Poetry by Jill Jones: Photographs byAnnette Willis
1.
what’sin voices
streets, air’s breadth, green on buildings
smallglimmering gaps
between messages, scratches, if I had risen
once,ongoing after
the quiet, a fine strap of
sweatsighs and
unnerves the jokes, the flocking hours
eachmorning’s expenses
slowly, exactly, moved far from lucent
cut tonoon
awe is an engine, the particular
‘aglitch system’
I am written in sky fresh
tunnels direct me
into the cool vibration of air
raindown does
as edges disappear, each stone on
theroad, on
grey bright tears, distance in world
mortalaffectionate hour
2.
windows silhouette scaffolds halfway up, into
godsamong clouds
how the lights shine less lonely
whileproducing doubt
these shards are my parts of
form,empty again
becoming a reflection, birds hide in
theglass shadows
this brilliance shivers on us over
soundand smell
my lines and scales of skin
movingdimness there
to these hours, waste of revealing
savourin our
so common life, turbulent and fragmented
beginning of traffic
strives, fastens, inside skies, brightseason
fromwhat we
believe, they arrest you in passages
resistthe wall
opened on me this small lustrum
3.
surrender moves me into long voice
hoursblur lines
against open gates, threaded, poured, ached
goneand open
flocks seek me like air, from
myrare edges
after the weight of eleven dreams
thedog shadow
yes, white flowers live inside themselves
stillas water
blue memory, prospect, and how to
complete change, rows
of voices, widths of water gleam
notches between messages
empty becomes still, petals hide shades
out ofglass
draw long the shifted gates, look
thebody which
mysteries penetrate! phase inside and always
theupheaval, edged
interlocks the black, night in markings
4.
if Ihad
the lifting! of wild flow rings
ruinsto seek
an entrance which breathes the language
ofmornings, ‘it
seeks with me even then’, working
remains, significances, each
step on the rise you resist
theway my
objections have glossed the going (old
arcades embrace, they
are glassy under clouds), experience is
ametaphor, if
it is the shape isolated from
qualm,parts of
a balustrade, ‘sing to granulation, camber
holdit’, piece
within the plot as draughts penetrate
themobile darkness
doubt is an engine, the particular
wingsits constructs
5.
rains not small
but blurred layers, season aspires to
favourso ordinary
life, words in writing me arrange
thesky, coolness
of any god, where it’s possible
tactics resist ways
of language, burdens thirst, the pathway’s
tongue, ‘even sing
then I would’, penetrate direction, the
pitchof ruptures
inside a quality of shade, centre
in acloud
polisher of lights, rained one wing
climbsthe chill
layer of fog startled that this
ispeace and
skin with sun, morning’s black beams
flowerof falls
rain down does as hills disappear
hungertakes breath
6.
each day walks on terrain, crust
tastedin rock
curled, being born, turning with delicacy
onceongoing, after
the luminous grey distance, imaging shadow
humsof ashes
under vapour light still empties birds
breathspirit interlocks
the black way in the world
of thelip
in a sleep of clouds, blue
increase, asking — can
wild ruins go to their flowering
torefresh within
marks of rain, to fly night’s
bodyof secrets
balance of apprehensions sketch long movement
(ifyou call
who answers) as resistance, your way
objection, however, leaves
edges and weft, risings, fields. observe
List of photographs
Title photo — Dingle Harbour, 2004 AnnetteWillis
1. in the Malá Strana, Prague, 2004 Annette Willis
2. Tate Modern, London, 2004 Annette Willis
3. The Rocks, Sydney,2005 Annette Willis
4. Cimetière Montmartre, Paris, 2004Annette Willis
5. Canberra, 2003 Annette Willis
6. Konopistechateau, Central Bohemia, 2004 Annette Willis
End photo —Dingle peninsula, 2004 Annette Willis
Annette Willis is an Australianphotographer who has had eight solo exhibitions since 2002. Her areas ofspecialisation include industrial archeology, landscape, urban decay,street art, text and texture. Her first major black and whiteexhibition, Remnants, examined transience in four Sydney urbanlandmarks, large and small, which were once part of the fabric ofAustralia’s oldest city and which are fast disappearing or havedisappeared altogether. Sites such as Cockatoo Island, North HeadQuarantine Station, St Peters Brickworks and the Edwardian Men’sLavatory in Macquarie Place were part of the early social history of astill young city.
The 2005 exhibition, Romance of Death,featured a series of photographs taken in many burial grounds throughoutParis. These works are lyric abstractions rather than a documentaryrepresentation of tombstones. They investigate at close range both atangible and poetic presence through rhythm and shape within thecompositional space.
Another 2005 exhibition, Wallworx,featured large colour digital prints of stencil street art that wasappearing on walls, signs, billboards and dilapidated buildings in manyAustralian cities. The aim was to examine in context a range of imageryby a number of young artists that was often elaborate and beautiful,political and passionate, but also ephemeral and transient.
Collaborations with writers and other visual artists has been animportant part of Annette’s artistic expression. Joint projects with theAustralian poet, Jill Jones, include Hidden Shrines, Sea ShadowLandlight and Breath, The Hours.
Formerly a teacher,researcher and academic, Annette holds a range of qualificationsincluding a PhD in learning theory and has lived and worked in Spain,Indonesia and Thailand.
Annette’s work is held in the StateLibrary of NSW as well as in private collections throughout Australia,New Zealand, the UK, Germany, Singapore and Hong Kong.
Moreinformation about Annette Willis is available at www.annettewillis.com
Jill Jones is a poet and writer who lives inSydney, Australia. Her work has been widely published in most of theleading literary periodicals in Australia as well as in a number ofprint magazines in New Zealand, Canada, the USA, Britain and India. Sheis also widely published online. Her latest books are her fifth fulllength work, Broken/Open (Salt, 2005), which was short-listed forThe Age Book of the Year 2005 and the 2006 Kenneth Slessor Poetry Prize,and three chapbooks, Fold Unfold (Vagabond, 2005) poems writtenin response to paintings; Where the Sea Burns (Picaro, 2004); andStruggle and Radiance: Ten Commentaries (Wild Honey Press, 2004).In 1993 she won the Mary Gilmore Award for her first book ofpoetry, The Mask and the Jagged Star (Hazard Press). Her thirdbook, The Book of Possibilities (Hale & Iremonger), wasshortlisted for the 1997 National Book Council ‘Banjo’ Awards and the1998 Adelaide Festival Awards. Screens, Jets, Heaven: New andSelected Poems won the 2003 Kenneth Slessor Poetry Prize (NSWPremier’s Literary Awards).
She has collaborated withphotographer Annette Willis on a number of projects, includingc-side, and also Sea Shadow Land Light, a multimediapresentation first delivered at the On the Beach conference held byEdith Cowan University at Fremantle in February 2004.
She was aco-founder, with Laurin McKinnon, of BlackWattle Press, and in 1995 sheco-edited (with Judith Beveridge and Louise Wakeling) A Parachute ofBlue, an anthology of contemporary Australian poetry. With MichaelFarrell, she co-edited a selection of Australian erotic poetry for a2003 edition of Slope online magazine. She has been a filmreviewer, journalist, book editor and arts administrator.
Shemaintains a weblogRuby Street, aswell as two websites, her home page and poemsextracted from her weblog off the street
To order books by Jill Jones
From Salt Publishing:
Broken/Open
Screens JetsHeaven
From Vagabond Press:
Fold/Unfold
From WildHoney Press:
Struggle and Radiance
Reviews of Broken/Open:
By Peter Boyle in The Famous Reporter
By AngelaGardner in foam:e
Reviewsof Struggle & Radiance:
By Peter Minter in Jacket
By MariaChristoforatos in Cordite
Other on-line references to Jill Jones’s poetry:
Poetry International Web
Australian Literary Resources
Interview with Jill Jones
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Traverse:songs
A sonnet sequence by Jill Jones
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Photo of Jill Jones
by Annette Willis 2005
Photo of Annette Willis
by Jill Jones 2003
Photos in Breath, the hours
by Annette Willis, all rightsreserved 2006.
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