Writing Water: Rain, River, Reef
Is it here we go,
when water takes its leave,
seeping unseen
to the deepest place.
There is nothing heavier than a river.
~ Georgina Reid from 'There is Nothing Heavier Than a River'
From cloud forests to flood, water connects us in every sense
Red Room Poetry’s Writing Water: Rain, River, Reef project commissioned celebrated poets – Eunice Andrada, Tony Birch, Luke Davies and Georgina Reid – and invited public submissions that looked below the surface and reimagined our essential relationships with water. From the slow-moving waters of TarraWarra in Victoria to the extinction of corals and conversations with wetlands in Western Australia, poems are provocations to honour, remember and interrogate our responsibilities with water in a time of environmental change.
Poets
Claire Albrecht
Eunice Andrada
Magdalena Ball
JV Birch
Tony Birch
Anne Casey
Luke Davies
Anne Elvey
Jane Gibian
Shona Hawkes
Poems
cell safety , the poem begins with a breathing reef , answer , sanctuary , Rainclouds are capricious , Barrier Reef , Birrarung Billabong , Black Ophelia , How Water Works , Pellucid dreamingWriting Water chapbook
From rain, rivers and reefs to tidal pools and coastal shelves, the Writing Water chapbook is a bespoke collection of 24 poems, written by commissioned and public poets about their relationship with our earth's most precious resource, water. Produced with sustainability and community at its heart, Writing Water was created with the Rizzeria using natural dyes and a handprinted Risograph stencil process, giving it a lovely hand-crafted texture that may remain on your fingertips.
We hope that each poem serves as a reminder of how water should be held in the hand, gently and with gratitude.
Now available: Print | Digital
Workshop with Eunice Andrada | Wednesday 12 August
Award-winning Filipina poet Eunice Andrada led an immersive Writing Water workshop designed to help us explore our relationships with water in all its forms: as witness, giver, receiver. 65 participants came together to create unique poems for consideration in the Red Room Poetry Writing Water chapbook.
Poems float on Sydney Ferries
To celebrate World Poetry Day and the launch of Writing Water, poems sailed on Sydney Ferries throughout March 2020. In November, the published chapbooks were hand-delivered by the RR team to some ferry commuters on Transport NSW’s F4 Cross Harbour Ferry. On the journey, we met a fellow poet, a photographer, ferry workers and a youth worker, with whom we shared this incredible collection of poems.
Partners and Supporters
Writing Water: Rain, River, Reef is supported by generous individuals, TarraWarra Museum of Art for the TarraWarra Biennial 2020 and our major partners:
