October

The 68th Blake Prize for Religious Art was awarded at the Casula Powerhouse in western Sydney on 19 May. My poem “October” was in the running for the poetry prize, which is part of the larger Blake Award. There is an argument that a poem that does not work a bit like prayer (to no goddess in particular) might as well be prose, but spirituality (of disposition, of line of thought, of cast of mind, of diction) is my way, I think, and since poetry became part of the Blake in 2009 and a poem of mine won, I have had poems listed most years, and I’ve judged the prize and launched the prize and had something to do with many of those whose poems, like Coco X. Huang’s this year, have won (or placed in) the prize. So thanks to the gods and to the judges for including my work again this year. Thanks to Westwords and Casula for running it so well. And congrats to Coco in particular and to Stuart and Evelyn and SPM and Adrienne and Alicia and Kaya. Across the span of us the geography of contemporary Australian poetry, in its many weathers and topographies and birds and watercourses, its idioms and dialects, can be traversed.

Read October here