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‘Joel O’Connor’s clever, insightful poetry creates unexpected bridges between how science and art perceive the world, bridges that invite us to discover delightful complexities in the world where others may see nothing but isolated realities.’
Professor Mike Archer AM,
School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences
Joel is a recent but very welcome discovery for me. He is a gifted and prolific wordsmith who will take you on quite a flight as to why we gather, hoard and waste, disrespect and love and where we all sit in that big bowl of mixed salad that we sometimes chomp down on without much thought. He has enlarged my imagination and piqued my curiosity. Read his poems, you won’t regret it.
Sharon O'Neill
New Zealand singer-songwriter and multi-award-winning artist
'Metaphors are ways of understanding the unfamiliar in terms of the familiar. And in a world that seems to be increasingly unfamiliar, disturbing, and perplexing, Joel O’Connor offers us a provocative and powerful means of making sense out of the political chaos that has emerged as nations slide or leap into what appears to be a totalitarian and fascist future. His works, like 'Locusts' provide the metaphorical lens through which we might see how mindless, mass mania can create a nightmarish world—particularly for any individuals that might wish to escape from, or even to defy, the swarm.'
Jeffrey A. Lockwood. Professor of Natural Sciences & Humanities. University of Wyoming
‘Joel O'Connor uses words as a medium to provide a unique artistic perspective into the curiosities revealed by the scientific world. His poems are delightful and refreshing!’
Dr. Damien Esquerré
Lecturer in Biological Sciences, The University of Wollongong
‘As a professor, I am constantly searching for ways to engage my stu-dents and make learning fun. Joel O'Connor's poetry is an absolutely perfect way to do this. Whether it's comb jellies or mass extinctions, his ability to encapsulate complex topics into clever, creative, vivid and entertaining poems never fails to get my students interested and invested in science!’
Commander Matt Smart, Ph.D.
Department of Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences
U.S. Naval Academy
‘As a poet I have great admiration for Joel O’Connor. Joel has the creative ability to write of species and the natural world and then expand a chosen subject to reflect science and the behaviour and beliefs of humanity. Locust is a superb piece of writing. The nine poems bring the grasshopper/locust transformation to life. He creates images that build from innocuous beginnings (a gentle brush of a leg against another) to an unstoppable plague (on a moonlit night we take flight). His analogy to the spectre of an emerging wave of fascism fits perfectly with this suite of poems to give his writing additional ‘food’ for thought.’
Leigh Hay (Poet, Author & Editor)
Joel's vision: Take me into the eyes and heart of someone in a moment in time that is not mine. Make me stand where they stood and know that what they felt is what we all feel and what makes us human. Make that moment come to life for me as a record I am able to be part of in the unbroken history of our emotions and understanding. There’s nothing purer than just that voice speaking straight to your mind, and only that voice, describing, moving, longing. That’s the place where my poetry comes from, what drives it and brings it to life. I want you to hear the crickets, as my voice is your voice rising from the page, and be there in the moments where I have seen life cross paths with the universe- where I have seen a twig whirring in a cobweb in the bush, alone, in the places beyond people, in the droning hum of summer heat. You and I, carried to that point in the human timeline, to a place that is never lost, to one we can always find and be alone with, and where we are connected to everything.
Poetry Australia
Poetry Australia is a non-profit organisation I have set up to support and promote poetry from non-traditional places. Rhythmic poetry, in the form of RAP and hip-hop are with us all the time, but poetry as a written form in Australia doesn't have a place or presence with the people. That's because it is not owned by the people. The boards of the writer's association and poetry organisations are filled with academics and other who live in an echo chamber and who either write for their kind or support a feedback loop.
Poetry Australia plans to seek grants to reach out to diverse communities and ordinary people and to encourage them to write poetry by offering prize money for their work and distribution through a free quarterly journal.
I won the poetry prize for my school in my last two years of high-school and, as a young poet, that meant a lot in terms of validation and encouragement for me to go on. Poetry Australia will support all poets who live and breathe the real world and especially young poets, poet who speak languages other than English, poets across the gender spectrum and from First Nation and multicultural backgrounds, in Australia.