Indrani Perera

poet, publisher & mentor

Month: July 2019

Going Out With A Bang

The closing night for the Melbourne Spoken Word & Poetry Festival at Howler in Brunswick on Sunday night was incredible. Six featured poets, four hours of spoken word and more inspiration than you could poke a stick at.

Jon Englezos had me wiping away surreptitious tears with his beautiful poem about his yai yai. A masterful example of the power of story to connect us all.

I am so lucky to live in country where we can all speak up and be heard. Huge thanks to Melbourne Spoken Word for bringing Rania Ahmed to the stage last night to share her poetry. Seeing the world through her eyes was a revelation.

Legendary poet Claire Gaskin rocked the stage last night with her reinterpretation of Greek mythology, giving voice to the women ignored by his/story.

I'm steeling reeling from Tenda McFly's performance. A mixture of spoken and sung word plus video and collaboration. If you're a poet, go check out Gladiator. It will inspire you to keep writing.

American poet Bill Moran gave a stream of consciousness Beat style performance melding spoken word and music with haunting images. He has got the most expressive face I think I've ever seen.

Headlining the event was the Individual World Poetry Slam champion Mic Ting. I was mesmerized by his eloquence and use of gestures to illustrate a point or heighten the moment. I attended his Extended Metaphor workshop on Saturday which was amazing. It was wonderful to then hear how he incorporates metaphor into his work. He also used characters and personas in his performance. This was beyond poetry. It was a masterclass in storytelling.

I hung around for the after party, chatting to fellow poets, meeting the features and not wanting the night to end. The whole festival has been the most incredible experience and I am so grateful to Benjamin Solah and the whole team over at Melbourne Spoken Word for all their hard work in putting the festival on.

July 31, 2019
Poetry Challenge – Week Twenty-Nine

Week 29 words from @nathalie.leriche.art: forgiveness, self worth, love, believe and faith.

believe in yourself

have faith in your magnificence

hold fast to your strength

love all that you are

protect all you can be

cloak yourself in forgiveness

be tender with your doubt

and only measure your self worth

by what you know to be true

~~~~

Here are the words and my poem for the twenty-ninth week of the 2019 Poetry Challenge.

This poem took me a couple of attempts to write. I was starting to feel frustrated at it not turning out quite how I wanted. I was looking for something affirming and positive and wasn't quite getting there. And then I reminded myself to enjoy the process of writing it, rather than rushing to the end result. Rushing would be a little like trying to feel full and skipping the whole delicious meal sitting in front of you.

I'm feeling very inspired by all the amazing poetry gigs and workshops I've been attending as part of the 2019 Melbourne Spoken Word and Poetry Festival. If you haven't checked it out yet, there's still a heap of amazing events happening this weekend. The line-up for the closing night on Sunday is huge. I can't wait! See you there?

If you want to join the 2019 Poetry Challenge, head on over to my Instagram account (@indraniperera) where I post the words for the week on Mondays (mostly) in my story. Write a poem and post it. Be sure to tag me and use the hashtags #2019poetrychallenge and #livepoetsclub.

If you don't want to write a poem, you can still be part of the 2019 Poetry Challenge. Send me five random words and I'll use them in a poem. Either DM me on Instagram with the words or send me an email (indrani at indraniperera dot com).

Happy writing!

July 26, 2019
Book Fair

Sunday morning saw me packing all my books into bags and heading back in to town for the Melbourne Spoken Word & Poetry Festival Book Fair at Siteworks in Brunswick.

It was super fun to be spending a day hanging out with other poets and checking out all the cool things they're publishing. Lots of chapbooks, zines, second hand poetry books (thanks Fiona for the great haul!) and more. I loved Kat's beautiful chapbook, Hungry and her illustrated posters. Eddie Burger had a humongous range of zines for sale. Adiba was selling books in Syriac (the first international language), Arabic and English. Imagine being able to speak and write in three languages!

I was selling Defenestration, my hand bound chapbook, Wild Heart, as well as bookmarks and postcards from the book. I did really well and only have left 3 copies of my limited edition run of 25 for Wild Heart. If you couldn't make it to the Book Fair but want to buy a book, they're for sale in my online shop.

There was an open mic for the stall holders and Tim did a series of interviews with the authors during the day. It was great to chat to all the other poets and see what they're creating. I'm feeling very inspired now!

July 24, 2019
Mastering the Microphone

I was terrified of the microphone. Absolutely petrified. Completely intimidated. When I went to open mic nights and had to stand behind the microphone, I was a frozen bunny in the spotlight. I had no idea how to adjust it for my height or how to speak into it so I could be heard.

But that all changed on the weekend when I attended the Mastering The Microphone workshop with musician and poet Meena Shamaly. The workshops part of the phenomenal Melbourne Spoken Word & Poetry Festival. If only I had more time and didn't need to sleep, I would be going to all the things.

Meena has the best voice, a love of all things sound tech and a great way of sharing his passion. He taught us how to set up a mike stand, showed us how a mixer worked and then let us loose on the microphone buffet he had created. We got to experience where on the mic to speak into, how far away to stand, what to say to the sound guy to make us sound better and so, so much more. At the end Mena even hooked the mic up to an amp he'd brought long so I could have a play and see the difference in the sound.

It was so much fun playing with a piece of equipment that had terrified me. And really? All that cool new gear? You guys know I love good tools. Now I have a microphone, stand, speaker and mixer on my wish list. It would be so cool to have a set up at home to play with and to practice more.

July 22, 2019
Poetry Challenge – Week Twenty-Eight

Week 28 words from @freerthinking: silently, cacophony, compassion, flourish and noble.

silently flourish

amid the cacophony

of negativity and doubt

and show compassion

to your noble self

~~~~

Here are the words and my poem for the twenty-eighth week of the 2019 Poetry Challenge.

This one was fun. I had all but one line done really fast. I set the poem aside during the week, busy with other things (namely all the cool stuff happening at the Melbourne Spoken Word & Poetry Festival) and then when I came back to it, the last line slotted neatly into place. If only all poems were this easy to write!

If you want to join the 2019 Poetry Challenge, head on over to my Instagram account (@indraniperera) where I post the words for the week on Mondays (mostly) in my story. Write a poem and post it. Be sure to tag me and use the hashtags #2019poetrychallenge and #livepoetsclub.

If you don't want to write a poem, you can still be part of the 2019 Poetry Challenge. Send me five random words and I'll use them in a poem. Either DM me on Instagram with the words or send me an email (indrani at indraniperera dot com).

Happy writing!

July 19, 2019
Fresh Voices

I've spent the last six weeks alternating between a state of anxiety and excitement. I guess you could call it nervous anticipation. The cause? My first ever feature as a spoken word artist at the Fresh Voices event as part of the Melbourne Spoken Word & Poetry Festival.

When Benjamin Solah of Melbourne Spoken Word asked me to do a fifteen minute set my response was 'Hell, yes!' I couldn't believe Ben had asked me to share the stage with Cat Lee, Thabani Tshuma and Poetpre. These guys have amazing poetry and have won all sorts of spoken words in the last year.

I've only been performing since the beginning of the year and although I dreamed of one day performing a set as a feature, I thought it would be years before that happened. Turned out I was wrong!

Once the excitement wore off however, doubt began to creep into the cracks and corners. Pretty soon it turned into dread. Fifteen whole minutes up on stage. Did I have enough material to make up a fifteen minute set? Was any of it good enough to share with an audience? Could I remember all my poems? What was I going to wear? How was I going to get there? What if no-one liked me and I died of shame?

~ these next photos were taken by Brendan Bonsack, photographer extraordinaire ~

Like most things, it turns out all the energy spent on worrying was a waste. I loved being behind the microphone and speaking to an audience of over 100 people at the North Fitzroy Library. My husband and beautiful girls came along to see my first ever feature and there were lots of friends in the audience too. It was my first time performing in front of them and one of the reasons for my anxiety (what will they all think of this side of me?). The experience of seeing familiar and friendly faces in the audience was incredible. I know I'm a poet but I have no words to describe it.

My friends loved the whole evening and all the open mic performers and other featured artists. It was fabulous to see their appreciation of the spoken word community and to share it with them. Sometimes the things you dread turn out to be the best things of all.

July 18, 2019
When I Say Spoken You Say Word

I've just had the most amazing weekend filled with spoken word goodness. It's all thanks to Benjamin Solah and the incredible team at Melbourne Spoken Word. They're worked their butts off to put together an incredible two and half weeks of events and workshops in and around Melbourne for 2019's Melbourne Spoken Word and Poetry Festival.

On Friday I headed into the city to the Toff in Town for the opening night of the festival. I got to see seven incredible artists strut their stuff in a room jam packed with enthusiastic poets and word enthusiasts. Natalie Jeffreys was heart-felt and moving. The rhythm and sound of Zaynab G Farah's voice was captivating. Emilie Collyer brought a moment of stillness with quiet poems to lean in to. Arielle Cottingham's performance blew my mind – it was a rollercoaster full of movement and sound that I never wanted to end. Eleanor Jackson was assured, cheeky and just a little bit outrageous. All she wanted was for someone to buy her a drink, there was no metaphor, there was never a metaphor. She was just thirsty. Singaporean poet Stephanie Dogfoot was funny and charismatic. I wanted to be as cool as her. And as young. Luka Lesson had presence and gravity and when he got together with Mena Shamaly on the oud and they improvised it was sublime.

Saturday saw me attending the Fresh Voices workshop with American poet Arielle Cottingham. After seeing her live the night before I was super psyched to learn with her and she didn't disappoint. Arielle's favourite part of the writing process is the editing and she shared some awesome techniques for improving your work which were just what I was looking for. It's super easy to look at someone else's work and say – get rid of this line or that's a cliche. It's much harder when it's your own stuff. I even got a poem out of the workshop which is always a bonus.

Yesterday was another day of poetry immersion, this time focussing on performance with Scott Wings. The workshop was incredible – we pretty much spent the whole time our feet, in our bodies and moving around the room with kinaesthetic response and other techniques. It was brilliant to be back in my body and I didn't want the workshop to end.

Over the weekend I learnt some awesome skills, meet some fabulous fellow poets and had a ball. Thanks Melbourne Spoken Word, you put on an awesome festival. And it's not over yet!

July 15, 2019
Poetry Challenge – Week Twenty-Seven

Week 27 words from @angelaeldering: sunshine, hope, joy, horizon and water.

I know

there's sunshine and joy

on the horizon

I just hope

I can navigate

this dark water

~~~~

Here are the words and my poem for the twenty-seventh week of the 2019 Poetry Challenge.

It took me a little while to get my head around where this poem was going. I had a few attempts at getting something on the page. It was only when I tapped into how I was feeling that the words came.

If you want to join the 2019 Poetry Challenge, head on over to my Instagram account (@indraniperera) where I post the words for the week on Mondays (mostly) in my story. Write a poem and post it. Be sure to tag me and use the hashtags #2019poetrychallenge and #livepoetsclub.

If you don't want to write a poem, you can still be part of the 2019 Poetry Challenge. Send me five random words and I'll use them in a poem. Either DM me on Instagram with the words or send me an email (indrani at indraniperera dot com).

Happy writing!

July 12, 2019
Mindful Reflections

I have been so busy lately there has been no time to sit and be. This is not, in my mind, a good thing. The busyness has started to become a little frantic and addictive. It's been much easier to fill my time with doing than face the emotions lurking under the surface. Or hold the space for my beautiful family and be present with them.

I've been finding it impossible to just sit a dream. To give my thoughts space to breathe, meander and adventure.

I could feel the anxiety building but didn't know how to stop. The first clue came from my beautiful, wise, nine year old girl who said to me "Mama, can we have 5 minutes a day just for dreaming time, where we sit dream?"

Out of the mouths of babes really.

As a result I have started a bed time ritual for the whole family of affirmation cards, foot massages, meditation and parable. What are you doing to rest and reflect?

July 8, 2019
Poetry Challenge – Week Twenty-Six

Week 26 words from @ceresmakersandfleamarket: help, enrich, confidence, battle and intuition.

the still, silent ocean

glazed scarlet

by the setting sun

a catalyst for regret to stalk

through the echoing chambers

of my scrofulous heart

moonlight falls on memory

throwing dream into shadow

~~~~

Here are the words and my poem for the twenty-sixth week of the 2019 Poetry Challenge.

I'm so excited to have made it half way through the year :o) And I've managed to write twenty-six poems. YAY! A big thank you to all the beautiful people who've collaborated and sent me words to use. It's been fun working with different words and learning new ones like scrofulous. Doesn't it sound wonderful? I was imagining a small, scruffy dog when I first read it but it turns out to mean historical!

If you want to join the 2019 Poetry Challenge, head on over to my Instagram account (@indraniperera) where I post the words for the week on Mondays (mostly) in my story. Write a poem and post it. Be sure to tag me and use the hashtags #2019poetrychallenge and #livepoetsclub.

If you don't want to write a poem, you can still be part of the 2019 Poetry Challenge. Send me five random words and I'll use them in a poem. Either DM me on Instagram with the words or send me an email (indrani at indraniperera dot com).

Happy writing!

July 5, 2019