Sleeve Notes for Joanne Burns’ Kept Busy
Here you get to listen in to joanne burns, relaxed and chatty over tea and fruit cake, and indeed the listener will be kept busy because this really is life very rich and carefully observed. What ambles in from the left field as a mild discourse suddenly turns a startling light on in a room you have suddenly become aware of.If you are inclined to be envious of someone’s vivid interior life this collection will assure you that it is not necessary, joanne burns is very pleased to share her witty musings. As a social diagnostician she is perfect company.
Joanne Burns is a Sydney writer of poetry, monologues and short fictions. She has been active in the Australian poetry scene since the early 1970s. She has had numerous books published and her work has appeared in many anthologies and journals. She has a long history of reading her work at public performances. Her writing has been produced for radio, theatre, and television. The poems read here comprise a sample of her work over 35 years. ‘an acerbic wit and a magpie’s eye for small detail.’ – Paola Bilbrough HEAT
Kept Busy Play List
- she had more friends
- divine matrimonial
- carnal knowledge
- kept busy
- peerage
- parts of speech
- reading
- footnotes of a hammock
- people like that
- lease of life
- high society
- dead white dates
- library of t-shirts
- mallography
- how to sneeze in peace
- chip
- toast
- salt
- until further notice
- flat chat
- torch
- lines written in early sleep
List of acknowledgements
Poems read on this cd come from the following books by Joanne Burns
- Ratz (Saturday Centre 1973)
- Adrenalin Flicknife (Saturday Centre 1976)
- ventriloquy (Sea Cruise Press 1981)
- blowing bubbles in the seventh lane (Fab Press 1988)
- penelope’s knees (University of Queensland Press 1996)
- aerial photography (Five Islands Press 1999)
- footnotes of a hammock (Five Islands Press 2004)
The poem ‘torch’ was first published in Ilumina (PoetryUnLimitedPress Journal 2007)