2017-02-08T01:44:20+00:00

Max in three words

February 8, 2017August 13, 2020/Rebecca Sullivan/4 Comments

When I read this work out loud, I feel like I’m naked on a coat hanger … this is a difficult piece for me, yet one that I am most proud of. In 2012 my poetry mentor Claire Gaskin prompted the class to express 10 years of life in three word sentences. Instantly I was reminded of my son’s prosody of speech. I felt like I’d finally found the way to express our story.

The work was first published in Southerly’s Long Paddock and can be found here. Max in Three Words has also been performed as a monologue by the Ruby Theatre Company.

Like other work I have written in collaboration with Max, I believe the piece is more powerful when heard.

In Collaboration With Max

January 19, 2017May 1, 2023/Rebecca Sullivan/Leave a comment

In Collaboration with Max is poetry composed by Max Lewis and Rebecca Sullivan. Max experiences autism as well as delayed intellectual and physical growth. Max’s poetics is experimental and he can be heard expressing himself in venues across Melbourne. Rebecca and Max collaborate to advocate for the voice of poets with disability. A selection of poems from In Collaboration with Max were first Published in Southerly Literally Journal 76.2

In Collaboration with Max includes 9 poems and a Poetics Blue Print titled The ‘Special Needs’ of Poetry.

A recital of a small selection of the collaboration is viewed here

A recital of a selection of the collaborative poems with improvised jazz is found here

The audio versions of all poems in the collaboration are found below.