Time for an update! I’m four or so weeks into the second year of my degree, and the main focus, at least it should be, is my novel writing elective and work has begun on my old novel, Robbin’ Toorak again, which is a WIP from NaNoWriMo a few years back. This idea, essentially one set in the world of professional wrestling, is an idea that continues to excite me which is why I’m redrafting it for uni this year. Though with other subjects and assignments, it’s been hard to sink my teeth into it as much as possible but workshopping sessions have been positive and I feel like the idea has legs (is growing more legs, changing form as we speak) and I’ve gotten the voice almost right.

What else have I been doing and what’s coming?

I was recently published on the Overland website talking about football, the Western Sydney Wanderers, ‘active’ supporters and their campaign against the police, media and other authorities. You can find the piece here.

Coming up I am involved in three poetry gigs:
Thursday, May 2 @ 8pm: I’m one of the feature poets in a line-up of poets performing ‘Twitter’ poetry at the new RMIT design hub.

Saturday, May 25 @ 2pm: I’m the feature poet at the Dan O’Connell Poetry readings, and will likely be reading an excerpt from the novel.

Saturday, June 22 @ 8pm: I’m the organiser of the revived Keep Left poetry night that will now be happening monthly. I’ll be MCing the first one as well, with our feature Maxine Beneba Clarke.

In an exercise of contradicting myself, I thought I’d write a bit about my struggle with not writing, and perhaps in the process, talk through some of the things I do want to write about but struggling with. I’ve been asked a little bit recently about how my writing’s going which has been a bit sad for me because I usually really appreciate people asking me, but I have had to admit to not writing much at all. I had all these plans for the holidays which came to nothing. I wrote a (bad) poem last week about Anthony Mundine out of the blue after some arguments on Twitter, and have been going to some poetry workshops in the absence of uni and written some poems then, but part of it comes down to a lack of my usual stimulus.

Often some atrocity committed by capitalism or some inspiring struggle against it throws me into expressing my relation to it through words. Sometimes it’s some sort of idea or debate that I want flesh out in an allegory or metaphor. Even though the usual fucked up things about the world are still kind of simmering there, there’s nothing really at the moment that is pushing me to the page. At least not in my usual sense.

Over the holidays, my passion for writing has been in part replaced by a strange return to a fascination with sport. Mostly football. But also my own fitness regime, getting back into running, some cycling and just last week, swimming. It’s a weird shift and perhaps something that seems a bit uninteresting. Why would I write about it? But I like the kind of measured progress of it and the ability to be able to perform regular movements and tasks that don’t require allusive and immeasurable things such as inspiration. But I’ve been wanting to write about sport and fitness nonetheless.

Why write about sport? I’ve become totally engrossed in the passion that football (soccer for those who can’t see the distinction) is developing in Australia via the A-League. I’ve been to a few Melbourne Victory games before and the atmosphere of the Norther Terrace supporters is pretty special, totally different to a League and AFL game. But this year, it was stepped up a notch with the introduction of the Western Sydney Wanderers into the league. The team created in the area I grew up in, has become an instant hit within the Western suburbs of Sydney, with a striking red and black striped jersey, their supporters call themselves the ‘Red and Black Bloc’ and are quickly become one of the loudest in the league. They have rehearsed chants and songs, and banners. It is not unlike a protest really. The Wanderers also have Youssouf Hersi, an Ethiopian born Dutch National who was been adopted by Western Sydney as a bit of a hero. He’s exciting to watch. Quick down the wing. And fancy with his footwork, able to change direction in a split second to trick opponents.

I suppose I am fascinated by the passion that people put into backing their team, the camaraderie they share in the highs and the lows. I have done it for so long with the Rabbitohs, a tradition passed down to me by my father like joining the union and not voting Liberal. It is interesting how often the fortunes and people’s aspirations and hopes are channelled through sport.

And I think in periods where there is not a lot of struggle and social change going on, this can be more so. It seems in contrast the impending election (yawn) that is about to be take place (or not really) throughout this year. Elections at the moment in Australia are characterised by their lack of competition and conflict. People can’t tell the difference for the most part between the policies of the two major parties and aside from Gillard’s speech calling Abbott a misogynist, Labor’s rule lacks the challenge to the right-wing threat of Abbott.

I kind of see football as an outlet for the open competition people would like to see. And that’s in part what I’m getting at which I want to put into writing. Well, I just did, but I mean in a creative form, perhaps through fiction or poetry, but so far my attempts have felt pedestrian, boring or clumsy.

Perhaps it will take practice, acceptance than some people might just not care this, as well as looking to the successes of other writers in this area. Suggestions are most welcome.

So although the Mayan prophecy was wrong, it appears I did fall off the face of the earth for a time. Against my better wishes, I’ve spent most of the remainder of 2012 watching sport and playing video games. I haven’t written much nor gone to many poetry gigs, but in the interests of posterity, and perhaps to revive some motivation, I thought I’d recap what I’ve achieved in 2012.

• Started and finished my first year of my Creative Writing degree, with 7 Distinctions and one High Distinction.
• Launched the website, MelbourneSpokenWord.com, held the inaugural Percy Shelly Poetry slam, and released a spoken word EP with Santo Cazzati, Duel Power which was mentioned by Ali Alizadeh as one of his top 10 poetic works of 2012.
• Had articles published in The Emerging Writer, Overland’s website and the Geek Mook, poetry in Overland, Social Alternatives and the RMIT anthology Little Spines.
• In the later half of the year took up running and cycling, and finished my first race, the 10km race at the Melbourne Marathon Festival, finishing 404th out of 9,000 competitors and running it in 45:17.

It was a pretty good year for writing, uni allowed me to focus on it more and I had more things published than years previously as a result. The fitness kick came as a surprise and made me realise that when I look after my body, I feel happier and more motivated, which is worth reminding myself now as I’m not doing much of anything. Oh and to cap it all off, a couple of days ago, we welcomed the uber cute Genie into our house.