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| Issue 30: | Sept. 2025 |
| Poem: | 145 words |
the apricot trees you planted proud against the ruins an orange in the stocking New Zealand calls early teal for the garage roof we never paint was I five or six? the silenced years TV static— is sleeping all there is? the spangles you wore, settled in a drawer suede— the snooker ball rolling into our holiday lost notebook— I recreate what’s never lost the wren’s wet song in the dry charcoal in the morning last night’s fire fisherman’s jersey its secret code rock pools the tide swims in with some cold autumn chill— my steps splash through fish paste— is “easy” “good” faded caravan walls old summers campfire egg yolks like meat festival sunrise the long night of the Palfi clown laughter— rain and nutrients flood the ground 19 my first birthday party
Owen Bullock’s
most recent publication is the poetry collection Pancakes for Neptune (Recent Work Press, 2023), following three previous poetry titles, five books of haiku, a bilingual edition of tanka, and a novella. He is Discipline Lead for Creative Writing and Literary Studies at the University of Canberra. His research interests include creative arts and wellbeing; haikai literature; poetry and process; semiotics and poetry; prose poetry; and collaboration. His other interests include music, juggling, gardening, and chess.
More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond
⚡ If that was so, why this? by Owen Bullock on pages 69-70 of The Darling Exchange in TEXT: Journal of writing and writing courses (Volume 29, No. 1, April 2025; pages 56-72).
The Darling Exchange includes poetry and prose by 11 authors, listed here in the order in which their pieces appear within the collective project: Cassandra Atherton, Dominique Hecq, Eugen Bacon, Gay Lynch, Jen Webb, Jessica Seymour, Julia Prendergast, Katrina Finlayson, Owen Bullock, Paul Hetherington, and Shady Cosgrove.
“Springboarding from the ubiquitous ‘Kill your darlings’ writing advice, this project is a co-authored collection of sudden writing in which each contributor offers a darling line from a previous project that, for one reason or another, had to be cut. These lines are then ‘adopted’ by another writer and used as a prompt for a very short prose/poetry piece...” (from the project’s introduction in TEXT).
⚡ Editing Haiku, an essay by Owen Bullock in haiku newz (reprinted from Frogpond 46:3, Autumn 2023)
⚡ Fresh Modes: Towards a radical ekphrasis by Owen Bullock in Axon: Creative Explorations (Volume 9, No. 1, May 2019)
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