Godspeak

 Cameron Semmens :: an interview

Cameron, tell us what you do for a living.

Well, basically I write poetry and I care. I’m a caring poet. I’m thinking about poetry 80% of the time. But I don’t make half as much money from poetry as I do caring. I care for people with intellectual disabilities and that pays the rent; it’s a good job and I’m happy doing it. It also gives me space enough to be creative, and it’s flexible enough that I can go and do gigs and perform.

How did you come to love poetry?

Well, I was never very good at English and I didn’t even pass my year 11 and 12 English classes, but I did actually enjoy it—it’s just that I wasn’t any good at it. I got into poetry basically because I like playing around with words.

Poetry is something that is used a lot in the Bible, but it’s sort of lost today, isn’t it?

Yeh, the Bible has been very influential in that way. I can remember writing my first poem outside any school exercise. I was reading Lamentations and there was a verse about how they had dragged this guy’s face on the stones and smashed his teeth on the gravel. I thought, "That is a great image; I’m going to write a poem".

What do you want to accomplish through your work?

I want to move people, to change people and to develop people’s thoughts in new mental directions.

Why is the Bible important to you? Why do you read it?

Fundamentally, the Bible is the foundation; it’s the term of reference. You need it for consistency and continuity, and I’m talking about that in an historical sense and a personal sense. Otherwise our faith becomes too mystical. I do believe in the mystical spiritual element of Christianity—you need that, but you need the black and white as well.

It’s something to come back to, rather than just subjective experience. The Bible can be interpreted in many different ways but it is more an objective thing, so I believe that is the fundamental value of it.

What have you been reading in the Bible recently?

Right at the start of Second Corinthians it says, “Praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! The Father is a merciful God, who always gives us comfort. He comforts us when we are in trouble, so that we can share that same comfort with others in trouble.”

It basically says bad things can and will happen in your life but then God can use that to help console and comfort others. Just as God consoles and comforts you, so you can in turn do that for others.

Cameron performs 'Zach'!

Listen to some performances right now @ Godspeak!

What is alliteration? Click on the "play" button to hear Cameron’s definition.

Click here to listen to "The Lake Loping Lesson", an alliterated Bible story performed by Cameron Semmens (the original is found at Matthew 14:22-36). Once it is loaded, click "play" to listen.

...and here is another alliterated Bible story written by Cameron (original found in John 2:1-11).
 

Wine, Women and Wild Wonders

Download the song, Cameron M Semmens - Wine, Women And Wild Wonders.mp3

One wedding,
(one to which the Wonder Worker went)
was wonderously wonderful,
with wistful waltzers,
warbling whistlers
and witty wise ones (whispering wisely).
When,
without warning,
the wedding's wine wan out!
Waiters worriedly whispered,
"Where's wine?
What!
We're wineless!"
Whistling whistlers wanted to wet their whistle.
Waltzers wanted wine when welaxing
while witty wise ones
were wanting wads of whisky, wine or whatever.
When one woman
(the one who once enwombed the Wonder Worker)
whispered, "What a whoppertunity Wonder Worker:
a wedding, wineless;
work wild wonders!"
The Wonder Worker wanted to withdraw,
yet the Wonder Worker was not a whingeing wowser.
The woman
(the one who once enwombed the Wonder Worker)
went to the whimpering waiters, whispering,
"Work whatever way the Wonder Worker wants."
The Wonder Worker wanted wads of water!
Without one whingeing whimper,
at once, in a whirlwind of wishful work,
wads of water went the Wonder Worker's way.
When, without warning,
what was water was wine!
The waiters went "What? Wine! We've wine!
What was washing water is wonderful wine! Woopidoo!!!!"
The wine, once water,
went to the wedding's wise one.
"Wow, what wonderful wine,"
the wise one wailed,
"Why would waiters waste wonderful wine
on woozy, whacked wedded ones?
Wonderful wine's wasted at the welcoming."
Ones aware of the Wonder Worker's
water-wine wonder were wowed;
while wise ones went on wailing,
"Wow!
What wonderful wine!
What a wonderful wedding!"
And what a wonderful wedding it was!

© 2003 the Cameron Semmens

 

 

 

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• Sons of Korah