Tag: Chamber Poets

Elwood Writers: March Progress Report

We’ve always had it in mind that a good rule of thumb is to create one blog post per month, at least. Of course we waver sometimes — often in January, that quieter month when the dust gently settles around us after the festive season. For March, though, there is no such dusty excuse. And so, with that in mind, on the last day of this month, by the skin of our teeth, we present our March despatch: a progress update, as it were.

I got in touch with the group members individually to see what they’ve been up to. Helen says she’s been writing new poetry, and was up on the mic at Chamber Poets earlier this month, reading new work aloud. Margaret is happy to report that she has been sticking to her 15 minutes of writing per day, as outlined in her blog post here. Onya, Margaret. Barry continues to work on his novel and says he’s enjoying catching up on his reading. He might also have used the word recalibrating — but he was in a busy sandwich shop, and it was tricky to hear, so what he meant is anyone’s guess!

And what of the group as a whole? Well, Elwood Writers remains busy with its work on the panel of editorial assistants for American Writers Review. Reminder: the anthology’s contest closes 1 July, general submissions a month later on 1 August. So there’s still bags of time to throw your hat in the ring.

The recent March equinox marked a subtle moment of transition. Whether you’re celebrating Easter, another tradition, or simply enjoying the season itself, we wish you all the very best.

Happy reading and writing — and recalibrating!

EW

Explore the Woodend Haiku Festival 2025

Thanks to Helen for letting us know that the Woodend Haiku Festival is taking place throughout April around the town. Festival director Myron Lysenko is the Victorian representative of the Australian Haiku Society, and also founder and convener of Chamber Poets.

Various events are occurring throughout this month, coinciding with International Haiku Day on April 17.

… include a month-long haiku contest with an autumn theme, pop-up haiku poetry recitals, a free haiku picnic from 10am–1pm on April 2 at the Woodend Children’s Park, and a haiku-focused Chamber Poets event from 1–4pm on April 12.

Star Weekly 01/04/2025

The full program is detailed below:

WOODEND HAIKU FESTIVAL PROGRAM

1—30 April. Haiku contest on the theme of autumn. 

1—30 April Pop-up Public Haiku Poets. 

2 April 10am-1pm Haiku Picnic. Woodend Children’s Park.

12 April 1pm-4pm Chamber Poets #109, Woodend RSL. Featuring internationally renowned poets from the Victorian based haiku group The Fringe Myrtles, plus Open Section and haiku music by Black Forest Smoke. 

17 April 10am-midday Woodend Library. Free. Celebrate the magical, wonderful world of haiku. Listen to readings or be guided into writing your own. 

17 April 1.30-3.30pm Woodend Neighbourhood House. Free. Poets will read haiku to you, write one about you or help you write one. 

30 April 6pm- 8pm Haiku Dinner at the Victoria Hotel, Woodend. $22 for meal and a drink.

Local poet and festival director, Myron Lysenko, is a representative of the Australian Haiku Society and has organised a range of activities to celebrate all things haiku, coinciding with International Haiku Day on April 17.

Midland Express 26/03/2025

Two press articles feature the festival: Star Weekly‘s current edition has a piece on Chamber Poets, including interviews with Myron and some of the collective volunteers, including our very own Helen McDonald. You can read the article by clicking here. And read the Midland Express feature by clicking here.

Star Weekly 01/04/2025: Chamber Poets convener Myron Lysenko, and collective volunteers Jenny Zimmerman, Helen McDonald, Wendy Purcell, Talon Gostelow and Linda Stuart at the Woodend RSL. (Damjan Janevski). 466737_01

The Unique Power of the Spoken Word, by Helen McDonald

I don’t know where the last few weeks have gone since the phenomenal success of the 100th Chamber Poets was celebrated at Woodend’s RSL club. I think I’m still soaking up and processing the wonderful atmosphere of the spoken-word event. The 100th celebration drew a crowd of no less than 100 enthusiastic poets and poetry lovers to listen to some of Australia’s most lauded poets – including Andy Jackson, Kevin Brophy, Es Fung, Joe Dolce, Gaylene Garbis, Ross Donlon, and the legendary Pi O – spin and weave their beautiful, funny, heart-wrenching, poignant, politically charged and piercingly honest poems.

We are currently bunkered down in the Macedon Ranges, experiencing our coldest winter for many years, and we have yet another much-loved Chamber Poets afternoon of poetry reading to keep our hearts warm this coming Saturday, July 13th.

There is really nothing like the spoken word – it has the power to draw an audience into a kind of magic circle that unites and holds it spellbound, addressing as it does both the personal and universal experiences common to humanity.

For the poet, the experience of reading aloud to a gathering is very different from sending out work on the written page for the reader to interpret as they choose. I was recently delighted to have my poem ’Crossing the Fitzroy’ published in online journal Catchment – Poetry of Place (click here to read) after a marvellous exchange with its editor Rodney Williams. I had originally written what I thought was a haibun, a Japanese poetry form comprising a piece of prose followed by a haiku, which has its own unique structure on the page. This in itself informs how the poem is read aloud. Though satisfied that my words expressed the sentiments I needed to put down on paper, when I read the piece aloud I somehow couldn’t quite get the phrasing to sound as I wanted. 

Working with Rodney and his incredibly helpful suggestions, and using exactly the same words, I came to realise that my haibun form was masking a poem of free Western verse. Not only did the visual effect of the revised poem work more effectively but, importantly, the way I now read my piece aloud – the phrasing, pausing and emphasis – came far more naturally. This of course will influence the way my words resonate with the listener as I come to share my profound experience of travelling in the Kimberley region on Aboriginal Bunuba country.

There is a world of difference between the look of a poem and its telling, but in both instances, once seen or heard, the individual can take from the poem whatever meaning they will. It no longer belongs just to the poet.

Such is the power of the spoken word.

Helen McDonald

Unusual Work No. 35

Unusual Work No. 35 (Collective Effort Press)

While spending time putting together our tribute to fellow Elwood Writer Jenny for Vision Australia Radio, creativity continues to extend in diverse directions for us all. 

Helen is delighted to have her poem ‘Identity in Two Acts’ included in the latest edition of Unusual Work (#35) published by Collective Effort Press, editor πO (PiO). For more info and to find out how to order your copy of Unusual Work, just follow this link here – you will be adding your support to our vitally important small presses and publishers.

Judge Ann Bowman awarding Helen the Poet of the Month

Also, Helen was thrilled to be awarded Poet of the Month at the April Chamber Poets spoken word event held in Woodend, regional Victoria. The event was dedicated to commemorating ANZAC Day and celebrating International Haiku Day. Helen’s moving prose poem ‘The Diary’, about her grandfather’s experiences as a foot soldier in WW1, was followed by a poignant haiku – this reading encompassed both themes and clearly resonated with the audience. 

It’s worth mentioning that ‘The Diary’ is published in Every Second Tuesday – Stories by Elwood Writers as part of Helen’s story ‘My Grandpa’.

So it’s double congratulations and two big cheers for Helen! Very well done.

Happy Monday to everyone.

EW

Local Lines from Helen McDonald

Congratulations to Helen on having a selection of haiku published in a recent bumper edition of The Local. You’ll find Helen’s haiku in Local Lines on page 76 at the following link:

The Local February 27, 2023 Issue 274

The Local is distributed throughout the Central Highlands including Daylesford, Hepburn, Trentham, Kyneton, Malmsbury, Lyonville, Glenlyon, Tylden, Newlyn, Blampied, Creswick, Clunes, Blackwood, Woodend – and everywhere in-between.

Well done, Helen.

Happy reading, everyone!

EW

Chamber Poets lives again

Helen has been busy recently, happily reconnecting with a cultural and literary community that disappeared two years ago, “leaving many poets and writers of a much-loved spoken word event quite bereft”. Chamber Poets attracts poets from Melbourne and regional Victoria, and will be held every second Saturday of the month from 1pm–4.30pm in the Woodend RSL (Returned & Services League) in the Macedon ranges. For more information about Chamber Poets, visit the following link:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ChamberPoets

The July event this Saturday 9th will feature three poets: Angela Costi, Grant Caldwell and Claire Gaskin, who are launching An Embroidery of Old Maps and New; blue balloon (Collective Effort Press); and Eurydice Speaks and Ismene’s Survivable Resistance respectively. 

All are welcome to come along and listen to some of Australia’s leading poets and to share their own poems, perhaps written in isolation, that just now might be ready to go out into the world.

Here Helen shares with us her delight at being at the return of the Chamber Poets held in June:

“It’s been a long road for all writers since you-know-what sent us all scurrying indoors, doomed to an artistic life played out on Zoom with its intermittent freezes, loss of audio and anxiety-making meetings, seminars and classes. Needs must.

So many books/collections were written and launched into this weird cybersphere. But happily, writers are emerging from their imposed cocoons, and book launches are at last taking place with live, wildly enthusiastic audiences. So it was that after a hiatus of two years, the Victorian regional Chamber Poets returned triumphantly on June 11th to Woodend, with the largest audience in the group’s history. There were three book launches, plus an open mic section and entertainment by the funky and humorous Black Forest Smoke band, and much-lauded local choir The Woodend Warblers. 

Chamber Poets founder Myron Lysenko’s and Alice Wanderer’s haiku poetry collections – a ghost gum leans over and Lips Licked Clean – were launched along with Kevin Brophy’s latest poetry collection, In This Part of the World.

Inspired by the beautiful readings from each poet, some 20 people hungry for spoken word took to the open mic with their diverse and eclectic styles of poetry.”

Helen Published in Creatrix #50

Congratulations to Helen whose two poems ‘Gasp’ and ‘Carry the Truth’ have been selected for inclusion in Creatrix #50, the online poetry journal of the WA Poets Inc. You can find Helen’s poems here.

Earlier this year, when poets could still meet, perform and share their work in person (remember those times?), she was awarded Poet of the Month at Chamber Poets, held in regional Victoria, for her poem ‘Unsaid’. The judge was poet and author Kevin Brophy, Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Melbourne.

Don’t ever let it be said that a mere world-wide pandemic can hold back Elwood Writers!

Poetry to our ears

Congratulations to Helen on winning ‘Poet of the Month’ at the July Chamber Poets meeting in Woodend with her poem ‘Stark Against the Sky’. If you use Facebook, you can find out about Chamber Poets here.

And Helen’s poems ‘A Friday, like any other …’ and ‘In Deep Blue’ are published in Poetry Matters Issue 36 – the 2019 Competition edition. You can read more about Poetry Matters here.