Ashley Capes
Ashley teaches Media and English in Victoria. Prior to this he worked in community arts and music retail, while completing studies at Monash University. Ashley sings in a band and is slowly learning piano. He is currently addicted to Studio Ghibli films and spends a lot of time reading the haiku masters like Basho and Issa, along with his favourite Beat poets, particularly Ferlinghetti. His work can be found in a range of Australian publications. Most recently his poetry has appeared in Island, Westerly, Cordite and the bi-lingual journal Red Leaves. His haiku has appeared in Stylus Poetry Journal, Notes from the Gean and Paper Wasp. In 2002 he co-founded Egg(Poetry) and currently works on web publications holland1945 and kippi, while moderating online renku group Issa’s Snail. Ashley’s first collection of poetry was pollen and the storm (2008). Somehow throughout university he managed to continue reading, writing and listening to poetry, films and music, especially the haiku of Issa and Basho and the films of Alfred Hitchcock.
by the curve
a teacup sits on the sink
shoe-brown
inside, imagined marks
where you held it,
not by the handle
but by the curve, to fit a palm
aching from winter
and the rest of the kitchen
looks a little strained –
ant-killers nest against
the foggy window and
cutlery stands like a palisade
but somehow your teacup
shrugs off pain
with a sweeping shadow
cast low over the dish-rag,
to me it looks like you might
return at any minute.
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Stepping Over Seasons
$12.00 (GST-inc)Stepping over Seasons artfully depicts the finer details of life, encapsulating change within people and places as the seasons unfurl. In ‘Overlook’, Capes argues that it’s much easier for great poets to romanticise the world’s most classic cities by poetically and playfully ridiculing his own not-so-romantic Australian hometown.
