LISTEN - an anthology of poetry and prose: A Review

It is good to know the written word is alive and flourishing in Fremantle. Members of OOTA, the Out of the Asylum writers group, are strong contributors to its survival.

This group of authors has been incorporated as OOTA, since 2005 and regularly come together to share and critique their work. To celebrate their talents, the anthology LISTEN was created in 2024. It is a composite of poetry and short stories from over 40 writers ranging over numerous topics and issues providing an excellent showcase for work that is both accessible and entertaining.

The title LISTEN invites readers to carefully think about and share ideas put forward in the various texts of the anthology. Each author has taken the time to observe and consider the world they have created, selecting fine detail and precise evocative language to bring colour and life to their writing. They invite the reader to immerse themselves in the language and take time to pay attention to what is being said as the writers hone in on the reflection and immediate experience of life.

Gail Willems considers time passing in her poem I Lose My Yesterday.

I sample the day before yesterday
hear the storms heartbeat
pumping

And Bill Powell recreates the exhilaration and triumph of surfing that first wave in his short story Precious Energy.

I’m on to it, sliding down its face, leaning left and digging the leading edge of my board hard into its guts. It slams itself down onto my backside in one last ditch attempt to crush me. But it’s too late. I have control.

Some of the stories explore creativity and the difficulty of realising a vision in an art form. In Rosemary Stevens’ short story, Let the Heart Move the Hand, metaphor and rhetorical questions bring the problems of creativity to the fore. The character has to wait and listen to achieve the desired goal.

A blank page, no longer pristine and perfect, but with a ghost of something that connects her as if through an umbilical cord to a feeling she can’t yet define.

….

Let the heart move the hand. That’s what her dad says when she struggles with her bow on the violin. Is this what he means? This waiting and listening?

The poems in particular, ask to be read aloud, as is obvious with Josephine Clarke’s poem these slow mornings. Somehow the imagery of her poem gains strength as each word is enunciated and the steady pace of the poem unfurls when the words are heard. We feel the mornings and memories passing and arrive at the final two lines with complete understanding.

these slow mornings Josephine Clarke

we sip these slow mornings like hot tea
and memorise the sharp burn of the play of light on time

butter on the sourdough
trivia on the tablet
years of pagers, lunches in plastic, school runs;
an orchestra leaving the house

~

the first taste says you have time to stop
and pick up a cup
an asana for the muscle under your skull
your tea is freshly made, and tastes of rainwater
smells of bark and the pure air of forests
—that sip is honey-coloured joy

~

we can let go now the adornments
whispering sweet nothings
horoscope of hope
talismans plucked from street vendors

~

time is autumn now whatever the season
slow fat sunlight
or swollen grey sky
all magnified
in this slow mourning of
our living

The writers of this anthology are at different stages of their writing experience. This anthology allows new comers and old hands a chance to give voice to their work. LISTEN is about celebration and recognition of a sometimes lonely craft and is, I believe, both worthwhile and successful.

OOTA is always happy to welcome new members and can be contacted at ootawriters@gmail.com.

For a very reasonable cost of $25, you can acquire a copy of LISTEN through the same email address.

* Veronica Lake, is an OOTA member, a Fremantle poet, and one of the 40+ creatives who contributed to LISTEN

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~ If you would like to hear local Freo poets, some published here in LISTEN, in conversation with Fremantle Shipping News’ Editor Michael Barker, listen here!

~ And if you’d like to COMMENT on this or any of our stories, don’t hesitate to email our Editor.

~ WHILE YOU’RE HERE –