On 23 Jan we welcome local poets DENNIS GREENE and JOHN McBAIN. Dennis's poems will be read by his wife Jo. Plus open mic for poets and songwriters, good company and all the delights of The Moon. 2-4pm, 323 William Street, Northbridge. Come and listen.

Born in England in 1949, but raised in what is now Zimbabwe, Dennis Greene travelled extensively before  settling in Western Australia in 1983. He has been, at various times (and among other things) a soldier, a busker, a salesman, a meteorological observer, and was working in retail store management when a diagnosed, in 1987 at the age of 37, with young onset Parkinson’s disease. He retired in 1994, since when he has been able to devote  more time to his writing.

He has performed his work at poetry readings and on television and radio. It has been published in Westerly; Unfamiliar Tides (2002 Newcastle Poetry Prize Anthology); Empowa (Emerging Poets WA) Issues 1 & 2; Inside Out   Blast Magazine  the Word is Out, and in Voices from the Parking Lot, an anthology of poetry and prose which he edited for the Parkinson Alliance of Princeton, NJ.

 His work has also been published on numerous internet sites, including Poetic Voices, Oracular Tree, Comrades, Wordspace, Ironwood, Mipo, SCR and Chimera. For several years he was the assistant editor of the Poetry Downunder website and then the co-editor of the Numbat website.

John McBain was raised on family farms in SA and WA. This probably enabled him to survive private school education in Pearth, university, and working in management for the world's largest multinational. He tired of the stupidity and returned to the land in the south-west of WA and was one of the first registered biodynamic farmers in WA. he beame active in the conservation and indigenous movements in the South-West, Australia and internationally. He moved into media as a way of changing human behaviour - check out www.youtube.com/haywoodfarm to see how he combines film, poetry and writing to achieve this.