Poetry reading/performance at Temora Library

There is a long tradition of poetry performance/reading as a significant creative event in the Western and other traditions. Indeed, some argue that poetry can only fully/really/properly be 'heard' through the voice of the actual writer, when some of the ancient 'magic' of utterance ' creating something out of nothing ' occurs. It has also been argued that a given work/poem is altered in performance, so that every utterance is a unique performance (as in jazz, theatre).Since the publication of Death and the Motorway in July, 2008, I have been working on another collection of poems, tentatively called Pachinko Sunset, about and from Japan, arising out of annual visits and attending conferences and running workshops there. The performance could be seen as both an interpretation as well as an iteration of some of these works, greater in some ways than the work on the page, but different, open-ended, an opportunity for meaning-making.Partly the reading/performance was a promotion of myself as a poet in the context of the 10th anniversary of Temora's library, in an evening of creative work (eg music and poetry) and produce (eg of cheese and olive oil). Partly I was representing and promoting CSU as a creative exemplar. The performance was well received and contributed to the sense of the region's creative output forms links with international contexts.