What’s your new book about?
My work is about the meaning of time and desire and our self-deceptions when thinking about these aspects of our existence.

What motivated you to write it?
I felt the world needed a “scolding” for the ugliness resulting from our desire for power, conformity and material possession. I scold the world and bemoan my own place within such a world.

When you write, who do you imagine as your audience?
Other readers like me who like absorbing poems with honest emotion and hard-earned revelation.

Which of your works are you the most proud of and why?
I like them all in different ways. I am least proud of my first poetry book; it was too hastily written and printed for my liking. 

What do you think of the local poetry scene?
It’s growing. Publishers need to increase the range of the kind of poems they print. The themes are often limited to the social and the public. A greater diversity would be good. 

How do you feel about being identified as a gay poet?
I don’t really care. It is how many readers choose to see me, which is fine if it gives them comfort to relate to me in this way.

If you weren’t a writer, what would you do?
Sing.  

What does your future hold?
Moving house, writing more poems and a reading/performance at the Castlemaine State Festival in Australia in 2013.

Get Straw, Sticks, Brick for $16 at Books Actually.