spoken word

A woman sits on a rock, looking out towards the ocean.

Amateur poetry readings in lockdown

Much of Australia has recently been in, or are still in, lockdown — including me in Perth. I was directed to work from home on Monday (it’s now Sunday again as I write this) when initial restrictions were reintroduced. And I managed to get a masked gym session in just before Premier Mark McGowan called an 8pm press conference (never a good sign) to announce that Perth and Peel would enter a four-day lockdown. Which we’re now out of, albeit with some restrictions in place.

Sydney, on the other hand, is still in the middle of their lockdown. 😦 That city owns a piece of my heart, so I decided to read “To Sydney”, a poem by Louise Mack, for LibriVox.

Listen to Short Poetry Collection 217 on LibriVox.

My oral interpretation of “The West” by Francis S. Borton is also in that collection, which is made up of 44 poems read by various volunteers.

Black headphones on a black surface.

My speaking voice and Henry Newbolt

Those who know me in person know I don’t really say much. Which means hearing my speaking voice is a genuine rarity. 😀

But I recently joined LibriVox, where volunteers from around the world record audio versions of public domain texts. For funsies, I decided to take part in LibriVox’s Weekly Poetry project, which on this occasion consisted of 25 readers recording a Henry Newbolt poem.

Listen to “Outward Bound” by Sir Henry Newbolt at LibriVox.

I’m number 16 😉 — but you should totally check out how everyone else interpreted the same poem.

Obviously I sound different in a conversation than I do when reciting a poem. Or do I? Who even knows? 😛

Anyway, this and any future recordings I might do for LibriVox can be found on my LibriVox page.