On the way to Cities Tell Stories … I found Bill Poetries both ripped off & remaining, a pigeon with a bung wing taking a bath, a woman wearing a t-shirt the internet would [love] declaring “the time is meow”, funny it’s the birds seem king here.

I was going to put the attached note in a little tea bag envelope … but didn’t. I crafted a leaf around it. I like it more now. Limitations can be more useful and beautiful than we imagine.

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! … is a poetry slam … likes yelling … is not all [love] & puppies … has more 1st prizes than any other poetry slam … refutes the existence of any other poetry slam … is in a venue with a Maya Angelou quote in the 2nd [drawing of skirted stick figure] bathroom and further feminist graffiti in the 1st

“I’m a feminist. I’ve been a female for a long time now it’d be stupid not to be on my own side.” – Maya Angelou. The Fanciful Fiction Auxiliary wore dresses shaped by inverted [triangles], “wistfully, but with a hint of feminism” mouthed Valkyrie Cul-de-sac “Can what’s brown also be profound?” – Beige Brown. The cheers from clapping ears say “Yes!” THE BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! Canberra National Anthem (printed) Yes they made us stand and sing before launching the song online (to a count down, of course)

[Cities Tell Stories] … cupped to ears so we can hear differently, inviting us to see in a new language, phrases forgotten, unnoted but they have scribbled inside me in a way I can’t erase, mapped a new path of vision changing the way I will forever read this place.

stories. Bomb Threat Check List by David Stavanger

16.3.16 Someone covered one of the Bill Poetries with long emails about a “cover up”. I saw the poem peeking out from underneath “like a bomb” so got out my tiny, sharp thread-snippers and cut it free. (I realise now that I left the gaffa tape in place, though I had designs on a piece). As I left, paper and blades in hand, I locked eyes with a man. He was sitting out front of a cafe, possibly with a paper of his own, others’ news. I couldn’t read his face except to tell that he had witnessed the entire operation.

Yesterday I went out to Cities Tell Stories and other wordy wonders on streets and other surprising stages. Today I rest in bed, drinking from the daintree and playing games with spoons. Join me if you choose … www.notedfestival.com/21st-century-poets or maybe smile at the ridonculousness of words … www.notedfestival.com/whooziwotsit or link lives like superstars of plague proportions, remix histories until the boring bits fit in Im2. Byo chocolate. Sugar sweet? p.s. The attached artwork (a one-of-a-kind haiku digital poster written and handcrafted for me by festival producers Duncan Felton and Andrew Galan for supporting Noted 2015) has spent many months on the wall in my studio. I brought it back to Canberra, to its home, to send to someone supporting Noted’s postal project. That someone is you. Thank you.

David Stavanger’s pepper. Ground for you by Indigo & Erin at Bad Slam No Biscuit as Jeff kindly held the package open so as to catch the grains as they fell.

Laurie May’s coffee doily. She had a long black and remarked on the crema. She used this purple pen earlier to circle.

MEGA-BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! vs MEGA-NOTED (adapted program) Canberra’s renaissance man Nick Delatovic composed a national anthem for Canberra. Hear it thanks to BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! Noted’s Indigo Eli in transit edit for Postal Project.  THE noted CANBERRA NATIONAL ANTHEM edit (adaptation) in this city/ I’m every kind of human/ (hidden)/ The dream-crave/ The soil, the future /home is /Secret /head and heart /more than alive /no still pure form /no home /No Secret

SAUNA SAGA (swimmers sesh) The Finnish embassy. Chris Embrey & a guy called Aaron? from the embassy told us many things about saunas & Finland. LIKE:- *95% of the students studying Finnish at Vienna University say it’s so they can understand Death metal lyrics (huge in Finland) [2006 Eurovision song was Finnish] *Next year is the centenary of Finland – before [?] occupied by Russia. *Saunas are [?] almost – spiritual part of Finnish culture – you can be born in a sauna and die in a sauna. Families sauna together, then as the children reach adolescence saunas are segregated by [sex ?] but all naked *Finnish people are more comfortable with silence than Australians/Europeans. Our tolerance for a pause is about 7 secs but for the Finnish it’s more like 20 secs.

*A Finnish army will build a sauna for its troops if it has a break of 8 hrs. *There are Finnish UNHRC troops all over the world & they will build saunas in tents in Estonia. *There isn’t a machismo focus on withstanding heat. It is just as much part of the sauna to leave, jump in a cold lake & come back in. We all sat around awkwardly at first, drinking bottles of water. Then came the peeling off of clothes, showering and going into the sauna. Everyone began to speak immediately, in the steamy pine-scented air. Chris Embrey left for 5 minutes & came back w beer. Never has VB tasted quite so delicious as then.

Tiny Friends by Ashley Ronning. I went to the zine fair & I found wonderful which is unexpectedly pink in colour

World Storytelling Day theme: Strong Women. Rosie Stevens (R.S.): You can get drunk on Rescue Remedy. Practice is a spectrum. We all heard the real ending 5 min ago. I envy her cello lessons, though she wanted to learn the harp, and I the violin. My cello was a trumpet. I handed it back too early, missed out on many of the lessons she speaks like music to our tuned-in ears. Laurie May (L.M): We never heard silence louder than those moments. C(h)ords of defiance inside us … we were lovers once. – good vid of that on YouTube if you google Laurie May Lovers Once. Sometimes I thought you were a pelican. If I only knew then you were not perfect. n.b. ‘Nocturnal’ – Indigenous death metal band. They’re great

Live Music with Laurie May. I sat down in a nest of ants. As I do the poem all hell breaks loose. Native endangered birds & here’s this little kid “Ahh.ahh…ahhhh!” (mimes swinging a water bottle) … “I used to breathe liquid air” “STOP HITTING THE BIRDS!” The woman with the fucken worms is screaming at everyone. 5.29… 5.29 1/2 … and I left. Jessica Friedman (J.F.): … it does feature a strong Canberra woman – the SkyWhale. Children screech: “It’s weird”, “it’s got boobs!”. Men take photos of themselves holding the nipples. ‘Wish you were here’ their gestures say. I must look like a cocktail olive but I don’t care. I only have myself to look after. It is bliss. My abdomen is still tender from the stitches of the birth. On the way home my breasts begin to ache. “Just like a cow.” “I’m sorry.” “Forget it.”

I am writing a piece for a New York literary journal who will later scrap the work, “too Australian”. In another city it is easy to forget my real life. I am mercilessly/fully(?) free of the nappy bag. I begin to fall in love with the whale & her maternal uplift. abstract needlepoint of skywhale <– nipple

(please circle)?  #LookUP 32 Sunday 1st Feb 2015 by Rhonda Ayliffe and Melinda Smith (printed)

To get to the Arts Centre … Walk turn Walk turn Walk go Walk turn Walk reach cross Continue turn left

Hello! There is a fragile installation in here. If you need to enter, please speak and or Direct mail. Thank you! CAPITAL love LETTERS

[Lit Hop book swap] Hey there It’s Ethan. Hope you had a good Noted. I was naked at two events and talked about the NRL at the National Library. Happy cooking.

Lit Hop Stop 1, 2, 3, 4

Lit Hop Stop 1. Basically … what happens (or is shared) @ #cringe stays @ #cringe. so … go open that locked draw, delve into your own early cringe-worthy writing, lock yourself in a room with the empty, cake-ness of it, with the baby seal hunted words burning like John Farnham in front of a windmachine-ness of it, with the romantic non-events, the failed rug business, beautiful skull-fuckingness of it, with the drama journal, confessional method acting “this was a bad idea”ness of it, the adolescent goth, the asterixed stage directions, flittering love from those hard bound kept yet hidden pages. *cringe*

Noted Writers Festival 2016 Audience Survey (printed) The Google Star Map view of the stars below the earth, below the earth, below the crust, below the foundations of The Pheonix, below the table on which I sat during Mega-Bad!Slam!No!Biscuit! vs Mega-Noted. More than once this festival I have been reminded that we are all made of stars.

This panel delves into the responsibility of writers to confront transphobia and homophobia

“I had to cast off notions of gender” Jennifer Compton after Panel: Writers on Inclusion

Too early for Poetry?  People like poetry … early in the morning! – Lucy Nelson

We rolled our eyes out of bed, looked up at the morning & decided, too early? – No. Then it rained. To change mind now would drown us in guilt. We arrived, floated. Producers proclaim “We’re gobsmacked.”

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to notedfestival. Noted post. If affected by word sickness please use this bag. Off for another long but fun week in Canberra working in the crazy place we call Parliament. Nathan. handwritten notes – illustrate a beginning

While crafting poems to post from Noted a parallel correspondence was unfolding within the Capital … between two strangers who met in the 6am sky and swapped stories … between two distant worlds?

poet or politician? Projected results Canberra is indeed a crazy place. That is a big statement, what happened the best night ever? Plans to tax anyone who dares use the word ‘vibrant’? Parliament taking on the poets for party hard status! I have heard the word ‘promote’ thrown around. Awareness of: LGBTI issues, parliamentary privilege, turtlenecks and underground cellars. *falsehoods and facts. Throw a frisbee to let off steam? Race the clock for whether it is making a difference and providing a voice … … … Do you know a poet just got elected: poem or campaign speech? Love that it questions. Wanted to Woah. Bringing the party together (in my view). Perhaps more exciting than I realise. How pleasant was your stay?

Safe schools is something we’ll be working on in the immediate future. Let’s stop it. Using a calculator, we find that We are all completely beside ourselves … The Pride Predjudice has on our agenda. Did you know there are things to do in Canberra that don’t include Parliament House, roundabouts or New Acton? Sadly, the Skywhale is appearing a little less frequetly these days, live jazz on Wednesdays.

I went to the zine-fair and i bought …

Transphobia. Let’s stop it. by Carrie Colpitts

Between the sides and angles of a Postal Project construct, solution of a triangle, given the three roads. Solve [triangle] given that a = the symbols and imagery put a twist on the law as we know it. [triangle ABC]: connecting remote individuals. Noted environment. intimately collated.

Ongoing Content. What would you do if you could leak Noted chat and handwritten notes online? What seems strange? Indigo Eli documents quoted tidbits of festival mouth and more! “I’ve been using soap to wash my hair.” “Shampoo is a scam!” “Forget safe schools there should be a campaign: anti-shampoo.” yes   no   maybe? (please circle)

YOU by Luke You

I couldn’t leave these paper bones exposed/ these memories lying out on the street/ couldn’t leave without leaving these words: I would repeat. This poem is NOT part of the Bill Poetries series, happening as part of Noted: Canberra’s emerging, inclusive, innovative writers festival.

Confessions: ukulele sing – along, ourselves understood using their beautifully clumsy forms. Supported by the Stolen Pen Exhibition