Hi Chris,
Just thought you'd like to know what happened in Sydney today, the first place
in the world, so far as we know, to kick off the March 5th readings against the
war across the world.
The reading took place at the (currently,and spookily, empty) Pool of
Remembrance at the War Memorial in Hyde Park. In this symbolic gesture, a small
but powerful crowd attended and poems were read by poets such as John Bennett,
Brook Emery, Jutta Sierveding, Norm Newlin, Browyn Rodden and Jill Jones and
others (sorry, I didn't get everyone's name). They read either from their own
work or from the work of poets as diverse as Ivor Gurney, Bruce Beaver and
George Oppen.
Afterwards John Bennett and Jill Jones were interviewed on radio 2SER about the
reading and the anthology of 12,000 anti-war poems collected from around the
world to be presented to Prime Minister Howard at 2pm today in Canberra. They
both read some poems on air. An anthology of more than 125 poems by well-known
and unkown Australian poets, including the above poets as well as Les Murray,
Kevin Hart, John Kinsella, Peter Porter, Judith Rodriguez, Pam Brown and many
others can be read on the Poets Union web site at www.poetsunion.com.
Some of us are still awake and at work (ie. moi) but I suspect some went back
home.
Best wishes for the UK reading,
Jill
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