David Stavanger

Is a Sunshine Coast poet who has a passion for poetry that sits outside the walls while having something to say about what lies within. He is also an experienced psychologist who dabbles in art therapy, complimentary medicine and shadow work - influences which can be seen threaded through many of his pieces. He has lived up & down the east coast of Australia with his wife and their two cats & two dogs, this movement and his relationship also being important sources for his work.

His publications include the Red Room Project 2002 Vol. 3 C.D.; a contribution to the Red room epic poem project featured at the 2003 NSW Writers Festival ; Speed poets magazine and as part of the forthcoming Synaptic Graffiti: Slam the Body Politik multi-media C.D. (being launched at the QPF 2004). He also regularly produces the Ghostboy Diaries where he muses about his life & poetry via letters to his muse and dear friend, the Ghost Boy - a lost spiritual entity, shaman and poet who features poetry, channels other guest entities and links the universe to David Bowie on his show Station to Station (Noosa Community Radio 101.3).

Ghost boy

I knew this boy
a boy who never knew me
reflected in the cracked stained glass
of a city train full of morning corpses
their coffee stubble and panadol eyes
clutch papers trembling to the rumbling
of a diesel engine long-gone.
ghost boy
your red hood and washed out eyes
frosty to the a.m sharpness of
business suits pointy and important
that bustle through us as
we are not net profit
we are not flow chart
we are yesterday

5:03 (All Stops To Dapto)

The girl waves at the walking
beer can
leering from the stained window of a nowhere train.
Her skirt, hemmed high above the clouds the
silver lining sends him craving, he rushes forth.
Passes through the smoking beanie teenage load
and leans out, shouts:
"Oy, Sexy"
but she is long gone
bored with mocking some old bum
who turns inwards to collapse upon
himself as the platform pulls away
and the twilight claims the sun.

CASE STUDY: 2

He once said he was a skyscraper
and as far as buildings go
I would tend to agree:

tall & glassy
his windows reflected the sun
his height cast a shadow
on his streetscape below
his edges could snag your jacket
angular and sharp

When he was five he felt like
an empty shoe box
locked in the hall cupboard
full of old things
faded yellow
that is only brought out
when you want to find a old tax return
or love letter

Today he is all barefoot and anxiety
hands wringing the air in my office
to tears
stuttering his way to tell me today
t-t-t-t-t-t-o-o-d-d-d-daa-d-dd-y-y-y-
he feels like a tent not a building
small and out of control
flap wide open
his demons howling their way through himv exposed to the other campers
he wants to run we start to breathe our way
back to the room
we ride the wind of his agitation and movement
and he climbs slowly back into the canvas
speech returning
he tells me about his day

SEX, LIES AND POLYGRAPHS

within minutes
they start another round
of sex lies and polygraphs
tongues dueling for the truth
air thick with denial

they always sit apart

she opens with midnight phone calls never made
to some interstate whore she demands to meet.
he responds with mustached men and grungy
hotel lobbies she hasn’t walked through
in this life.


they live in the sad electric wiring attached
to their wrists, whether their iris gets larger
and the sweat on tense lips. He says her hips
have bared the weight of a dozen men
this week, she replies that he should know about
hips

“You’ve held everybody’s but mine”

He replies that he has hired cheap men in cheaper suits
to tag her to yoga saying
“the face of the instructor looked familiar”
she just stares at the ground, grey carpet well worn
strewn with colour photos of the infidelities within
their heads:

naked men and faceless breasts
whispered meetings, men without necks
cocks never touched, lovers soft and wet
countless reports, hair strand tests
that proved nothing leaving us standing
to leave the office
the space between them

the only evidence we need.

Beveridge, Judith
Bleakley, Kathleen
Boyd, Allan
Brennan, Michael
Burns, Joanne
Cameron, Lainie
Cassidy, Bonnie
Chang, Jessica
Clarke, John
Cooke, Stuart
Crane, Michael
Dechian, Sonja
Doran, Ben
Doupe, Juliana
Drewitt, Andy
Dyson, Mia
Elson, Gerard
Ferney, Liam
Garrard, Phillipa
Gibian, Jane
Greagen, Clint
Hawkins, Brian
Hickey, Kelly-Lee
Hier, Michael
Higgs, Ashley
Jelfs, Bradley
Jenkins, Gareth
Johnson, Heather Taylor
Jones, Jill
Kefala, Antigone
Keily, Tom
Knox, Elena
Locke, Kate
Lowe, Justin
Mackie, Brendan
Mann, Paddy
Messiah, Eytan
Minter, Peter
Mitchell, Paul
Morganics
Narkiewicz, Katrine
Nicholson, Anna Kerdijk
Nixon, Jenni
Oliver, Stephen
Paine, Juliet
Prater, David
Purchess, Andew
Robbins, Rachel
Scott, Ryan
Smart, Steve
Sinclair, Tim
Sometimes, Alicia
Stavanger, David
Stuart, James
Tsaloumas, Dimitris
Walter, Lesley
Webster, Ben
West, John
Westbury, Deb
Wicks, Les
Winch, Ben