Yarra Valley Spoken Word Friday 10th October 2025 Feature Poet Kai Jensen
Please join us in welcoming Kai Jensen as Feature Poet in October!
Although Kai lived in Melbourne for 14 years, in 2017 he moved to Bermagui on the NSW Far South Coast. He’s now organising a tour of readings following publication of his first book, The Zebra Path of Tree Light, by 5 Islands Press.
He’s had poetry published in many Australasian journals over the years (e.g., in Australia, The Age, Cordite, fourW, Overland, Southerly, 34 to 37 Degrees South, Westerly) and more recently in several North American journals, including Rattle and Poetry Pacific. But because he worked as a university manager he had to put his poetry on the back burner, and only since moving to Bermagui has he been able to give it more attention, send out lots of poetry for publication again, and finally managing to get a book published.
He aims to write poetry that's enjoyable to read/listen to, and he takes pride in bringing it to life in performance. He started off as a performance poet in Aotearoa/New Zealand in the 1980s, before moving to writing more concisely/richly for the page.
Kai came second in a Melbourne poetry slam competition in 2007 or thereabouts.
He continues to explore a range of styles, from simple personal narrative, through ekphrastic poems, surreal/sci-fi poems, to postmodern poems such as erasure poems, found text and disjunctive poems - so can tailor a reading to the tastes of an audience.
He’s chosen for our Spoken Word the theme of ‘Responses to Art & Artists’ and we are very excited to meet him and experience his work, sample below.
The Wild Swans at Fairhaven
Far out on the lake
the swans play their mournful flutes
while the light goes
to wherever the light goes.
Far out on the lake
the swans whine like hounds
while we lie here
in our kennel of lamplight.
The swans, the black swans improvise
constellations of sweet and sour notes
in their cold, their night-hushed auditorium,
fall silent, then mourn a little more
while we lie half-listening,
half-feeling we’ve forgotten something –
maybe our other name
in our other life.
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6-9pm in The Dreaming Space Dome
at Yarra Valley ECOSS - 711 Old Warburton Hwy, Wesburn.
Spoken Word is an inclusive project, gratefully made possible by sponsorship from Yarra Ranges Council.
Entry and Supper is by donation, we never turn people away!
Suggested Donation:
$15 Full / $10 Concession
$5 Supper, $5 Chai
Program - PLEASE NOTE THE NEW START TIME OF 6.15PM.
6pm - Doors open/Music
6.15 - Poetry workshop with open mic (be on time to experience the power of the workshop, latecomers will not be admitted until dinnertime)
7.00 - Dinner
7.30 - Feature poet (PG)
8.00 - Open mic
Call Andy: 0415 734 744 or Chris: 0414 306 772
or search Yarra Valley ECOSS website
COST: Entry and Supper is now by donation, we never turn people away!
Suggested Donation: $15 Full / $10 Concession / $5 Supper, $5 Chai