Month: December 2024

Photo of Rabbit: a journal for nonfiction poetry, Issue 40 titled ‘Extinction,’ placed on a green and cream floral-patterned fabric. The cover of the journal has a dark maroon border, with the central artwork depicting a textured, moss-covered koala with a baby on its back, with smoke rising from its body.

‘welcome to all this’ in Rabbit Poetry Journal

Leave a comment

Thrilled to have a new poem ‘welcome to all this’ in Rabbit Poetry Journal #40 Extinction. Much love and appreciation for editors Jessica L. Wilkinson, Elena Gomez and aj carruthers. 

Photo of Rabbit: a journal for nonfiction poetry, Issue 40 titled ‘Extinction,’ placed on a green and cream floral-patterned fabric. The cover of the journal has a dark maroon border, with the central artwork depicting a textured, moss-covered koala with a baby on its back, with smoke rising from its body.

As I write this a scrub turkey is scratching through the leaves outside my bedroom window and a lorikeet is yelling from a palm tree.

Photo of a white page with text that reads: ‘Rae White - welcome to all this.’
Photo of a white page with text of a poem that reads: ‘welcome swallows skim rooftop lap pool for chlorine-garnished mosquitos / I am workaday coffee grind guardian gnome / white herons watch wait cast angular shadows over bootleg fishing nets / I am city smoke burnout guerrilla gardener / currawong calls reverberate off stark robot high-rises as dusk draws near / I am unceasing howling wheat-paste protester / I watch the symmetrical sky-dance of beak-heavy pelicans reflected on river's mirror / I refuse to say goodbye to all this’

As I write this, Rabbit are waiting to hear back about vital funding. If you haven’t already please consider subscribing to Rabbit and/or buying some of their brilliant poetry collections.

Photo of a white page with text that reads: ‘So, I am wondering about how poetry might—if not evoke direct action-actually ignite the passion for action. Poetry as part of the resistance ecology. Rabbit itself stands on the precipice of extinction as we await vital funding news from government support. With institutional support largely dried up due to ongoing post-COVID cut-backs, we will at the very least revise our publications plan going forward. Of course, many Australian literary journals are similarly feeling the pinch. But I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our section and guest editors over the years. For this issue, I would particularly like to thank the guest poetry editors-Elena Gomez and aj carruthers—for their thoughtful selection and curation of 'extinction' poems, and for their dedication to the poetics of resistance. I also thank Jeanine Leane for curating a First Nations section from the 'Us Mob' writing group. I offer the deepest thanks to Tracy O'Shaughnessy for her indefatigable work as Rabbit's publications manager—we would not have survived this long without you. And finally, thank you to all our readers, our subscribers, our supporters, for meeting these pages with much enthusiasm and excitement. We hope to continue hopping in the near future.’

(Excerpt from Jessica L. Wilkinson’s editorial.)

Black-and-white artwork of a dense greenhouse filled with leafy plants. Overlaid on the scene is a geometric framework of translucent rectangular shapes, creating a layered, architectural effect that contrasts with the foliage.

Ekphrastic poem in Antipodes!

Leave a comment

I have a new poem in Antipodes: A Global Journal of Australian/New Zealand Literature | Vol 36 | Iss 2.

‘A robot discovers an overgrown garden, year 2121’ is an ekphrastic poem I wrote after Jane Grealy’s Maria’s Garden, Scheme B (2021); pastel, conte and charcoal on paper; Museum of Brisbane Collection.

Thank you to poetry editor Nathanael OʻReilly and the team at Antipodes. And to my Ekphrastic Writing Club at Museum of Brisbane.

Black-and-white artwork of a dense greenhouse filled with leafy plants. Overlaid on the scene is a geometric framework of translucent rectangular shapes, creating a layered, architectural effect that contrasts with the foliage.