Published in Southerly

Delighted to be included in Southerly.

June Perkins, Two Livestreamed Funerals, a Cancelled Wedding, and the Saving Grace of Poetry

“The diverse work offered here, in Southerly’s first online-only issue, gathers “Australian” writing produced in many different places and circumstances. Heterogenous and singular in its contents, the layered contiguity of digital publication optimistically promotes the lateral and multitemporal formation of the commons, true to the big ambitions and longevity of this venerable “little magazine.”

Our contributors dwell in and on the permeability of extreme and ordinary states, temporal confusion and disturbance, bringing genre to bear on forms of technological, linguistic, and psychical mediation, exposing Berlantian “impasse” in myriad ways.

We are grateful to Create NSW for a grant to pay contributors at a particularly disastrous time for arts funding. Most of all, we are grateful to the brilliant contributors who have entrusted us with their work. We loved putting this issue together. We hope our readers love it too.

*Lauren Berlant. Cruel Optimism. Duke University Press, 2011.

Southerly 79.3: The Way We Live Now

This special edition is entirely open access and free. You may read it online, download and, if you wish, print and share it. Read and enjoy!

Edited by Kate Lilley and Melissa Hardie.

Back on the Novel Bus!

I’ve been so busy with all things book production and launch.

I’ve been delighted to be part of the Red Room Poetry and Queensland Poetry Festival projects. And to finish production on Illuminations.

I’ve put in several grant and fellowship applications to do my best to make this writing life more sustainable. There’s been a few knock backs, but I get back up and keep going. Thanks so much to everyone who has been writing letters of support. You are all awesome! We keep getting surprise grants, and the only thing wrong with this is you do not have long to put applications together.

My poor novel had taken a back seat. The last couple of weeks has changed that. I began to revise my novel. And now have nearly 50 pages I am happy with. I am going to do more work on it today and am feeling so happy with the direction it is going. This picture is a small hint of what the novel might be about…

I was so inspired by our beloved Guinea Pig, Buttercream who has been starring on my instagram lately, that last night I wrote the beginnings of a new picture book idea.

Recently I visited IN PERSON my dear friend Helene Magisson and met her pet chickens. Helene has her first solo book out! HOORAY!

More on that in another post. I really must get a photograph of the chickens! They were adorable. I was so relieved to see a friend NOT ON ZOOM. Don’t get me wrong, zoom is amazing, but I am so tired of not seeing friends in real space! How about you? How is the pandemic treating you?

Here’s a special pic, in the early days of us being friends. So, happy for my dear friend on her book. And so happy to be part of the kids lit community of Australia. They are so welcoming, inclusive, and kind.

I so hope I have some success with grants and applications soon. Working so hard, and definitely into the swing of story writing. I’ve also been enjoying observing the block and taking photographs of things, like pirate stickers on windows, tiny flip flops stuck in trees, and cars being renovated, not to mention all the beautiful vibrant plants of Brisbane.

Anyway that’s all from my blog for now. Thinking of everyone in America and also my family and friends separated by border restrictions all over Australia.

We love you Victoria!

Well that’s all for now. Keep well.

Love, June XXX

Featured

Illuminations featured at Panacea Poets

A huge thank you to the Queensland Poetry Festival team for the invitation to be part of Panacea Poets.

In Panacea Poets, Queensland Poetry Festival administers a twice-weekly booster of short readings from wonderful poets via their youtube channel.

QPF will deliver these soothing doses of poets-in-iso indefinitely.

It is such a great honour to be part of a project to apply the bird of poetry to the experience of the Pandemic, and to maybe inspire listeners to draw on their strengths and optimism.

So many esteemed and inspiring poets – Kirli Saunders, Stuart Barnes, Charmaine Papertalk Green to name just a few, do check out the playlist! I’ll share a few of my faves from time to time!

Here is my reading!

Launching Illuminations 20th June 2020

Illuminations launching in June 2020

“This collection captures the wonder of the act of creation,

the burst of excitement associated with the birth of the new,

and the challenges and sacrifice involved in bringing inspiration to fruition.”

For more information on this book Illuminations

For International orders see the Book Depository

Direct orders available for Australian customers from Author in Australia

Library available from Peter Pal and soon Wheeler’s Books

Library and Schools New Zealand see Wheelers Books New Zealand

Boonah Morning

For more information on the book VISIT AUTHOR WEBSITE

Poetry Book on its way!

Above is a sneak peek of the art works in response to my latest poetry book project – Illuminations: 19 Poems and 1 Story.

This is a collaboration between Gumbootspearlz Press and IVI Designs.

It features several meaningful art works in a doodle style by Ruha and Minaira Fifita and 19 poems and 1 story, by June Perkins.

‘The incredible intuitiveness of June Perkins takes the reader on a flight through spirituality, art, illumination and meditation in this insightful gathering of poetry and story. If we allow our spirit to soar to the heights she beckons, we might all reach new beginnings and destinies. Permit the magic of ‘The Artist’s Riddle’ and ‘Dust’, just as an entree, to glide you into the ‘Slipstream’ of what may lie beyond your own consciousness. Her ‘fragrant words’ beckon and invite you to embrace everything you’ve ever dreamed of and more. So become you, become your reality and become enlightened. Join her on this journey and see where it takes you’

Matilda Elliot, Editor of Illuminations.

More news soon! This book is in production and is my gift to the Bicentenary of the Birth of the Bab.

Ancient Modern

(I)

In the seventies

old souls with young faces

went looking for revolutions’ places

found heroes called Bob Dylan

looked in music for something

more than melody

danced with metaphors deep

and blue.

Now young souls with old faces

say, ‘Who on earth was he?’

and one wonders is there any

such thing as

legacy

to the old and young set in stone

are they open to change?

When will young faces have

young souls

and old souls have old faces

Or is it all a dreamer’s mask?

And a distraction to the true task

as we all face the fading of our bones.

To live the poet’s life

let the words

find the souls they belong to

doesn’t matter old or young

look beyond the face

listen to wisdom from every voice

keep alive the questioning of youth

and in the silence after

sing

the open door.

(c June Perkins

Dancing Light — Studies in Green Light – By June Perkins

Creative Kids Tales Story Collection 2

So happy that this collection will be featuring two of my stories and one poem.

The project between 36 of CKT’s authors and illustrators, will be released in October 2019. There are 74 stories, poems and illustrations contained within to excite and enchant you.

Mostly available from CKT or the creatives within who may be doing local launches in their area. To pre-order your copy, please email georgie@creativekidstales.com.au

If you want to preorder care of me please email me before August 5th gumbootspearlz@gmail.com so I can organise this with my preorder of extra copies.

Watch this space and I will share details of launches across the country!

A Cry of Art

Whose Broken Window is a Cry of Art

Whose name do I speak when thinking of the
Broken, but the brother I lost
Window to his childhood
Is a photograph
A portal for mother and father who
Cry for this young man
Of bravery and beauty – crushed, then separated from the
Art of his life

Wondering whose
broken
brother is at the window
She is
a
grieving cry
of
life becoming art.

By June Perkins inspired by Gwendolyn Brooks.

Acrostic combined with Golden Shovel poem.

This one inspired by Boy Breaking Glass

For more on a Golden Shovel Poem

Behind Curtains

‘There’s no perfect life. There’s always something going on behind the curtain that people don’t know about.’ Madelaine Petsch ( Read more at: Brainy Quote )

Longing for time’s
healing
behind curtains
memory eye lids
open and shut
portals
between loss
and renewal.

Yesterday’s grief buzzes in
through the window
suffering gives
wings
of pain’s unraveled
mystery.

The insider wills
yesterday to fly
beyond the
decay of the
human heart.

The sting of understanding
within the sun’s
light
streaming in through the
window
of the open curtains,
invites
the curious outsider
into the room of the
unknown.

1- I looked to a quotation for inspiration
2- I thought about the idea in my original poem the Pandora’s box of memory and worked on expanding that idea.
3- I went for metaphor more than simile.
4- I thought about the themes of healing, time and grief.