Tuesday, August 11, 2015

The G 'n' Tea

Take that title: "G 'n' Tea." Hold it in your mind. Use your imagination.

If you can see brightly coloured armchairs and teapots full of wine then you have a very good imagination. If you can see a stage in the Goldfields Library of Bendigo and a trio of talented poets being interviewed by local personality and total legend Gena Mclean then you are some kind of psychic freak.

After a riotously successful inaugural event in the 2012 Bendigo Writers Festival, the G 'n' Tea has been in hiatus for the last two years. But this year it made a triumphant and emotional return to Write on the Fringe, the Festival’s fringe program which showcases local community talent.

A capacity crowd filled the Goldfields Libraries auditorium space and many attendants called it the stand-out event of the Festival. I'm not just saying that either. Everyone I saw at the G 'n' Tea spoke of it afterwards with a rapturous and distant look in their eye, the look of someone remembering something beautiful that they've lost. Or not lost really. I'll carry that night with me for a long time to come.

The poets were locals John Holton and Bruce "B. N." Oakman, joined by South Australian guest Bronwyn Lovell. You could hardly find a more distinguished bunch.

John is a freelance writer, editor and publisher who creates beautiful, tiny collections of poetry in his home kitchen that he distributes through several stores in Bendigo. He has authored ten publications, including two volumes of short stories and also compiled and edited the book Raining Embers - Bendigo's Black Saturday Experience. At one point he shows us a copy of his tiny books.
“I print in 8 point type” he smiles. “Everything about my poetry is small.” He reads us a poem, brief and beautiful, then elaborates a little further.
“The word that comes to mind [for me] is urgency.” he says. “I get an enormous amount of satisfaction out of brevity."

B.N. Oakman is an ex-economist who has been writing poetry since 2006. In that time he has been published in literary journals, magazines and newspapers in Australia, New Zealand and the UK and has published two collections of his own poetry. His voice is roughen and he reclines in his chair, somehow still as tense as a steel spring.
"There's so much unnecessary observation that must be stripped away in the act of writing." He tells us, restless hands swatting at the air to dispel useless words. He follows that gem with another which grants him an eternal place in my heart.
"I don't believe in closure.” He says. “It's rubbish." As both a football and philosophy fan though, my favourite quote from B.N. Oakman was his analysis of his teams chances this season.
"Seneca” he grins sardonically “would barrack for the Bulldogs. It's a test for the Stoics."

Bronwyn Lovell is a poet, writer and editor who has been published in too many publications to fully list. They include, however, the Australian Poetry Journal and the Global Poetry Anthology, and in 2013 Bronwyn was the winner of the Adrien Abbot Poetry Prize. She has thick red hair and her face is earnest and sincere as she recites a slam poem in response to a request from Gena. Afterwards she sighs and says "The Art in poetry is to be concise... ...It's about distilling a moment."Later she cries out loud as she reads us John Updike's “Dog's Death.” It was an endearing, sincere and beautiful expression of empathy. We all cried with her.

The conversation, the poetry and the wine flowed freely immediately after Gena's provocative leading question: "Does anyone care about poetry?" Hopefully what I've written conveys that the answer to Gena's question is yes. Too much was said for me to summarise it all and honestly, I wouldn't want to. If you were there then you know. If you weren't, be there next year. You won't regret it.

1 comment:

  1. Oh, oh, oh, I should have chosen G n Tea over the Farmers. You evoke the scene so well.
    Maybe you could ask Shane if you could add one of his photos to this blogpost, giving him photo-credit of course. He'll say yes.

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