Indrani Perera

poet, publisher & mentor

Tag: Defenesetraion

Poetry Challenge – Week Forty-Two

Week 42 words from @h.m.marie: sky, wall, light, melancholy and tomorrow.

tomorrow the light will shine

and I will relinquish this cloak of melancholy

yes, tomorrow the light will surely come

and melt this wall of ice around my heart

for tomorrow

tomorrow the birds will swoop and dart across the sky

tomorrow

tomorrow there will be no more sorrow

the sun will burst through the clouds

bathe my body in light

and I will dance

tomorrow

~~~~

Here are the words and my poem for the forty-second week of the 2019 Poetry Challenge.

I managed to squeeze in the writing of this poem on a road trip north to attend a Music, Nature and Storytelling camp in Hawks Nest. Serendipitously, the Poetry on the Move Festival 2019 was on last weekend in Canberra and on Saturday night I managed to catch Kei Miller, Katharine Coles, Judith Beveridge and Angelea Gardner at Smiths Alternative in Civic. It was wonderful to see Smith's bookshop living on in another incarnation. It was inspiring and amazing and I have so many ideas running around in my brain right now. Good poetry feeds the soul and it's everywhere!

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!

October 25, 2019
Poetry Challenge – Week Thirty-Nine

Week 39 words from @katielohner: valid, assistance, private, blood and zoo.

I can't seek assistance

my feelings aren't valid

this blood I shed

comes

from a private hell

my emotions?

a zoo

~~~~

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

Hmmm, the poems seem to be getting shorter and shorter. I’m not sure if this is a good thing. I've been trying to write longer spoken word style pieces. If I read this one out at an open night, it would be over in the blink of an eye! At least it neatly fits on one page with plenty of room to spare.

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!

October 4, 2019
Poetry Challenge – Week Twenty-Three

Week 23 words from @loveisyourcompass: kindness, flow, soul, shine and magic.

let kindness to yourself

flow from your soul

threading scarlet desire

round your beating heart

take up the skeins

of your transcendence

and shine a light

on your own magic

~~~~

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

As you know I've been struggling with writing a poem each week for the challenge. As I've already mentioned, my own self imposed rules were holding me back somewhat. But that wasn't the whole story. Even now I still I don't know the whole mystery of my creative process for this challenge and I doubt I ever will. There is at the very core, an elusiveness in creating something from nothing.

However, I have just figured out another piece of the puzzle thanks to the words from two of my collaborators and partners in rhyme. Both @beiteshai and @_heart_land_ mentioned something about enjoying the process. And I realised I hadn't been enjoying the actual process of writing the poems. Of putting pen to paper and playing with words, rhyme and metre. I'd been expecting to turn up at the page with my five words for the week and scribble down a masterpiece. Ha! Crazy fool.

Knowledge equals power and now I am focusing on enjoying the process of writing the poems. It's easy to get caught up in all the other stuff – posting on Instagram, designing in Canva – and forget about the point of the whole exercise. To write poems. To improve my writing. To collaborate and connect with others. To share words, language and ideas. To have fun! Here's to having more fun while writing poetry.

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!

June 14, 2019
Open Mike Adventures

I've been diving head first into the terrifying recently. Going to spoken word gigs and putting my name down for the open mike section. Getting up there and reading my work to a room full of strangers. Like I said, terrifying and incredibly humbling to share a stage with giants in the Melbourne scene.

I've been to Passionate Tongues at the Brothers Arms in Fitzroy, Dan Poets at the Dan O'Connell in Carlton, Littlefoot & Co in Narrewarren and Girls on Key in Northcote. The first time I got up behind the mike I was petrified. Everyone was looking. And no-one was being distracted, they were all staring. And listening. To me. I somehow got through that very first poem, hand shaking as I held the piece of paper and spoke into the microphone. The audience were amazing and supportive. When I said it was my first open mike ever, they whooped and hollered. The poetry community here in Melbourne is the best!

I love hearing poets read their own work. There's nothing quite like it. Sometimes a word captures my ear and my imagination. Other times it's the poet's voice rolling and crashing on the shores of my memories. In the last few moths I've had the privilege of hearing Fenella Edwards, Benjamin Solah, Waffle Irongirl, Wani, Robbie Coburn and Krish Prasad. And they're just the featured artists.

If you're interested in spoken word and live in Melbourne check out the excellent Melbourne Spoken Word for gigs near you. There are amazing poets performing in venues all across Melbourne and a lot of the gigs are free. You can pretty much go see live poetry every night of the week. It's awesome. Go check it out!

May 27, 2019
2019 Poetry Challenge – Week Nineteen

Week 19 words from @meghalnaik: ocean, turtles, sand, choking, plastics.

my thoughts are an ocean of grief

my heart a pillar of salt

my breath soured

with the taint of decay

turtles lay eggs in the sand

an act of faith

abandoning progeny to fate

and a polluted ocean

man's red hand

bleeds into blue

leaving a planet

choking on plastics

~~~~

Here are the words and my poem for the nineteenth week of the 2019 Poetry Challenge.

There was an obvious direction given with the words for this week's poem. I tried to play around with them to make things a little more interesting but ended up where I originally expected. It was interesting to have such strong and definite words.

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!

May 17, 2019
Love and Desire

On my recent trip to Canberra I managed to squeeze in a visit to the National Gallery of Australia to check out the Pre-Raphaelite exhibition, Love & Desire. I took my mum and my two girls to see these magnificent paintings from the 1800s.

When I was in my 20s I was a huge fan of John William Waterhouse. He's the painter most people associate with this period in art even though he wasn't one of the original seven members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. There's even a print of his very famous painting, The Lady of Shallott, at my folks from when I lived there.

It was wonderful to see the paintings in real life. Get up close and see the brushstrokes. Marvel in the incredible detail.

We did the guided tour and it was fascinating to hear stories about the artists as well as those of the people in the paintings. It's the first time I've done a guided tour in a gallery and I'll definitely be doing more. Sue, our guide, was knowledgeable and full of trivia. She was also very respectful and mindful of my daughters (aged 8 and 12) and pitched her talk to accomodate them.

Unlike a lot of artists, the pre-Raphaelites actually made money in their life times. They were canny sales people and sold reproductions of their works. They were able to capitalise on technology and deliver art to the masses, foreshadowing the future.

March 25, 2019
Love and Desire

On my recent trip to Canberra I managed to squeeze in a visit to the National Gallery of Australia to check out the Pre-Raphaelite exhibition, Love & Desire. I took my mum and my two girls to see these magnificent paintings from the 1800s.

When I was in my 20s I was a huge fan of John William Waterhouse. He's the painter most people associate with this period in art even though he wasn't one of the original seven members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. There's even a print of his very famous painting, The Lady of Shallott, at my folks from when I lived there.

It was wonderful to see the paintings in real life. Get up close and see the brushstrokes. Marvel in the incredible detail.

We did the guided tour and it was fascinating to hear stories about the artists as well as those of the people in the paintings. It's the first time I've done a guided tour in a gallery and I'll definitely be doing more. Sue, our guide, was knowledgeable and full of trivia. She was also very respectful and mindful of my daughters (aged 8 and 12) and pitched her talk to accomodate them.

Unlike a lot of artists, the pre-Raphaelites actually made money in their life times. They were canny sales people and sold reproductions of their works. They were able to capitalise on technology and deliver art to the masses, foreshadowing the future.

March 25, 2019
2019 Poetry Challenge – Week Eleven

Week 11 words from @petedblackmore: swim, stretch, walk, hot, cold.

salmon swim upstream

leaping over boulders

and climbing waterfalls

I stretch the truth

walk around the facts

hot with shame

cold with grief

~~~~

Here are the words and my poem for the eleventh week of the 2019 Poetry Challenge.

I'm still grappling with the Poetry Challenge and my feelings of inadequacy. Self doubt crept in last week in a big way and looks fit to stay for a while longer. At the start of the year I was fired with enthusiasm and full of ideas. Now? I convince myself to put off writing for as long as possible then I drag myself to the words. Torture. Self inflicted of course.

If you want to join the 2019 Poetry Challenge Torture, head on over to my Instagram account where I post the words for the week on Mondays (mostly) in my story. 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!

March 23, 2019
2019 Poetry Challenge – Week Eleven

Week 11 words from @petedblackmore: swim, stretch, walk, hot, cold.

salmon swim upstream

leaping over boulders

and climbing waterfalls

I stretch the truth

walk around the facts

hot with shame

cold with grief

~~~~

Here are the words and my poem for the eleventh week of the 2019 Poetry Challenge.

I'm still grappling with the Poetry Challenge and my feelings of inadequacy. Self doubt crept in last week in a big way and looks fit to stay for a while longer. At the start of the year I was fired with enthusiasm and full of ideas. Now? I convince myself to put off writing for as long as possible then I drag myself to the words. Torture. Self inflicted of course.

If you want to join the 2019 Poetry Challenge Torture, head on over to my Instagram account where I post the words for the week on Mondays (mostly) in my story. 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!

March 23, 2019
Road Trip

It's good to get out of town once in a while. Leave the city and drive. The endless stretch of bitumen ahead of you, the sky embracing you from above and the horizon beckoning.

I did just that and hit the road with my two girls.

Our destination? Canberra.

Duration? Four days.

Reason? My Mum's 70th birthday.

We had the most wonderful weekend. We stopped on the drive to explore country towns and poke around in op shops and second hand bookshops. We ate delicious food on the road and at my parent's house where we spent the weekend. We went for a walk around the lake, saw beautiful sunsets from their house on the hill and celebrated.

March 11, 2019