JANUARY / September 2021
I hadn’t set out to slice my soul open
but I did,
standing on the still-slick tiles,
thinking blood on my foot was close enough
I gifted Let’s Talk Peace Ballarat with a specially commissioned poem, which I performed live at their Peace Forum on 21 January 2021. The forum celebrated the coming into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
The poem I wrote ended up being a triptych of shorter pieces, entitled Fallout. The poems are both my personal reflection on nuclear weapons and on the City of Ballarat council’s decision not to sign ICAN’s Cities Appeal.
Later in 2021, Let’s Talk Peace, Ballarat asked me to create a video of the poem, working once again with local filmmaker Sam McColl, from Green Eggs and Ham Productions, (we did Water It together).
The video was funded by the City of Ballarat Community Impact Grants, auspiced by Ballarat Arts Alive.
Let’s Talk Peace premiered the video of Fallout on their facebook page on 20th September, the eve of International Day of Peace.
The video also featured as part of the online National Compassion Day activities from the Charter of Compassion on 21 September.