Luke Baker (part 2)

Speaker 1 00:02

This is a Vision Australia Radio podcast.

Speaker 2 00:19

On Vision Australia Radio, welcome to our conversations on the work and experiences of emerging writers. I'm Kate Cooper, and our guest on today's program is Luke Baker, spoken word poet, emerging freelance creative, and convener of the fortnightly Write on Time writing workshops, and the monthly poetry sharing group, Not So Spontaneous Poetry Catch-Up. Luke runs poetry workshops, both independently and in association with Spoken Word SA, a wonderful organization that we've featured previously on this program. We spoke with Luke last week about his poetry creating, his rap poetry, and his reflective poetry, and about performing at poetry events, including open mics and poetry slams.

Luke, welcome to the program. There are recordings of your poetry on SoundCloud. Would you tell us about those and how our listeners can access them?

Speaker 3 01:26

Yes, Kate, I've got a Soundcloud where I've uploaded a bunch of my poetry recordings, some of my raps, and also some music, which I do in collaboration with a friend of mine in Canada. His name's Dustin, and we've been just collaborating on some musical things. He's a very... he will upload covers of a song or some thing he's working on and just lets me loose and says, hey, do some vocal arrangements on it, if you like. And we've produced some really cool songs, so they're on there as well as my poetry. And you can find it, you can Google Luke Baker Creative Soundcloud.

Speaker 2 02:21

And you also have your own web address, Luke Baker Creative. Would you give our listeners that address and tell us about what you have on that site?

Speaker 3 02:31

Yeah, so my website has just been made recently. It's a place where you can find links to my Instagram and my Facebook where I do most of my engagement, Facebook and Instagram. I post some short poetry, my photography as well. I don't talk about my photography enough, that I do photography - and general updates of a lot of open mic events and things that I'm doing as a creative. And that website is Luke Baker Creative. So if you, if you Google Luke Baker Creative, there should be a website that comes up there.

Speaker 2 03:13

Now I have another question that I've been asking guests on this program and that's how do you go about creating your works? Do you have a favorite place where you like to write?

Speaker 3 03:24

This is a great question. My favorite places to go writing is just go for a walk. I love to go for a walk locally. Morialta hiking is always good. Sometimes I write, sometimes I don't. But I think for me personally, everyone has their own. Some people love to write to prompts. There's that impetus to write something then on a theme. There's a real benefit to having certain amount of structure that you can put all your whirling creativity onto. So you can write from a prompt. But for personally, I call me a naturalist or something organic. I want a moment to come to me. I want to check in with myself with what I'm feeling in an emotion or what nature has to offer me in this moment.

I like to really have open time doing nothing. That's when I will write when I'm doing nothing. Sit out the back in the in the sun or in the rain. Go for a walk and come home and look at the moon and see it there and you just get inspired to write something. But you have to check in with yourself. You have to be present and open that moment up and allow that moment to really whirl around a bit and describe it. Sit with it. It could be an emotion. Sit with the emotion for a while. I've written poems where there was a moment and emotion that come over me. Maybe a song triggered it or something. I'll hit the song and I'll hit repeat on that song. I'll sit there. I might even cry and I'll write and I'll write and I'll replay that moment until the poem's finished.

Just allow yourself to be present and take the time to elongate a moment when it comes to you. When you feel you need to write something, allow yourself the time to write. That's what I would say.

Speaker 2 05:34

I love that expression "elongate the moment". It's a type of meditation, in a way, isn't it, what you're describing?

Speaker 3 05:44

Very much. Yeah, you don't have to go on about the meta, the benefits of something like that. Yeah, it really is a meditation and checking in, being present. Yeah, writing. It's amazing. Do it.

Speaker 2 05:59

In our conversation last week, we talked about the community of spoken word poets in Adelaide. Would you share with us your reflections on being part of that community?

Speaker 3 06:11

Yeah, my reflections on being part of the poetry community, it is an amazing community. It is the most welcoming, safe place. Often when you're writing a poem, now I've done some fun stuff today, but there are some really deep, hard -hitting things that people need to get off their chest and just be witnessed and share. It's healing. It's a healing craft if you need it for that. It can do many things, and that's one of the benefits. So you can do that alone in a room and never show anyone, and that will give you probably some healing, or it will serve its purpose for whatever it needs. And if that's enough for you, fine. 

But if there's a yearning for something more, come join us in an open mic and just enjoy the show, and maybe you'll be inspired to share something of your own, which has its own benefits, I tell you, and the community will welcome you.

Speaker 2 07:18

And any listeners who are wanting to become a part of the spoken word poetry community can find out more on social media. There's a poetry gig guide on Facebook and as we mentioned last week you also put up a calendar of poetry events by the month so that people can see where to go and and find out a bit more about what kind of event is on - and hey, everybody has a first time.

Speaker 3 07:47

Yeah, the beautiful thing is most of the time I pretty much try to go to all of them if I can, and there's always someone doing a first time, and that's great to see. Sometimes you don't see them again, sometimes you do. And yeah, it's the best way to do something like that. You can tick it off your bucket list if you've got a yearning to do it. Maybe you want to keep working on it and keep doing it. There's so much you can get from just sharing and hearing others' stories. You begin to realise some of your inner thoughts and feelings are not, you're not alone, and then you can feel a real connection there on some things where you perhaps thought maybe you were the only one. Maybe you were isolated. I was very isolated, and then I started to come out into the big bad world, and poetry was my community then. Yeah.

Speaker 2 08:50

Luke, would you perform another of your spoken word poems for us?

Speaker 3 08:54

Yes, I will. This poem is one of the poems that I have surrounding mental health, and it's weaved through a story, which is a real story about a turtle my little brother had, which unfortunately the turtle died, and this is a bit of a story about that. It's called Turds. 

Childhood trauma is not a competition, but if you have a look at him, well, there's a few things you'd be missing. A nice young man, a mum that loves him, hell, he was even the singer in his high school rock band. He had friends in every circle, surely he was happy as could be. Not a worry in the world, just like his little brother's pet turtle... and they named that turtle Turds because when he splashed his front legs in the water well you can imagine the sound like running to the loo and hoping no one else is around, plop plop plop plop plop plop plop plop... 

And they got Turds when he was just the size of a 50 cent piece until he grew into the size of a dinner place at least, happy little Turds, as happy as could be, for what could a turtle worry about? Lest something lurk beneath. The light of his turtle tank kept him nice and warm, safe from all the world and those who judge and scorn. The paint, on the light, casing, water, evaporating, dripping, toxic paint slowly and silently eradicating. And no one asked Turds how he felt beneath his turtle shell, now bathing in a poisoned hell. And he showed no signs of what he held inside, and there were no tears he could have cried to show us that he was going to die...

And you, you would have never known about his plight, looking on in from the outside. I hide my mental health so well I hide it from myself. No wonder why I forget to ask for help. I'm such a listener that I don't know how to tell you, myself, or anyone else that I'm going through hell. He had my plopping webbed feet mistaken for excitement because I cannot bring myself to yell. Now I'm going to die in here inside my turtle shell. 

Thank you.

Speaker 2 12:16

Thank you for sharing that with us, Luke.

Speaker 3 12:20

It's a funny thing because, yeah, sometimes I very much am a naive. Should I share these kinds of poems? And on the one hand, it's so important to talk about and raise the discussion so we can drop stigma, so we can open conversations that are sorely needed because people like to bottle up. And on the other hand, that's why when I write something like that, it's got a good message and story, it's got some funness to it, but yeah, you got to have some light in the dark.

Speaker 2 12:50

And for our listeners, if this poem has raised any issues for you, you can call Lifeline on 131114. And look, you manage in that poem to start with some humour, with the everyday, many families will have had a family pet, a treasured family pet. You draw into that the state of our environment and toxins that pet animals might be exposed to. And then you also bring in those personal challenges. So you're able to move through the poem to bring us to think on those different levels and to really empathise with you. So that's quite a skill to be able to do that. And it must be very hard to lay your heart bare in a poem and then share that with people, as so many of the community do, at the spoken word events, as we've been saying.

Speaker 3 13:56

Yeah, there's a catch 22 that, you know, we need to have conversations about this. We often need to have hard conversations with ourselves, with each other and art turning pain into beauty, they say, is such a great avenue to do that. And when I write a poem that wants to speak about mental health issues, that one in particularly is probably one of my favorites, because it does have that everyday sense to it, because mental health is happening in the everyday. It's not this separate entity. Oh, you know, it's part of our lives, whether it be doing daily things to make sure we are in good mental health. The, the turtle story was an interesting, it's a metaphor. And I found the turtle to be an interesting one because a turtle can recoil and hide in its shell and the swimming of the turtle. 

We can only really get a sense of what someone might be going through. And we rely on our personal biased interpretations. A turtle can't speak. And this poem is about speaking. It, we need to speak because I've been to the place where I have not spoken and tried to deal with everything myself. Granted, there is a lot that you need to deal with alone, but speaking and opening conversations with yourself and with other people, sharing your stories, it not only helps you, but it also helps others. And that is a real sort of something I think of a justification of sharing a mental health poetry is that, oh my God, someone might feel not so alone now because you've just described something in a beautiful way that I'm resonating with.

I feel like I've, I'm the turtle, you know? And when you use a little metaphor like that, metaphors, we don't talk about it enough, but they're powerful instruments to take something that is a little more abstract, a little harder to define, a little sensitive, perhaps, to talk about. There's so many things we don't talk about in the world. And all of a sudden I'm talking about a little brother's turtle. And so you're listening, you're on with the ride. It's more palatable. And by the end of it, oh, oh, there's a deeper meaning to this.

Speaker 2 16:48

On Vision Australia Radio, you're listening to our conversation program, Emerging Writers. Our guest today is Luke Baker, spoken word poet, emerging freelance creative and convener of the fortnightly Write On Time writing workshops and the monthly poetry sharing group, Not So Spontaneous Poetry Catch-Up. Would you tell us more about the Write On Time workshops, first of all, how you got started and how our listeners can find out more about those?

Speaker 3 17:22

Great, yeah, Write On Time was born a number of months ago now, this year, and it was really a moment of trying to find some way to keep motivated and keep consistent for myself. And whenever I do something for myself and I find something that works, I immediately want to go, do this, is anyone going to get benefit from this as well? The beauty of right on time as a writing group is that it's based on a social accountability. So if I'm at home on a Sunday morning, I'm likely not going to be writing something. As I said before, my process is more let things come to me, which has been working for me.

But when I want to work on something more long-term, consistent, which is what I'm using this group to do for my project, we each have our own writing project. And this one is more of a, I'm writing a longer book. So I need to be consistent. I need to keep adding to it. And this is helping me. And I've invited other people. I've made it a thing. It was a very organic inception. So someone I knew, Pam Macon, runs one of the poetry events, another poet suggested we go to Page and Turner.

There's a man there named Mark. He's a lovely guy and he lets us use that space in the bookstore there, which is a magical little area for creativity. And we just come along. We might work on new poems. We might work on fan fictions. There's a friend of mine, Alec, teacher. He writes some academic articles based on his teaching practices. And it's just a mix match of people who are now regular. And this Write On time group is, I mean, it's free. It's open to anyone. You can just add me on Facebook, Instagram, look at my website and I'll keep you updated. So yeah.

Speaker 2 19:40

Luke, you've also done some poetry work in schools. What are some of the rewards and what are some of the challenges in working with others to support their writing?

Speaker 3 19:51

Working in the school environment, I've done a handful of performance slash workshop events there with high school students through spoken word essay. Those workshops have been, yeah, really incredible, really rewarding to work with young people, especially because they're not, I'm quoting in the air, poets, or maybe they're poets and they don't know it, but they're not the poetry community. And so I'm... actually going out of my comfort zone. So, you know, the first few times was a little bit nerve wracking, what are the high school students going to think? And they had to overcome a new type of nervousness, which is really interesting for me personally.

But the, well, the benefits... let's start, you're reaching young people and you're letting them know that this craft is available to anyone and everyone. I try to really relate the benefits that can come with it. It's hard to describe what you can get from it if you haven't really experienced it. And as I touched on writing for me, it has been an instrumental force for upgrading my mental health default line, you know? And I want to pass that along as an option for younger people. I wish I had poetry back when I really needed something like that, but I didn't find it until a bit after. And so if I can give people the option, just let you know, Hey, hey, this is here. I can encourage you a bit. That's excellent. 

And I've had a few young people, students come up to me after the workshops and show me maybe some of their poetry. And I can see that it's working. And just the thinking is amazing. Some of these young people are just thinking so deeply. You begin to realise, I think a lot of the teachers realise, Wow, there is a fully fledged human being right here. You know, it's not just a student. It opens your eyes to this whole world of humans, which I'm sure teachers already know that about their students, but it's like a stark in your face moment where, wow, you've enabled them to step out of the rubric of curriculum and see what's really behind the person because you've given them the opportunity to speak.

I say this to myself and out there that there's no better listener than the page. Oh, one thing about the challenges, I will say, I found some very interesting challenges with maybe there's a group of students at table that are not engaging, not interested. I love that challenge and finding ways to get them to actually look at it as a benefit and not just some work we have to do right now in school. That's been a really great challenge that I use little devices to enhance engagement and props and whatnot. So yeah.

Speaker 2 23:16

Fantastic. Luke, your other interests include rock climbing and photography. To what extent do they go together and go with your poetry? And have you had any special moments with any of these activities?

Speaker 3 23:30

Yes, they're all special moments. I think climbing photography, photography is a very, very close one. I think because yeah, there was, I guess my turning point moment where I started really taking photography was around the time where I had a bit of a turning point in my personal life. And so photography has remained that sacred thing to me, that kind of more personal, which I do share a lot of my images on Instagram. So you can feel free to look at them, but I don't brandish the photography too much, you know, or do photography workshops.

It's more of a, I guess, personal thing. But I think I should bring that to the, to the platform as well. I think I mentioned to you before three wins a day, go for three wins, something spiritual for your heart or soul, something intellectual mind to stimulate your mind and something physical challenge you physically physically. And climbing has been another thing, part of the triangle that's been instrumental in just giving me a better default position in life and my, my own attitude towards life and climbing is it's more stimulating than going to the gym.

I've always found going to the gym very boring. Never been a gym person. And I don't want to lift weights to just look like I've got big muscles or anything. I want to do something with those muscles. My body is more than just those lifting motions. What can I apply it to? What can I do? What can I overcome? And climbing is such a fun, physical puzzle to solve because it's also mentally stimulating. You have to figure out what holds you're going to use. It's really, really a stimulating sport and you can do it solo. I'm talking about mostly indoor climbing, which is what I mostly do, indoor bouldering.

Or you can have a sense of a group there too. You see the same friendly faces if you go to the climbing gym, you can connect with people to go climbing outside, connecting with nature too. I haven't climbed for a while, so I'm like talking about climbing. But I also love the fact that you can do something that most people can't do, which is hang on to a little tiny crimp, they call it, a little tiny edge with just your fingertips and you can hang on to that. I find that so impressive and cool. So I try to do that. 

And photography, I like to wander around the city. I do a lot of urban photography. My attention goes to different themes. I might go for my photography walk and start to get a theme of something where I see circles and I'll keep taking photos of circular things or lines or certain things. And that's what I'll do on any particular day. Yeah, then just edit it up, make it look nice.

Speaker 2 26:57

Thank you so much, Luke, for sharing your poetry with us and for our conversation. Our guest on Emerging Writers today was Luke Baker, spoken word poet, emerging freelance creative, convener of poetry and writing workshops, anthropologist, social researcher, mental health advocate, photographer and rock climber.  And before we go, a special thanks to new Vision Australia Radio volunteer, Matthew Erdely, for editing parts one and two of this interview. 

This program is produced in our Adelaide studios and can be heard at the same time each week here on Vision Australia Radio, VA Radio on Digital, online at varadio.org and also on Vision Australia Radio podcasts, where you can catch up on earlier episodes. Thanks for listening to this Vision Australia Radio Podcast. Don't forget to subscribe on your preferred podcast platform. Visit varadio.org for more.

Speaker 2 28:15

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