THE BEFORE TIMES
Jamali Bowden

This collection of writings from before the pandemic incorporates many of the author’s ideas and experiments from first year and includes some of the hopelessly romantic writing that led him to a love of words in the first place. 

A Kiss

‘You’re so sweet.’ 

Said the bee to the flower, 

As they kissed. 

‘I’m sweet?!’ 

‘This world would be without honey were it not for you’ 

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Twitter brain 

Waking up with twitter brain 

Yesterday’s to do list 

(which was meant to be done the day before that) 

Can’t sit still, can’t sit still 

I need work 

The last place told me i was useless 

Maybe they're right 

But that won’t help my c.v. 

To the Library 

Browse job listings, but 

I can’t lie today, and 

The truth doesn’t feel like competence 

and it’s certainly not experience 

There are other measures of my worth  

But those won’t pay my rent 

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Hausmann on Mars

A broad Martian canyon 

Bone dry and bone chill 

There’s ice in the shadows 

Retrieved by a white glove 

From where it lay, half buried 

in the rusty sand, 

an artifact in isolation 

a wooden head, with a ruler protruding 

part of a tape measure and the number 22 

on its forehead 

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social media is hell XD

Always producing or consuming 

Labour and content 

Never just being content 

And it’s still consumption 

If you buy a festival ticket or a tent 

Labouring over an image 

We all do it, not just influencers 

We’re all influencers 

We’re all influenced by images 

Time alone 

Time alone 

Time alone 

I’m lonely 

I won’t leave my home 

I’ll just load up my friends the influencers, 

My friends, 

The images, 

I’ll just consume my friends, 

The product 

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Poetry Concepts

A poem recited over a communal chant 

An emoji poem 

A love poem that isn’t about love 

A poem that changes everytime a note is handed from off-stage 

‘Slam voice’ but the poem is gibberish 

A poem that uses flute 

A poem that uses contractions in the first stanza and full words in the second 

A poem to mosh to 

A poem that moves through a place and then rapidly moves back through it 

A minimalist poem 

A poem that is peformed moving closer and further away from the microphone 

A poem that uses dramatic silent screaming 

A narrative sound poem 

 A love poem against poetry as a basis for romance 

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My name is Jamali Bowden (he/him) I am a third-year creative writing student at Latrobe. My practice is largely based in poetry but over the course of my degree I have written in a variety of forms including short story and creative non-fiction. My practice often explores the musicality of words and their structures. I have a fascination with widely held feelings of isolation, climate change and their origins and how they may be alleviated. Since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic my practice has become much more focused on curation of my existing works and a more rigorous process of editing. Following this festival, I am looking to gain more experience as an editor.  

Follow Me on IG @jamali_brand_content