New Year, New Us!

Hello lovely people,

IT's a new year and we need to dust off the cobwebs and start afresh! Our little group was a bit bogged down last year in a whole lot of living so we're going to shake it up and get moving!

There's a meeting this Tuesday the 2nd Feb at The Ink Table 118 Commercial St Merbein and yes, I know it's a looong way away but think of it as a romp through the countryside.

We are going to dump a bit of what we were doing and focus in on doing one thing and one thing well.

The proposal is to make a book. Just one. And Launch it. Once. At the writers festival Poetic License event.

What do you think?

We cut out a whole lotta Tuesday 'meetings' and replace it with a sat arvo compiling, printing, binding and making beautiful artwork. Put it all together, send it off and then share it with the world!

Let's free up the time we spent doing boring stuff. Let's get together informally over drinks at The Office or Enjoy Wine, share stories and poems, art and laughs and not feel daunted by the idea but excited we get to hang out and share the things we love.

Come to the meeting to say Yes! I want to make, do, write and laugh!

Tuesday 7pm Feb 2nd The Ink Table

AGM!

The PJP AGM is on

TUESDAY 10 November 2009
to be held at
The Ink Table
118 Commercial st Merbein


It's that time of year again and the AGM notice is in the Sunraysia Daily today (Tuesday) under public notices.

Everyone interested in PJP, its direction, leadership and running is invited to attend.

See you there!

Our first workshop at The Ink Table

Our first workshop at The Ink Table was a beautiful way to spend a Saturday.

Begining with some warm-up writing exercises led by Sophie and Clare and a walk around Merbein to gather inspiration from life everyone settled in for the main event.

Altered book poetry.

Similar to magnetic poetry where you are given a pre-determined set of words to create a work from, in this exercise people were given a page to cut into single words and re-construct as a piece of writing.

Everyone got right into it and afternoon tea was forgotten.

We are thinking to make a 'zine from the work from the event, we'll let you know how we go.

By the way, comments should now be open to anyone, google account holder or not!

Writing workshop!

It's been a long time since we posted here but as we're blogging more we'll try to keep it up-to-date.

There's a writing workshop tomorrow at 2pm in our new home,

The Ink Table.
118 Commercial St
Merbein 3505

It will be held by Clare and Sophie and fun fun fun!

So put on your writing hat and while you're here, check out the newest place to be on The Ink Table's blog,

theinktable.blogspot.com

Poetic Licence @ Mildura Writers Festival

Our Poetic Licence event at the Mildura Writers Festival was a huge success.

The Art Vault was the perfect venue, the jazz singer was brilliant and the musicians (violin and flute) were beautiful.

Here is one of the poems I performed:

Double Stacked Shelves

My torn pair of Dunlop shoes
Walks over cobble stones
Slippery from a misty, lazy rain

My meat pie stained denim jeans
Rub against a lamppost
That may or may not
Lead to lands of Narnian persuasion

My Target brand T-shirt
Sporting curry stains and chip oil
Catches on a spiked door handle

Sporadic air vents warm my bristling arms
That laments a forgotten jumper
That laments a forgotten jumper

Book mould fills my nostrils
Building mould fills my pores
Pipe smoke fills my hair
My eyes fill the room

Braying for a bargain that will not break my budget
Braying for the mystery
That the hunter and the collector
Search for each time they leave shelter

The grey LCD display on my K-mart watch
Tells me to take my time
Tells me to take my time

I fall to my knees
Beneath double stacked shelves
Where old boxes that once held cans
Spill postcards on the hallway carpet
Of my misspent adolescence

Praying at the altar of bowed shelving
I know my time has come
To make a suitable offering
To the leprechaun bookstore owner.

© 2009 Barrie Janson

Now, as a bonus "extra" I will include the story that goes with that poem:

Postcards
Gloucester/ England/ 1998

There was a light misty rain making the cobble stones slippery.

It had become a habit for me to walk the long route home via the old wharf. The industrial days of smithing and ferrying are past. The cobble stones by the jetty now hold the weight of tourists; the lamp posts are used to shine light on their maps and the buildings house antiques. As the rain thickened I began to look for somewhere to shelter.

Walking quickly amongst the myriad of converted warehouses I discovered a secluded bookstore, as one so frequently does walking the back-blocks of old English towns. Every time I find one of these stores I can not contain the excitement that quickens my step even further.

Inside, the store was unremarkable. The entrance was forced beneath a stairwell, the carpet was old hallway carpet, the shelves were makeshift, the books were double stacked and the air was thick with cigar smoke.

It was the perfect place to rest and wait for the rain to ease.
I found a particular bookshelf that had several titles that piqued my interest. Grabbing a handful of books a sat down beneath the shelf to skim read for a while.

It was then that I noticed an old box tucked away on the bottom shelf. There is nothing more enticing that an old box hiding itself on the shelves of a second hand bookstore. Pulling out the box I discovered that it was full of most amazing postcards. They were elegant, periodic and something that I simply must own.

Turning to man at the overflowing ramshackle store counter I asked him how much they were. The man looked liked an ex-wharfie. He had a side beard/moustache of mammoth proportions, his clothes looked like they had grown on his body, his cap was eschewed and his pipe like it had been in the belly of Moby Dick himself.

“Two pound,” he gruffed.

“Two pound for the lot?” I replied incredulously.

“That’s right, me lad.”

Without hesitation I bought them and without hesitation I give one to you.

PJP Writing Workshop 28th March

Get out those pens and dust off those notebooks, the first of our PJP writing workshops for the year is only a few days away!


After our very successful workshop late last year at LaTrobe University we have decided to give our monthly writing workshops a bit of a face lift and an exciting new format. If you would like to join us for some writing, workshopping and inspiring moments of creativity here are the details of the afternoon.

PJP Creative Writing Workshop
Saturday 28th of March
2:30 - 4:30pm
Chivell House, Cnr Tenth Street & DeakinAve, Mildura
Cost: $5

Bring a pen, some paper,laptop, quill and parchment and even a friend to join in the fun.

Just leave a comment if you would like more info on the workshop or to RSVP.

Write your heart out!

PJP at the Big Screen Film Festival

What a wonderful long weekend we had in Mildura a few weeks ago. The Arts festival was in full swing and the town is a hive of activity. We had a fabulous night at the Big Screen Film Festival with hundreds of people turning out to see the film and to check out Poetic Justice Publishing. Our little shop was beautiful indeed and Clare, Moana and I had a lovely time pottering making our little spot under the old homestead look very inviting. We had Moana's beautiful artwork and some of my little brooches and mixed media artwork for sale as well as Clare's lovely journals and other delightful bits and pieces for the crowd to check out.

Our stall in the sunshine

Moana's Artwork

Sophie Isobel Designs brooches

PJP Journals

Clare at our stall

We also had our moment in front of the microphone to a warming crowd who seemed to very intrigued what on earth we were all about. We read poetry and prose about our inspiration from the film Australia, with some beautiful and moving pieces from Janelle, Vjera, Gavin, Heidi, Barrie and Sharlene. We also had the fabulous Don supply some fabulous tunes on the trumpet to entertain the crowd.

Barrie thanking Don

Sharlene telling her tales of Australia

It was a fabulous night all round and we are now looking forward to the upcoming workshop on the 28th of March to come together for our next PJP adventure.