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Hello, my name’s Brenda Saunders and I’m going to read two poems “The Art of Travel” and “Distance”. They’re from my recent collection.
The Art of Travel
Grand Tour of Europe: Cosmos Tours 2008
I am running through
a Rousseau forest
Eyes flicker under leaves
Night shades
A troika speeds
through frozen air
Pine needles bristle
There is no moon
just a Nolde sunset
sinking below
a wash of mauve
Navy blurs the edges
Someone on the coach
is complaining
about the trees
We’ve left the auto-route
taken a back road. Soon
they’ll turn on the lights
and black out the view
from my picture window.
They’ll turn the heating up
add a touch of Strauss
to lull us into a dozy sleep
until we get to Budapest
or is it Bucharest?
This one’s quite different ….
Distance
You write me letters
stretch the faint edge
of words
in a spidery hand
say you need me
closer
to catch
my meaning
*
You say
you think of me
when a north wind blows
over the Alps
I hear ocean currents
reshaping the shore line
between us
ABOUT BRENDA SAUNDERS:
Brenda is a Sydney writer and artist of Aboriginal and British descent. Her work has been published on the web and in literary journals here and overseas. She has taken part in several Sydney Writers Festival events and her poetry has been broadcast on Awaye and Poetica ABCRN. Her poetry collection Skin Deep was short-listed for the David Unaipon Prize in the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards 2011. She was recently awarded the 2012 Dorothy Hewett Poetry Fellowship at Varuna, where she worked on her new poetry collection.
“I have been at Varuna for almost three weeks now and have found that time seems to stand still here. Days filled with silence have helped me rethink ideas and achieve a critical reflection on the poems in my collection. The glorious autumn weather and the friendly staff are an added bonus.” Brenda Saunders
PUBLICATIONS:
Some of the poems in the above collection have appeared in the following publications and websites:
2011 Art of Travel: Hotels 1&2, Australian Poetry Journal Beginnings Issue 1. No1
Miniature Australian Poetry Anthology
Fashion statement Mascara Literary Review
The Well Paradise Anthology
Melancholy Famous Reporter No 43 Walleah Press, Tasmania
Toyota Dreaming Overland, Issue 204 Melbourne
Three views of Coogee, Antipodes Poetic Responses. Phoenix Education Press, NSW
Rhapsody Poetica Christi Press. Distance (version)
The 155th Sonnet, Chapbook Shakespeare Society, Melbourne University Press
Jandoo Etchings Indigenous Ilura Press, Melbourne
2010 Rothko in Hamburg, Prospect Blue Giraffe Press
Booraloola Famous Reporter No 39 Walleah Press, Tasmania
The Sound of Red, Stylus@styluspress.com.au
2009 Three Views of Sydney Meuse Press, sydneybeaches@tripod.com
2008 Wonderland, Famous Reporter No 37 Walleah Press Tasmania
Third Age, Canberra Times, Federal Capital Press of Australia Ltd
2007 Night train, Five Bells NSW Poets Union, El Faro Press
The Well Canberra Times Federal Capital Press of Australia Ltd
2006 Point de vu, Illusion, Spin
Blue Giraffe 3, Blue Giraffe Press Tasmania
CONTACT:
3/29 Prince St Randwick NSW 2031
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Good on you, Brenda! xClare