Review by Amanda Anastasi

If I told you I visited a room where I was asked to sit/recline/curl up on a bed by a poet who offered me port/tea and read poems to me, you would think ‘What the…?’ Well, it’s not what you think! It is in fact Red Like Our Room Used To Feel, a one-man Fringe show by one Ryan Van Winkle. Upon entering the busy Melbourne Hub and hurrying downstairs to The Warren (I was two minutes late for my appointment – yes, you must make an appointment!), I was greeted by a nice sort of chap who gave me the following instructions: there will be four envelopes on a bed. Pick one – don’t look inside it – then give it to me.

I entered a red room. The walls were strewn with lights and pictures and the bedside with various objects. I was filled with the impression of memories revisited yet the people abandoned; the remnants of a life or a space once inhabited and now left untouched.

I picked my envelope and gave it to Ryan who then made me a tea, offered biscuits and once he was certain I was comfortable, sat at the edge of the bed and began reading poems from typed out sheets in his hands.

Having heard poets read for a few years now, I still see it as a vulnerable act to pull out a poem and read to strangers. Reading to one person often feels more confronting than reading to a full room. When one considers this, I imagine Red Like Our Room Used to Feel is intended as a confronting experience not only for the listener but for the poet himself. Ryan, throughout, delivers his poems in an assured calm voice, hence allowing his images and lines to absorb to the maximum. The lingering music of Ragland creates a meditative atmosphere.

I will not give details about the objects in the room or the poems themselves, as you really must go for yourself to experience them firsthand. What I will say is that the poems coupled with the surrounding knick-knacks and photographs give a feeling of something lost. I left with the notion of the coming and going of people, of the fragility of relationships and the beauty of these transient things.

Unfortunately, Melbourne Fringe positioned the red room in a loud bustling part of the Arts House, only separating it from the foyer with a curtain. This interfered slightly with the intended intimacy and quiet ambience. One must listen intently. It was nevertheless a beautiful special experience, which would have gained in intensity in a quieter environment.

Red Like Our Room Used To Feel is the perfect between-show interlude for anyone passing through the Fringe Hub, though it is well worth a special trip to experience Ryan Van Winkle, an American Edinburgh-based poet and winner of the 2009 Crashaw Prize. You must not miss it.

Red Like Our Room Used To Feel is currently showing every night at The Warren, Melbourne Hub at Arts House, 521 Queensbury Street, North Melbourne as part of Melbourne Fringe until October 5, and its free! For reservations email Ryan at [email protected] (subject line ‘Booking for Red Room’)

Review by Carrie Hagan

Jacky T’s EP Welcome to Country opens with the title track – a catchy, clever, and sometimes comical piece which simultaneously addresses contemporary Australia’s attitudes toward Aboriginal people, while drawing comparisons between traditional and non-traditional practices in a celebratory way. From here we are taken on a journey through various pieces which deal with everything from the consequences of mindless consumption, to the empowerment of self, to the painful effects of growing up in a narrow-minded, small-town community.

Jacky T’s writing is nuanced and so attentively layered with multiple meanings that we are swept into the current of swift mental connections and transitions created by an artist who is clearly a deep and determined thinker.

What stands out most about Jacky T’s work is his combination of grit and eloquence; honesty which sheds light and darkness in equal measure, making for an incredibly holistic and fulfilling experience as a listener.

This EP is choca-block full of social and political commentary, irony, and lyrical prowess – finessed by an amalgamation of hip-hop beats, wordplay, and poetic technique to boot.

An absolute must-listen for anyone interested in discovering the place where unpredictable sound patterns meet the humble flow of a word-smith and producer dedicated to his craft.

Review by Amanda Anastasi

“Start with that place within you”

From the opening line of the first poem Water, you know that this collection is not merely an offering of poems but a spiritual offering. Good poetry is a thing of spirit and reflection by nature, however this collection has a focused intent from the outset. Subtitled “Reflections From A Travelling Pilgrim,” the author’s hope (as he states in his introduction) is that “your eyes become wider.”

The book is divided in four sections: The Water That Flows Between Us, The Wind That Blows Above Us, The Earth That Stands Below Us and The Fire That Burns Within Us. That is, as Joel explains in his introduction “our connection with each other, with the divine, with the earth and with ourselves”. The structuring of the book under these four elements adds to the pervading universality of the work, the four elements of nature being prevalent in hindu, Buddhist and pagan traditions. There is also no shortage of biblical imagery, but the focus is on the expansiveness of the travelling spirit, the richness of the present and the dropping away of the ego.

In Ayrshire Scotland and Hasten Ye Back, McKerrow explores the places and people of his ancestry. In poems such as Betty Winifred King he makes himself the mouthpiece for the stories of those that came before him. Although Joel on one hand urges the “tossing in the fire…this notion of ‘I’ ‘you’ ‘us’ and ‘them’” in Kindling, he holds strong to things of culture and ancestry, perhaps giving him a point of reference from which to move in new directions. I enjoyed the slightly grittier poems in this section, such as Broken Pavement and Lawrence Cook. Refugee was also strong.

Joel subverts the traditional gender of ‘God’ by using the pronoun ‘She’ and then later also ‘He’. In the section titled The Wind That Blows Above Us, Joel is incessantly looking toward God, finding him/her in unexpected and untraditional places. Many of the poems in this section have a parable-like quality. In poems such as Veneration, the rhythms reminded me of the Beatitudes, but on the whole the influence of Gibran’s The Prophet is palpable.

In The Earth That Stands Below Us the poems are rhythmic, musical and yes, earthy. There are many quiet moments here, whether it be enjoying the cosiness of a pub in A Rainy Day In London, the light reflection of Turn of the Season or the recognition of lost innocence in Raindrops. Joel revisits his cultural heritage again in On Leaving Australia. I found Untwisting particularly resonant – the search for true self and the hard look in the mirror, recurring themes in this and the final section The Fire That Burns Within Us. There is a slight Socratic influence in Uneducation: “It is time to un-know all that I have known.” There is a nod to C.S. Lewis and Tolkien in The Inklings and there is nothing that sums up Joel’s poetic voice more than his words in Spoon: “May my gaze be gentle.”

Joel’s language is lyrical and accessible. Its messages are clear and it creates its own gentle music, even before the CD with musical accompaniment is played. In poems such as Water, Channel Crossing and These Drunken Fountains, the ebb and flow of water is mimicked in the syntax and line breaks of the poem. Also in Swagger & Stumble the lines are abrupt and short, suggesting the new and uncertain steps of one learning.

The CD of These Wandering Feet is well worth a play and features music largely composed, recorded and produced by Spike Mason of Poatina Tasmania. The piano tracks are composed by singer/songwriter and pianist Colleen O’Connell. On the whole, the music works harmoniously and beautifully with the spoken word. Joel has quite a pronounced, musical performance style that is aimed primarily for the stage, though I often found reading the poems on the page a quieter, more thought-provoking experience. Poems such as The God Poem and Veneration, however, are truly magical as an aural experience. Here McKerrow’s voice – at its most natural in intonation – combines with the musical accompaniment to deliver some quite moving moments.

Whether you choose to read the book or listen to the CD, there will be a line or an image to cause you to think or rethink. These Wandering Feet will inevitably, to use Joel’s words, “create space in rooms too crowded.”

Both the Book and CD for These Wandering Feet can be purchased from JoelMcKerrow.com or from Joel in person at any events he may be at.