Writer-a-Day: Liana Joy Christensen reading “Imp Spinning”

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Hi, I’m Liana Joy Christensen and the following poem appeared online in Les Wicks’ Australian poetry collaboration no. 15. It’s called “Imp Spinning”.

Imp Spinning

The thing is, you see, I’m no princess-to-be

you won’t catch menopausal me easily

with your devil’s deals

I’ll do what I must

trapped in this barn

dust motes glitter briefly

as each afternoon the door cranks open

just enough to admit the forklift carrying

forms, forms, forms

You expected donkeys?

This is the 21st century!

Still the central facts stay static

say, a woman in a barn labouring

against impossible odds to produce

the expected miracle

Alone in a barn

in despair

the air grows ever drier

the towers of silent paperwork attract

vultures that fastidiously eviscerate sleep

a sinewy thread of dream dangles

from the lammergeyer’s beak

while in the furthest reaches of nightmare

forms perform unspeakable acts

with white trash junkmail

spawning triplicates

Chaos

Entropy

Death

who from birth defy their  Father Bureaucracy

I’ve been around a time or two

so it’s no surprise when

right on cue the imp appears

and with a flourish bows low

“Alzheimer’s at your service”

Now here’s a new twist

The imp shrugs theatrically

“Rumplestiltskin’s strictly for entry.

Me I work with exits.

The deal’s the same either way”

I sigh and sign

then together we make a wheel of words

and spin

and spin

and spin

the forms into gold.

 
ABOUT LIANA CHRISTENSEN:

Liana Joy Christensen writes poetry and prose. Her work has appeared in the Science Made Marvellous poetry anthology published as part of National Science Discovery Week. The first editor of Landscope magazine, she went on to pursue a career in creative writing and was awarded a Creative Arts Doctorate for her stories about the plants, animals and people of the South West of Western Australia.  Liana has performed her poetry in European and Australian venues, and had her work published in literary and scientific journals around the world.   She has a longstanding interest in collaboration across different art forms and the interconnections between science and writing.  Liana’s poetry will be part of the upcoming Fremantle Press Performance Poets Collection, due for release in 2012. Her new non-fiction book Deadly Beautiful was  released by Exisle in November 2011.

PUBLICATIONS:

My writing has appeared in the following publications: The West Australian; Australasian GEO; Reader’s Digest’s Encyclopedia of Australian Wildlife; ECOS; Southerly; Arena magazine; Energy Matters; Indigo Journal; Prosopisia International Journal of Creative Arts; Australian Zoologist; Tamkang Review; Organisation and the Environment; Ascent; Thirst; Lemuria; Dot Dot Dash; The Word is Out; A Forest Consciousness; Earthly Matters; Local Global; and Country – Visions of Land and People in Western Australia.

 

“I’ve had the great good fortune of having two Longlines consultations in my home state, and – best of all – a resident place in the Longlines Different Voices workshop in 2009.  Varuna has made all the difference to my ongoing journey as a writer — offering invaluable encouragement and advice.” Liana Joy Christensen

CONTACT:

http://nomadpoet.wordpress.com/

 

In March 2012 Varuna is hosting its inaugural “Doctors Who … ” event. You can view the program and MJA writing competition by clicking here.

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