B M-S: Have you ever performed your work before a live audience? If so, what was your reaction to it?
PB: Yes, a number of times. I enjoyed it, I gain quite a lot of energy from a good reading. It induces positive tension. Last May, the National Gallery of Victoria commissioned me to write a clutch of poems about a work in their general collection. I chose a Mark Rothko painting and read the poems in front of the painting one Sunday. It was an electrifying experience. I felt in communication with the audience but also with the painting.
B M-S: Your poems are featured in the American anthology, Wild Child - a collection of poetry written by children from so-called "alternative" households. To what extent has your background, growing up in a "hippie" commune, having artists for parents, and so on, impacted on your work?
PB: Actually, mine are the only poems in Wild Child. The other writing is personal essays about hippie childhoods.
My hippie/artist background has been a phenomenal influence on me. It's affected my whole aesthetic. The way I view the world and the way I interact with other people. It was an extraordinarily rich background and I think this comes out quite strongly in my work. It's a plus because I think this makes my work quite distinctive.
My work has been described as nostalgic and there' a truth in this because there's a large part of me that still yearns for this communal lifestyle. Writing about it is a way of keeping it fresh.
B M-S: I assume that you edit most of your poems. How many re-writes? Tell us about your editing process.
PB: I rewrite obsessively. At least six times per poem. Often I need to give the poem to someone else to have a look at. My mother, Christina Conrad, is a very good editor as is a friend, Emma Neale. When Bell Tongue was published in 1999, I went over the whole manuscript right before it was published and gave it a final edit even though many of the poems had previously been published elsewhere. I want nothing in my poems that is not totally essential to the character of the poem. There must be nothing that sounds out of place or clumsy when it is read out loud.
B M-S: To what extent is your writing an expression of a need for self-discovery?
PB: All art forms involve self-discovery if the
