Davey Dreamnation

This city with no streets but networks of amputated limbs. This officious city of criminal investigations and inquests whose soul is a square of cheap, grey carpet and a water dispenser. The tinkle of pachinko, the sudden sirens of attack. Those women with the hand bills, so stubborn and intent upon their mission, invading the [...]

My friend Steve, whom I met during my first week in Seoul, has kindly forwarded me some snaps he took during that time. It seems so long ago now - the days were insufferably hot and the evenings were beer-soaked. I tell you, it’s hard to enjoy a beer in this town when the temperature’s [...]

A city of terminals. Crashing cymbals greet the slapping match contestants. Skies rain down grey, metallic drops of thunder. Manners are loose. At the station, hawkers sell second-hand saucepans and yesterday’s newspapers. Here the time is digital but everything else succumbs to the analogue of winter. Only one species of tree has been planted here. [...]

—- anti — atro — auda — basi — cadu — capa — cloni — coni — cubi — dupli — eda — ethni — feli — fera — fero — fuga — heli — iconi — inter — ioni — loqua — lubri — mega — menda — mendi — mina — multi — [...]

hear the wet kittens
mewling for their lost mother
must we eat bamboo?

Wake up calm. It will be morning soon.
Hours disappear, then shatter at the
Sound of a phone call (wrong number).
Your mobile bleats when it’s time to
Change the battery, in that awfully
Disconnected voice that’s had reverb
Added to it, in the room where you
Remain alone. Eat a mandarin. That’s
Better. No use trying to go back to
Sleep. You’ve deposited [...]

[This is the full text of an article due to appear in the National Tertiary Education Union's publication Advocate early next year]
In August this year I travelled to the Republic of Korea this year as an Asialink resident to teach at Sogang University in Seoul. While I have some teaching experience in Australia and oodles [...]

I’ve just had two poems published on a US-based blog called PFS Post. They’re called “Dying On The Vine(s)” and “Eight Miles High”. You can view em here.
I’ve also got two poems, entitled “Avalon V” and “Inna” in the forthcoming Future Welcome: Moosehead Anthology X, edited by Todd Swift and published by DC Books out [...]

Underneath the makkolli moon
We’ll get drunk & spit at stars
Roll cars out into roads & fight
Trespass on the night’s property
Underneath the makkolli moon
We’ll fall in love & then forget
Throw bottles at the alley cats
Invade Poland, or whistle tunes
Underneath the makkolli moon
We’ll wind our frozen watches
Shout obscenities at a shadow
Boil milk from subway sparks
Underneath the makkolli [...]

I’m now back in Seoul after a week in London. Highlights included seeing Sarah (of course), catching up with old friends including Kathleen and Mark and seeing fellow-poet Todd Swift. Oh, and I watched a bit of darts on the TV too.
The task of putting photos up on this blog is so laborious that I’ll [...]

Fifty days in the land of the morning calm. Forty nine nights in a city that breathes like a dragon. Forty eight days drinking cold coffee from cans. Forty seven nights without an Australian radio station. Forty six days stepping over puddles of spittle in the street. Forty five nights with a mosquito and a [...]

There are statues all over Korea dedicated to Admiral Yi, who was famous for attacking and defeating the invading navy of Japan in the late 1500s using a flotilla of iron-clad “turtle boats”. This one is my favourite and can be found in the park at the base of the Pusan Tower. What a guy.

Of [...]

Ronnie Mac gets overwhelmed by pushy Pusan teenagers eager to catch a glimpse of their favourite stars at the Pusan International Film Festival.

The girl everyone went berserk for - can’t remember her name but she is huge. One boy asked me to take a picture of her - “just her” - because I was taller [...]

no news is good enough for your
news is death’s excuses humbled
vehicles fall off sharper ledges
cliffsides bridges cantilevered
collapsing news broadcasts live
on a rusted wing caboose jerks
behind news crew facades pummels
the van’s idling engine room as
coffee pre-heats the bagel juice
wraps & rehearsals all in the can
the news is not new but ancients
blue & old lies guttered nightly
spewed-up [...]