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Poetry duel: Mike Cleeland and Alice Ansara returned for a cut-throat grand poetry slam in the first Victorian heat of the Australian Poetry Slam, held in Wonthaggi.
By Catherine Watson
IT STARTED as an all-in poetry brawl and it ended in a duel: Mike Cleeland’s ballad of a modern-day shearer versus Alice Ansara’s ode to lovelorn rage and revenge.
The two poets were tied at the end of the first Victorian heat of the Australian Poetry Slam, held in Wonthaggi Library on Thursday night in front of a large, loud, rapt audience.
The 23 poets had come from near and far, perhaps thinking it would be easier to win a heat in Wonthaggi than Melbourne, but it was the locals who took the honours. Mike is from Phillip Island and Alice lives in Wonthaggi.
The rules decreed a grand poetry slam to decide the winner: Mike responded with a paean to a Scottish lassie, his wife, lost in the wilds of the Victoria highlands; Alice changed her tune to a lyric of voracious love.
The five learned judges, selected from the audience in a random chocolate scramble, held their scorecards aloft, the scorekeeper did the tallying ... and still there wasn’t a rhyming couplet between them.
While MC Andrew McClelland dithered, the audience stepped in and demanded that the event be declared a tie. And so it was.
The poets shared first and second prizes, and both are headed for the Victorian final on September 12, perhaps to go all the way to the national final at the Sydney Opera House on October 12.
Should one of them win the Australian final, they will be heading to the Bookworm International Literary Festival in China or the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival in Bali.
IT STARTED as an all-in poetry brawl and it ended in a duel: Mike Cleeland’s ballad of a modern-day shearer versus Alice Ansara’s ode to lovelorn rage and revenge.
The two poets were tied at the end of the first Victorian heat of the Australian Poetry Slam, held in Wonthaggi Library on Thursday night in front of a large, loud, rapt audience.
The 23 poets had come from near and far, perhaps thinking it would be easier to win a heat in Wonthaggi than Melbourne, but it was the locals who took the honours. Mike is from Phillip Island and Alice lives in Wonthaggi.
The rules decreed a grand poetry slam to decide the winner: Mike responded with a paean to a Scottish lassie, his wife, lost in the wilds of the Victoria highlands; Alice changed her tune to a lyric of voracious love.
The five learned judges, selected from the audience in a random chocolate scramble, held their scorecards aloft, the scorekeeper did the tallying ... and still there wasn’t a rhyming couplet between them.
While MC Andrew McClelland dithered, the audience stepped in and demanded that the event be declared a tie. And so it was.
The poets shared first and second prizes, and both are headed for the Victorian final on September 12, perhaps to go all the way to the national final at the Sydney Opera House on October 12.
Should one of them win the Australian final, they will be heading to the Bookworm International Literary Festival in China or the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival in Bali.