Hi all, wishing you a merry Christmas for 2005! Our family has had its traditional Austrian Christmas yesterday (the 24th). We had 20 gathered in our house for lunch and then the sharing of gifts. My son David with his three children, Leeara, Alexandra and Josh came with his wife Renee. I won’t go through…
Poem
Leaves like wet tongues delicately lick the drops of fresh rain falling lightly from summer mist Rainbow Lorrikeets, green and blue and red Wet wings dripping with colour glow Flashing like knives through solid silver downpour High pitched noisy screetch as a flock of five thrash through the neighbourhood Wheeling, whirling in their search for…
Poems
Hannah thunders up the stair Blunders in her nightdress to the fridge “Milk! No Milk! Why is milk never there When Breakfast calls me loudly up the stair!” Dad, dad I’m hungry Can’t we think ahead And get what’s needed before we go to bed! Why is every morning just like this I stagger up…
Donna Mulhearn etc
Hi all- went to this amazing talk by Donna Mulhearn last Sunday. Her web site is: http://www.pilgrimstoryteller.com/ She has an extraordinary tale to tell about her decision to go to Iraq just prior to the American invasion to become a “Human Shield” as a way of protecting essential services for the local residents. She is…
LiveJournal gets International Publicity
So we can all get a blast from this- especially those who contribute regularly and who sent comments in about how valuable they find LiveJournal- look at this wrap that OUR efforts gets in the International WebCT Journal (for October) posted this morning: Blogging with WebCT at University Blogging has become a popular communication tool…
Poetry Competion 2 2005/2006
On behalf of everyone who took part in the Poetry Competion- all the contributors as well as the winners this is a BIG thanks to the volunteer judges (Carolyn, Olivia, Launce, Rebecca…). Without them this competition could not have happened…. so T H A N K Y O U We look forward to you all…
David N (First Year Literature) 1st Prize Winner Uni Poetry Community 2005
David N's Prize-Winning Poem
This poem captivated all the judges to varying degrees… but it scored the highest among the five of us. Why? It is such an extraordinary treatment of the most ordinary. A pair of old shoes that contain and tell a whole life-story both that of the wearer and the creator. And after this, after years…
David N's Prize-Winning Poem
This poem captivated all the judges to varying degrees… but it scored the highest among the five of us. Why? It is such an extraordinary treatment of the most ordinary. A pair of old shoes that contain and tell a whole life-story both that of the wearer and the creator. And after this, after years…
David N’s Prize-Winning Poem
This poem captivated all the judges to varying degrees… but it scored the highest among the five of us. Why? It is such an extraordinary treatment of the most ordinary. A pair of old shoes that contain and tell a whole life-story both that of the wearer and the creator. And after this, after years…
Poetry Competion 2 2005/2006
Everyone please note that another poetry competition has already started and an even better, bigger prize will be handed out in orientation week at the start of next academic year to the new winner. Prizes to be announced!
Once Again the Prize
Prize Winner and up-runners! Poetry Competition…
1/ Chalcedony Shoes The black slippers had been with me for half of my lifetime. Grown old, they had fallen apart. Zippers still intact, that spiny sound of an ascending keyboard or A persons feet racing up a circular staircase sends me into a nostalgic muse. I didn’t like them at first when mum brought…
Poetry Competition Winner! See Poetry Community!
Results of the uni Poetry Competition October 2005-10-20 Will the winner please make contact with Michael Griffith to collect this year’s first prize. Will all place getters also re-submit their winning poems (together with a photo) to the Poetry Community (this is not compulsory but it would be a nice gesture!) This document will be…
End of Week 12
Thank you all (first, second and third year) for you talent, enthusiasm and commitment in putting on a raft of plays in this last week. We had performances of 20thCentury plays by Pinter, Beckett, Edson and Stoppard, Australian plays A Hard God, Coralie Lansdowne Says No, The Cakeman and How Does Your Garden Grow. In…
Chinua Achebe- Last Tutorial of 2005 !
We had an excellent concluding tutorial on Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (in second year). Thank you all for your creative input. Yes, once one has read Things Fall Apart it is possible to be more sympathetic towards Achebe’s thrashing of Conrad (my hero!). While Conrad’s heart is definitely in the right place, it is true…
Chinua Achebe
Uses of LiveJournal: Community, Collaboration, Connection, Creativity & Cohesion.
For those interested, my presentation on the uses of LiveJournal at the Cairns WebCT Conference is now available on-line at the WebCT International site. Just go to the following address and then click on the Monday presentations: http://www.webct.com/asiapacific05/viewpage?name=asiapacific05_presentations
Things Fall Apart
Turning and Turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world…. W.B. Yeats “The Second Coming” These words are the inspiration for the title of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Both Yeats and Achebe are in a certain sense…
Things Fall Apart the Centre Cannot Hold
I have just been re-reading some of these fantastic nineteenth century Australian poems. Charles Harpur’s “Midsummer Noon in the Australian Forest” and “The Creek of the Four Graves” are amonst my favourite. Harpur’s landscape is very like that of John Glover in its powerful, majestic, awe-inspiring mood. And Harpur wields his words like Glover wields…
John Glover Colonial Mountain Landscape
Help needed!
If anyone can tell me how to bring the text of my last entry in from the right margin (so that it can all be seen on the computer screen without having to scroll across…. ) I would be made very happy 🙂 MG
Report on Cairns Conference
Hope you can all indulge me this one. I had to put in a brief report on my conference paper in Cairns. Some of this may be of interest because it shows the way my thinking is headed. Thank you to all those who submitted comments on your use of LiveJournal- I simply was not…
Hi guys- flat out writing exam papers and getting on top of marking this week. There is a price to pay for galavanting around the top end!!. See you all next week when I will be able to give you clearer insights on what exactly is in your exam. Have a profitable study week! Cheers…
Cairns Etc
Hi all… and thank you for your many well-wishings… I am writing this in an internet cafe in the main street of Cairns. It is around 7pm, dark and very warm outside. I have just spent an hour or so trying to troubleshoot the troops back home… but all does seem to moving relatively well.…
View over Cairns- Fantastic Walks here!
Cairns- Conference and other matters
Hello all! It has been a blast in Cairns! both the heat, the fantastic tropical environment and the conference with speakers from all around the world. Hearing teachers around the world talking about the way the internet is transforming their teaching was a mind stretching experience. University education is going through a huge revolution (the…
David Malouf with MG!
Malouf's Wrapped ACU Audience!
Malouf's Wrapped ACU Audience!
Malouf’s Wrapped ACU Audience!
David Malouf on Curlow Creek
David Malouf with ACU fans- book signing
What a great session with David Malouf yesterday. Thank you all for your attendance and questions. David Malouf said what a lively and intelligent group of students you all were… More on this soon…. MG
A memorable day: two wonderful texts to speak about- David Malouf’s The Conversations At Curlow Creek and Margaret Edson’s play Wit. Both texts are concerned with stripping away the last illusions about ourselves. The protective images we hold up to the world (and to ourselves) that protect our full humanity from really emerging. William Blake…
Conversations at Curlow Creek
With first and third year we began work on this wonderful book this week- in preparation for David Malouf himself who will be coming in person to our classes next week. Today with the third years I gave a sweeping overview of the key themes in this book, concentrating on the way in which Malouf…
Teaching Week 8
Some new developments this week in LiveJournal. Second years came up with the idea of conducting a debate on some hot contemporary issue. The subject was New Orleans…. how such a wealthy nation could fail to know how to respond adequately to its own people. This topic is something that will relate centrally to Chinua…
Michael Griffith: Home Page- Literature and Life Spring 2025 