Well, it’s been decided! The eight Call-Back-Poets for SpeedPoets 2012 are Jo Brooks, Carmen Leigh Keates, Marisa Allen, Michael Cohen, Andrew Phillips, Chloe Callistemon, Cameron Logan and… Nicola Scholes. Here’s the poem Nicola took out the October event with!
My Father Flies
in on Friday out on Sunday
he has hospital on Wednesday
so he’ll meet the tradesman
and mow the lawn on Thursday
providing they’ll let him out
(they will)
My father flies
in on Friday
he will fill the fridge
plan the meals
check the mail
pay the bills
Mum says rest! and
my father flies
off the handle
he has done his tax
booked his seat
bought the milk for Grandma
charged the battery in Mum’s car
while we’ve been asleep
He is so close
to retiring
After he has tanked-up
we will go out for lunch
we will have an ice-cream
and look at the sea
they will cut his hair
they will clean his skin
they will plan a meal
My father flies
out on Sunday
he will give me the eggs
he will give me the lettuce
he will give me the tomatoes
they will all go off
When he returns
the passionfruit from his tree
will be on the ground, waiting
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Nicola Scholes is the author of Dear Rose, which won the 2009 “Dreams Ain’t Broken” Small Change Press Chapbook Competition. Nicola’s poems have also been published in various anthologies, books, magazines, and journals, including The Australian Library Journal, The Broadkill Review (USA), Cordite Poetry Review, Finger, Forge (USA/UK), Hecate, Hibiscus and Ti-Tree: Women in Queensland (Hecate Press, 2009), holland1945, Page Seventeen, Poems in Perspex: Max Harris Poetry Award 2007 (Lythrum Press, 2008), Social Alternatives, Stylus Poetry Journal, and Verity La. Nicola performed at Queensland Poetry Festival in 2011, 2009, and 2008, and has also been an actor in Brisbane community theatre. She has published two articles on Beat poet Allen Ginsberg as a part of her current PhD research: “Adapting Kali: Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Stotras to Kali Destroyer of Illusions” in U.S. Studies Online, and “The Difficulty of Reading Allen Ginsberg’s Kaddish Suspiciously” in M/C Journal.
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Each of these 8 poets will perform a short set at the Sunday November 4 SpeedPoets gig and one of them will take away the $200 cash prize and the title, SpeedPoets Open Mic Champion 2012. I will be posting a short feature on each of them in the lead up to the event over at Another Lost Shark. Roll on November!
great poem.
Go Nicola!