The World as a Room

A blog on writing and ideas // by Libby Hart

Monday, 17 October 2011

Posted by Libby Hart at Monday, October 17, 2011

Email This BlogThis!Share to Twitter Share to Facebook

Labels: Miscellaneous (lovely) things

Newer Post Older Post Home

Libby Hart: Libby Hart’s most recent collection of poetry, 'This Floating World' is published by Five Islands Press (2011) and was shortlisted for a Victorian Premier's Literary Award (CJ Dennis Prize for Poetry) and 'The Age' Book of the Year Awards (Dinny O'Hearn Poetry Prize). Her first collection, 'Fresh News from the Arctic' (2006) received the Anne Elder Award and was shortlisted for the Mary Gilmore Prize. She is a recipient of an Australia Council for the Arts residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annaghmakerrig in County Monaghan, Ireland and a DJ O’Hearn Memorial Fellowship at The Australian Centre, University of Melbourne.

View my complete profile

Contact

theworldasaroom@gmail.com

Websites

Libby Hart (file)
Five Poetry Journal
The World as a Room

About this blog

The world is a room. It is a balcony. It's the grass under our feet, the goosebumps on our skin. It's the north wind, singing over the Atlantic. It's a small apartment with noisy neighbours. It's a field of shy heifers, a tip of silence on their tongues. The world is a turtle dove, a northern fulmar sheltering from a storm. It's every wave on every shore, and every leaf on every tree. It's the roots that define us, the things that keep us guessing. The world is a slow air, a slide, a reel, a jig and a polka -- all rolled into one. It's when you're feeling fenced in, but you're dreaming of a big sky. It's don't sweat the small stuff, and the eureka moments. It's opposites attract, and great minds think alike. It's turning the lights down low, it's talking in the dark. It's when an ordinary moment becomes extraordinary. Because the world is what you make it.

Acknowledgements

The title of this blog gives respectful reference to Brendan Kennelly's beautiful poem, We Are Living, namely the second stanza: Your words are the only furniture I can remember / Your body the book that told me most. / If this room has a ghost / It will be your laughter in the frank dark / Revealing the world as a room / Loved only for those moments when / We touched the purely human. [Brendan Kennelly, 'We Are Living' from Familiar Strangers: New & Selected Poems 1960-2004 (Bloodaxe Books, 2004)]. Many thanks to Bloodaxe Books for allowing me to use these words for this blog. All images are credited and linked wherever possible. Please email theworldasaroom@gmail.com if one of your images is used and you wish it to be removed.

Subscribe

Blog posts...

► 2012 (12)
- ► Feb 2012 (8)
- ► Jan 2012 (4)

▼ 2011 (40)
- ► Dec 2011 (4)
- ► Nov 2011 (5)
- ▼ Oct 2011 (11)
- ► Sep 2011 (1)
  - Time and space
- ► Jul 2011 (1)
  - Taking the journey
- ► Jun 2011 (2)
  - A quote to close the month
- ► May 2011 (4)
- ► Apr 2011 (3)
- ► Mar 2011 (3)
- ► Feb 2011 (4)
- ► Jan 2011 (2)

► 2010 (44)
- ► Dec 2010 (5)
- ► Nov 2010 (2)
- ► Oct 2010 (5)
- ► Sep 2010 (2)
- ► Aug 2010 (5)
- ► Jul 2010 (1)
- ► Jun 2010 (7)
- ► May 2010 (3)
- ► Apr 2010 (4)
- ► Mar 2010 (2)
- ► Feb 2010 (4)
- ► Jan 2010 (4)

► 2009 (12)
- ► Dec 2009 (1)
- ► Nov 2009 (11)

Subject matter...

Abbotsford Convent (1)
Adam Ford (1)
Adam Foulds (1)
Alice Oswald (1)
ALR (1)
Amanda Blake (1)
Angus Peter Campbell (1)
Ann Joyce (1)
Anna Goldsworthy (1)
Anna Kamieńska (1)
Anne Carson (3)
Annie Baker (1)
Anton Chekhov (1)
Art (2)
Australian poetry (2)
Authenticity (4)
Autumn (1)
Awkward moments (3)
Barbie Kjar (2)
Beauty (1)
Birds (11)
Bloomsday (1)
Buddha (1)
Carol Ann Duffy (1)
Catriona Montgomery (1)
Celtic mythology (1)
Christopher Reid (1)
Chuck Palahniuk (1)
Ciaran Berry (1)
Ciarán Hinds (1)
Clouds (2)
Collected Works Bookshop (1)
Colm Mac Con Iomaire (1)
Colm Tóibín (2)
Conor McPherson (1)
Creativity (1)
Dance (1)
Deborah Digges (1)
Dermot Healy (1)
Dignity (1)
Don Paterson (2)
Dublin (1)
Edwin Muir (1)
Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill (1)
Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin (1)
Eleanor Rees (1)
Elizabeth Burns (1)
Elizabeth Gilbert (1)
Eric Orchard (1)
Felicity Plunkett (1)
Film (2)
Five Islands Press (1)
Five Poetry Journal (1)
François Jacqmin (1)
Freedom (1)
Fresh News from the Arctic (2)
Gabrielle Carey (1)
George Mackay Brown (1)
Grace Wells (1)
Graffiti art (1)
Halloween (2)
Hamid Sardar-Afkhami (1)
Hands (2)
Homer (1)
Iain Crichton Smith (1)
Ice (3)
Influences (1)
Inuit culture (2)
Ireland (11)
Jackie Kay (1)
James Fenton (1)
James Joyce (3)
Jean Rhys (1)
Jeanette Winterson (2)
Jericho Brown (1)
Jo Shapcott (1)
Joan Eardley (1)
John Burnside (2)
John Carty (1)
John Clare (2)
John Glenday (2)
John Keats (1)
John McGahern (1)
John Muir (1)
Josef Frank (1)
June Leaf (1)
Justice (1)
Kris Hemensley (1)
Legendary tales (2)
Lidia Yuknavitch (1)
Lisa Wardle (1)
Longing (1)
Loss (1)
Love (4)
Luke Howard (1)
Marcelo Figueras (1)
Marcus Aurelius (1)
Mark Doty (1)
Mary Delahunty (1)
Matters of the heart (12)
Metaphor (1)
Michael Hartnett (1)
Michael McKimm (1)
Michael Symmons Roberts (1)
Miscellaneous (lovely) things (3)
Miscellaneous poems (21)
Miscellaneous quotes (40)
Mongolia (1)
Music (7)
Máirtin Ó Cadhain (1)
New Irish poetry (4)
New poetry (5)
New Scottish poetry (3)
Noirin Ni Riain (2)
Northern Ireland (1)
Notebooks (1)
Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill (1)
Ocean (3)
Oimyakon (1)
Pablo Neruda (1)
Parker Fitzgerald (2)
Paul La Cour (1)
Paul Strand (1)
Philipp Haager (1)
Pico Iyer (1)
Poetry (21)
Poets (16)
Portents (1)
Proverbs (3)
Pushcart Prize (1)
Rachael Boast (1)
Ralph Angel (1)
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1)
Reindeer (1)
Richard Avedon (1)
Robert Frank (1)
Robert Louis Stevenson (1)
Robin Robertson (2)
Rosebank (1)
RS Thomas (1)
Rumi (1)
Russia (2)
Sarah Manguso (1)
Scotland (1)
Scottish poetry (1)
Seamus Heaney (1)
Sean Scully (1)
Snow (4)
Somhairle MacGill-Eain (Sorley MacLean) (1)
Song titles (2)
Soren Kierkegaard (1)
Spam (1)
St Patrick's Day (2)
Summer (1)
Ted Hughes (1)
Terrence Malick (1)
The Gallery Press (2)
The Troubles (1)
The Wheeler Centre (2)
This Floating World (3)
Truth (1)
Táin Bó Cúailgne (1)
Ulysses (1)
University of Queensland Press (1)
Victorian Writers' Centre (1)
Virginia Woolf (1)
Vona Groarke (1)
Welcome (1)
WH Auden (1)
Whimsy (1)
William Shakespeare (1)
William Stafford (1)
Winter (6)
Writing (22)
WS Merwin (3)

Final words...

To be among the tribe that reads.
-- Albert Goldbarth

Copyright (c) Libby Hart unless otherwise noted. Awesome Inc. template. Powered by Blogger.