Words

Writing from Going Down Swinging’s vaults and new writing available exclusively online.

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Finding the words (post-birth)+

Writer and past Going Down Swinging editor Jessica Friedmann reflects on birth, language, and the wavering world. I’ve lost words....

6 days ago
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in a silent way+

when he finished work he saw how lovely it was to deal with the end of autumn, to walk out...

39 days ago
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A Small Boy: Don’t be scared to be scared+

I am thinking of a small boy in the early 1960s, living in an outer suburb of Melbourne. The boy...

47 days ago
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A Real Good Catch+

He real nice this one. Want you to meet him. This one he real good to me. I’m happy. Real...

55 days ago
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Dress Young+

Here’s a poem from the archives of David Prater’s brilliant blog, Davey Dreamnation. DRESS YOUNG you dress young but then...

61 days ago
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How to get teenagers interested in poetry+

“Today,” I announce enthusiastically to a school hall full of fidgeting Year 8s, 9s and 10s, “we are going to...

81 days ago
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Excerpt from ‘The Old Woman’s Tale’+

This is a sneak preview from our up-coming Going Down Swinging #33 from the story The Old Woman’s Tale by...

260 days ago
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Excerpt from ‘Badass’+

This is a sneak preview from our up-coming Going Down Swinging #33 from the story Badass by Michael Trudeau. We...

261 days ago
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Excerpt from ‘The Novel Teacher’+

This is a sneak preview from our up-coming Going Down Swinging #33 from Eric Yoshiaki Dando’s short story The Novel...

262 days ago
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Excerpt from ‘Little Monsters’+

This is a sneak preview from our up-coming Going Down Swinging #33 from Briohny Doyle’s essay, Little Monsters. We will...

263 days ago
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Excerpt from ‘Atlas Dharma’+

This is a sneak preview from our up-coming Going Down Swinging #33 from a collaboration between Cate Kennedy and Simon...

265 days ago
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Braille+

It’s a father and daughter tour and we stop for some famous cliffs. A mountain valley running to the west,...

272 days ago
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On the Attractions of Innocence+

We can never go back, never return. You smile as you scoop sangria from the bowl, finger my albums’ battered...

276 days ago
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On the Radar…+

The Night’s Insomnia ‘When the angels are panting and scratching the door to come in …’  Leonard Cohen, 2012 If...

282 days ago
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Horses+

Today there are horses bolting out of the sun, towards us in a snort of black heat. Close your eyes...

283 days ago
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Do Not Shake The Bridge+

A long bridge of books and paper spans the gorge. You have gone ahead and vertigo is a hand clasped...

291 days ago
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One Hundred Random Cows+

1.  Start They came to him at night to begin with and that’s how it started. That’s how the whole...

293 days ago
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Other Adventures…+

When I was Born When I was born I saw the beginning of things. I saw the tide roll in...

310 days ago
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A Shortage of Santas+

A friend of a friend is recruiting Santas for shopping centres and says that they are having trouble finding them. ...

314 days ago
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Sometimes Poems…+

Cold Was the Ground dark was the night Blind Willie Johnson huffs in my ears weeping into God. How easy...

317 days ago
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The Bedroom Philosopher Tour Diary #1+

1. Excerpt from The Bedroom Philosopher Diaries — the new book from Justin Heazlewood Friday August 13. Launceston. Hotel New...

323 days ago
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Janis Ian remembers+

photographs - watercolours of the past, but I remember cigarettes, the coffee rings of old regrets And the smell and...

340 days ago
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The Bedroom Philosopher Tour Diary #2+

2. Excerpt from The Bedroom Philosopher Diaries — the new book from Justin Heazlewood Saturday August 14. Hobart. Brisbane Hotel....

341 days ago
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Wit-Bix Psychological Analysis+

Excerpt from The Bedroom Philosopher Diaries — the new book from Justin Heazlewood. It’s a casual, slightly dead-shit Wednesday in...

349 days ago
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The Bedroom Philosopher Tour Diary #3+

3. Excerpt from The Bedroom Philosopher Diaries — the new book from Justin Heazlewood Saturday 14th. Hobart. Brisbane Hotel. All-Ages...

350 days ago
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You are you speaking for when you speak not-man?+

I came to Lena Dunham, Judd Apatow and HBO’s new sitcom Girls through the controversy that surrounded it and not...

353 days ago
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Dark Matter+

A few years ago my good friends and colleagues Alicia Sometimes, Sean M Whelan and Paul Mitchell formed Science in The Dark...

353 days ago
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The Bedroom Philosopher Tour Diary #4+

4. Excerpt from The Bedroom Philosopher Diaries — the new book from Justin Heazlewood Sunday August 14. Burnie. Burnie Arts...

353 days ago