last post, I’ve decided to take a different angle with my blog. At the time, I thought the questions I was asking were interesting (and they are, to an extent) but since attending the festival events, I have discovered other things I can write about that are of greater interest to me. In terms of how widespread the Mildura Writer’s Festival is or is not, I have realised the following: it doesn’t really matter. At each event, the audience was engaged and inquisitive. As the writers were talking or reading from their works, the silence from the audience indicated their keenness to listen and even learn something. And I’m okay with that. As long as people are thinking, discussing, writing and reading, then that’s really all that matters. It doesn’t matter who it is, even if it is only a certain group of people, at least some people are out there being engaged, thoughtful and interested. If that is one of the aims of the festival, they have achieved it.

Now, onto what I actually wish to focus on: poetry. I’ve had a strange relationship with poetry. As a teenager, I used it in a therapeutic way. I wrote poetry to express how I was feeling. As you can imagine, much of this poetry was rubbish, filled with the angst of a teenager. Somewhere along the way, the angst I was expressing in my poetry turned to how I was expressing it in my poetry. I began to obsess over words and line and structure and rhythm and tone. Eventually, I stopped writing poetry altogether.

My relationship with poetry has been an odd one because I used to enjoy writing it but I never really liked to read it. This festival featured renowned poets on its schedule. Upon discovering this, I decided that I would like to read more poetry and see where it takes me both in understanding it and in my own practice of writing it. By focusing on poetry, I will reflect upon my engagement with poetry at the festival. This engagement included listening to poets reading their works and discussing the writing of poetry in general.

Initial thoughts / Better late than never

13/07/16:
I arrived in Mildura today and got a little lost but remained intrigued and excited for the Writer’s Festival. I explored the Arts Centre and, interestingly, couldn’t find any information booklets or even posters about the Writers Festival. This made me wonder how widespread (or not) the festival is. Is it only reaching a certain audience (writers, authors, publishers, journalists, bloggers etc.)? Does this create limitations? Are limitations a bad or good thing? Does the festival achieve what it wants to if it is just reaching the same groups of people over and over? I would like to explore these ideas further whilst I am here. My impressions so far are only quite limited. I guess I just expected some hype or excitement or buzz around town for the Writers Festival. Maybe that buzz is happening but only for some, a few. I will continue to observe throughout the festival and see what I find…