Oct
2012 14
2012 14
Spirit Worlds Editorial – Prose
Every now and then, I wonder about the year of my birth, the year that my grandfather died. His A4 framed black and white portrait looked on benignly in our family hallway, and while there was nothing scary about his appearance, as a kid, I’d be scampering from one end of the hallway to another ...
Oct
2012 14
2012 14
Spirit Worlds Editorial – Poetry
Despite having been raised Catholic, my brother’s fascination with gaming means that the phrase “Spirit World” conjures up the 28th level of Doom II, so it was interesting for me to see the range of submissions received in response to this edition’s theme: Spirit Worlds. Among the fifty or so submissions, were a range of ...
Oct
2012 14
2012 14
Spirit Worlds Editorial – Visual Arts
As a child, I remember our annual family trip to Rookwood Cemetery in western Sydney, where we would go to honour our ancestors during Ching Ming, the Clear Brightness Festival. We joined the crowds of people sweating in the sun, jostling to clean and sweep gravestones, offering flowers, food, tea and wine by the graves, ...
Oct
2012 14
2012 14
Tuesdays with my Mother
Tuesdays with my mother were akin to Morrie’s life lessons. I was in my late teens and every Tuesday, after school, we’d begin our ritual. Slice five limes in half, scoop out the pulp and you’re left with lime shells – the perfect tealight contraptions. Besides the waste of a perfectly good lime, I learned ...
Oct
2012 14
2012 14
In the spirit of your name
Dear Emi, As I write this, you’re merely 7 weeks old. It’s hard for me to believe that eight weeks ago you were an aquanaut, swooshing in my belly. I’m writing because your Dad and I are planning a naming ceremony for you. You know, that’s a secular ceremony that’s held instead of a baptism. ...
Oct
2012 14
2012 14
The seed of enlightenment
After I recovered from a psychotic episode I was bitterly disappointed. Common mythology had it that the psychic and the psychotic lay close together and that some psychoses were spiritual emergencies in which the sufferer would experience an epiphany. There was no epiphany for me. Instead there were puzzles and questions. My sanity was now ...
Oct
2012 14
2012 14
Shadow
They always greet me with this: ‘Come here alone, have you?’ But wherever I go I bring my shadow …forever and forever, it is the shadows that have helped me By lighting up the surroundings When there is no light, I fold it Inside my body It is not till I rise and move around ...
Oct
2012 14
2012 14
See how the leaf people run
The following text is an extract from Michele Lee‘s radio play See how the leaf people run which was broadcasted on Radio National in late August. The playscript will be published in full by The Australian Script Centre. The script looks at the early settlement of Hmong people in Melbourne and explores the multi-layered realities ...
Oct
2012 14
2012 14
Interview with Shoufay Derz
Shoufay Derz is an emerging artist based in Sydney of both German and Taiwanese ancestry. She is a lecturer and multi-disciplinary artist working with photography, video and sculpture. In 2011, she completed her Master of Fine Arts by research in Media Arts at the College of Fine Arts UNSW. Her standout graduation exhibition Depart Without ...
Oct
2012 12
2012 12
Stars over Kai Tak
I still look for your altar; what is left lies dreaming of forgotten stars, teaching constellations to silence. You hunger. My sabaism is a vane that measures your upward gaze, dysphoric I’ll feed you, fill your veins with paper planes but when you are full, I’ll forget you too...
