Sunday, February 28, 2010

Rewhined


 +  rewhined +
Those backward glances
Through rearview mirror
Considerations of what could have been
Almost denying what was
A hollow echo ringing
Off stone of past lived
Looking back and wondering
No good ever came of that
Except if wisdom gained
In moving forward not to leave
Fresh regrets as vinaigrettes
To draw our vision back
Obscure the present with a film
Of all those might have want a beens.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Fear

 + FEAR +

I am death and destruction
Pillager of dreams
Creator of nightmares
I am out beyond your sight
Or close enough to smell
From your sweat I pour
In every miscalculation wait
A shadow to your bravery
A meaning for every war crime
Send tremors through your core
I undo the notch you set
Consume draughts of courage
cold and heavy as lead I lie
In stomach heart and breath
Set your joints to quaking
Dry your mouth of words
Unsettle every nerve
I am the one supreme
If opportunity you give
Inside hesitation and commonsense I hide
Wield these rods on your body
Riddle thoughts with holes
The bravest men know of me
In night hours and in cold
Before every redoubt you might storm
On eve of every doubt
There I lie awaiting
For the moment to let me out.

Friday, February 26, 2010

Small island

+ small island +
On island small
Upon river broad
Nature continues
For Man ignores
Habitat small
For fauna broad
Ducks and swans
River rats found
Finches flit
Escapees all
From lands of Man
Reeds and grasses
Untended flourish
Wildflowers weave
Tapestry unbordered
Here wind and rain
Sunrise sunset
Passing seasons
Occur as once did
Before Man sought
To rule Nature
Only here untouched
As Man ignores
On river broad
Wild island small.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

On the slab

 + on the slab +
Lay out my wrapping cloth
The oils for my head and feet
Take two shiny pennies and place them
Where my eyes are set
No more the hills and valleys view
No more conversation find
I go beyond
To a much more distant shore
Into a night without dawn
To a cold so bitter
My bones shall turn brittle as ice
And for all the Time of the world
My heart shall not return to beating
Silenced and laid
A viewing thin and lesson
Mortality is our curse
Our blessing time we have.

Sympathy

 + sympathy +
I have sympathy
The collector said
Stretching out their wings
Holding them in place with pins
I find them so beautiful
Would preserve forever
Colour of their lives

I have sympathy
The entreprenur extolled
Plucking another bottle blonde bride
From the anorexic herd
I find them so screwable
With a pre-nup preserve
Mastery of their lives

I have sympathy
The writer scribed
Selecting another friend
To dissect pitylessly in print
Skewer foibles remorselessly
Make an immortal laughing stock
For as long as literature should be read.

I have sympathy
The general bombarded
For those brave loyal men
Who by shedding their life's blood
Bring greater glory to our nation
Make others fear our might
Who in death become immortal.

I have sympathy
The mugger hammered
For those from whom I steal
The working man and his wife
Leaving them in debt or bleeding
I ask they only respect my right
To take their goods to give me a proper life.

I have sympathy
The adulterer joined
For love and all its rings
It is just I find myself
A mortal in a weak and tired body
And the heat in those arms
Warms me for eternity.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

21st C Juliet

 + 21st C Juliet +
Another day of faked expectations
Tan dabbed from a bottle
Scrubbed bright white gleaming smile
Tights chosen from the good drawer
Skirt borderline suitable for business
An extra button popped on blouse
Teetering on ambitiously high heels
All clothed around tight perfection
Gym engineered by a focused mind
Aerobics tai-bo jazz-cycling step
Done them all and sweated out
Cosmopolitans and late night rendezvous
Searching for the most perfect knight
To be honoured with this prize
Until then so many egotistical frogs to kiss
So many uncomfortable nights far from home
Is the hardened life of modern Juliet.

Monday, February 22, 2010

 + Time +
The death of Time
Does not exist
The death of our consciousness
This thing which thinks and feels
Cessation of our heartbeat
Halting of our breath
Only physical indications
Of the lights gone out
Consciousness is gone
All we were or are
What things we've done in life
And life itself a statement
Of the margins between greater flowing time
In which our consciousness lived
Does not impede or change
How Time does exist
Time is immemorial
All else is transitory.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Lost pathways

 + Lost Pathways +

Lost pathways open up
Unexpectedly rediscovered
A passion once held
An interest which had died
The many things beneath
The person you are today
The waters running deep
Which the passerbys rarely see
All those pieces making you
Who you are today.

Time travel flotsam
Treasures buried deep
Found in wandering sideways
Escaping heavy travelled ruts
Beyond the highways common
For the pathways you once knew
Covered in brambles and thorns

Pathway is not as once was
Has been neglected and ignored
Some heavy toil required
To cut away through to things left lost
Curiousities of days since past
When you were younger than today
When it was so much easier
To escape the road of life laid.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Enemy

 +-+-+ ENEMY +-+-+
I am the enemy
That much is very clear
Sighting me you change
As might a hissing cat
Knowing what I am
Though we have never ever met

To others I might be meat
To you I am a bitter poison
Should have been drowned at birth
For no value do I bring
Marked by my gender
As a bloody useless thing

You have met my kind before
Of this you are so sure
Fallen for the words and smiles
Unknowing these are the wiles
Of the cunning killer
The friend who is your foe

The one who will insinuate
Themselves into your life and light
Bring the coldest blackest darkness
Steal joy from every thought
Make rotten every memory
Cheapen every trust

Bruise your heart so thoroughly
That all who follow are the enemy
Despoilers destroyers and liars
Heartless fiends without souls
Mark them clearly by their gender
Those unfeeling serial offenders.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Darker skies

 + darker skies +

Skies above colour
Transparency is lost
World closes in
A gathering of rain
Weather soon shall toss
Mind caught between
One front and next
As darker skies foretell
Rain upon my head.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Why and what needed

 + why and what needed +
The Sun beats brightly down
On poached soul adoring
Thinking of sunny days
A wealth so splendid unearned
Blessed with so much
Maslow would have foreseen
The need to find new sorrows
Explore needs we cannot define
When all you need been provided
Heart and spirit find
Unlinking of the brake
Which governs a saner mind
On issues ethereal and uncontrollable
The heart overthrows thoughts
Passions rule the rational
We to disconsolation brought
A time of celebration removed
As try and fulfill requirements
Of a wandering heart
An anarchist of inaction
Thorns deep prick brow
Spear thrust into side
A moment of complete desolation
Abandoned seems by all
Needing two arms to encircle
Needing an epiphany of hope.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Dream Rift

 + dream rift +
What dreams these
Between thoughts insinuate
Your presence distracting
Each movement I notice
How you are sitting
Line of leg and calf
The constant wonderment
Of what you might be thinking
Drinking in your presence
A cocktail mix of beauty
Short hair falling wavy
Fine boned china of your face
A request to add colour
Bring forth passion red blush
Uplift your lips curling
A smile and to stare long
Discover eyes colour
Apart and together we
Share this journey brief
Of birth unto death
And all the jazz and blues between.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Home

 + home +
Melbourne city glass skyline
Reflects the skies pale clouds
A modern city besieged
In Nature's twilight gloom
Roads still dark and damp
Blotting paper for rain
A sluggish lassitude to all
Commuters stir impatiently
Between those narrowing compass points
Of work and home.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Feast

 + FEaST +
If there was found
All treasures of world
Laid before you for consumption
Edible as wheatcakes
How long till appetite filled
How long till gorging stop
How long to desire
A simple pleasure such as
A back rub after dinner.

The "Scrub"

+ + The "scrub" + +
To escape the "scrub"
Noisy crowded interaction with other people
The press of commuters on a train
Scrowl of lunchtime shoppers
Busy streets teeming
Constant abrasive irritation of other people
I gently ease into a pool of thoughts
Focus on words and lines
Challenge self to convey an idea
For instance the absolute horror of the scrub
This primal scream desire for space
Not the privacy of human right advocates
The space to simply breath unencumbered
Not feel the stale air is fourth hand
Be able to stretch outward
rather than constant cramp of ligaments
As toes and feet ache
Knees complain of standing upright
How fierce heat from so many bodies
Erodes coolness of spirit
Badly spoken inane conversations aurally pollute
Stagnant sweat and industrial perfumes assault
All part of the scrub
A grating scrub I would escape
For clean air and sylvan surroundings
Or empty seaside surrounds golden
Beyond the constant tide of humanity
Where peace is me.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Old Hulks

 + old hulks +
Which sirens these
By which an old hulk is serenaded
What do they find
To praise rather than ridicule
No young fools for expected to be fooled
Old fools deceive themselves
Believe the lies of sweeter voices
See only world as was
Believe they are as were once
Do not mark rust of time
Damage of sea and sun
Still live in dry dock of hope
Irreconcilable with reality
Bewitched whenever sirens sing.
 

Burning heat day

 + burning heat day +
A crazy kind of heat
Salt lines on business shirts
Taste of sweat on upper lip
Hear twinkling water on a barren street
The slightly mad roll out
Heat has done them wrong
Sun an omnipresent tyrant
Torturing us all to fresher madness
Sparrow of my mother
Head dipped in prayer
Asking divine intervention
For us baking sinners here
As the weather forecast
Is for continued high temperatures
A chance of brimstone by Sunday
The fires of hell for all eternity
Preached from atop the pulpit
As if we even care
When the local swimming pool is full
Every millimetre covered with a towel
Water beading on back evaporates
Before the swimmer has the chance
To feel uncomfortable on burning concrete
Is another summer day
Another do nothing find some shade day
Where dogs crouch in any shadows
Birds refuse to fly
Only sound the buzz of cars
Airconditioned insulated travel
From the hot hot world outside
Looking through the windows
Only seeing the world
Not feeling heat through pores
Wash of sticky sweat
Served up to pedestrians
Moving in zombied rhythm
Along the sweltering street.

You are fire

 + you are fire +
Lines on interest
Borders of this discussion
Waver between what we say
And the feelings we would transmit
A coveting touch of hand
Distracted metaphor snarled
On the intensity of your cleavage
The entire act of being sound
A civilized conversationalist
Dissolving before the full import
Of your simple beauty
Intensity of my interest
World beyond the shades of your skin
Has no meaning or relevance
Could not tell you what I see
Describe each curve and edge of beauty
Is as if you were a blazing star
And in staring too deeply
Blinded myself as wrapped
In sheer intensity of your fires
As if I were Prometheus
And fire in my grasp
Such hot golden amber flames
Which burn me so fiercely in my hope.

Zenith

+ zenith +
Frozen zenith of my leap into improbability
To attempt to capture dreams
In a melting mortal embrace
Right the wrongs of years since birth
Recreate myself afresh
To love and loving God powers give
Belief this time will land right
Passion equaled by love's keen truth
All universe shall be transformed
Only this moment's for doubtful reflection
Before must advance in complete certainty
At zenith of this leap an infinite potential
For love or loss or tragedy.

Monday, February 8, 2010

ILO wobblies

 + whence the "wobblies" now +
These pinnacles bland
Corduroy browns and beige hat stands
A Dali-istic absurdity
as far as a melting eye can see
This is the New World careers
No post war boom for us
No constant growth matrix
Instead left field endeavors
Instant profits made
by exporting industries offshore
The wealth of generations sold
Social contract broken
A job for life became
A job till knife falls
Loped off for economic rationalism
No explanations how
Government will tax future profits
When all the profits off shore
And we are a retail mecca
Selling other countries goods
And our children squabble
For the opportunity
To wait on foreign millionaires
Using our unindustrialized shores
For vacation time.

Friday, February 5, 2010

Project anti-saccharine


++ I am one of them ++

Suffocate me
Like a runt of a puppy
Additional mouth not to feed
Tie me in a hessian sack
Dump me in the river
Watch air bubbles rise
As I go down down down

Ignore me
As the stepchild always is
Sent to clean fireplaces
Tie bows in true sisters hair
Seize my Inheritance
Feed me on table scraps
Withhold an education
So barely able to scrawl my name
I am the offspring left
Of relationships left behind

Scourge me
For being a dispossessed refugee
Abuse me in all languages
Cut me and slash me
Salt my wounds with venom
Leave me bleeding and battered
In waste heaps of the night
Remove my right to function
Any solace in law or justice
Cast me from your mind
A distracting token
That all is not right
In your perfect world.

Dressed Wrong +

 + dressed wrong +
The things we know
Definition of seasons
Northen hemisphere sensibilities coated
In our southern skies
The stars lie differently
Our seasons flow in opposition
To those of north
Yet still we cling
To expectations northern
Our winters are not heavy but mild
Summers harsh and unforgiving
Spring and autumn often seem
To be the same thing
Gum trees do not shed
Wattles in constant blossom
And city streets of urbanized south
Are always black.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

M.M

 ++ M.M ++
We have seen it all before
Looking back in hindsight
Can mark the symptoms raw
Of where Marilyn was mislead
The attention seeking disorder
The pervasive gypsy lifestyle
Attempts at constant reinvention
A traveling circus of suffocating sycophants
Constant itching at her own flaws
Overindulgence in drink and drugs
Who cares with whom she slept
Or of photos of her naked
Or her tantrums and demands
The worth of her talent unquestioned
At least in death if not in life
The girl who had her dreams
Gained the fame she so desperate sought
And before the cameras her precious spirit
butterfly beneath magnifying glass
Shone bright as any star
Till wilted in the glare
No way of dimming energy overflowing
No brake nor at bedrock stop
As burnt clean through herself
Image of herself corrupted
By media image infecting
We would know the symptoms now
Diagnose the condition
And probably still watch her die
As the talented too often do
Existing on the dangerous edge
Of public opinion and spin
Till believing they are so different
Perish before our eyes
Gods made abruptly mortal
Human once again.

Protest

 + Protest +
Defiant mice protest
McDonalds fat hamsters march
The world is falling down
Governments fleecing human rights
Environment to rack and ruin
Wolves yellow eyed prowl
Snapping at the objections
Of protesting lunch.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Vale Salinger


+++ ___  J.D ___+++

A quiet man of words
indignant if privacy violated
in writing sounded
rebellion of generations
tapped universal vein
of growing up knowing
seeds your ancestors sowing
were insufficient to live for
valueless as mindless war
in individualism be the Light
by which to pilot life's plight

Gather a body to a body
the only reality true
and to written Holden
writer found himself beholden
to myths of truths and analysis
intellectual study gave his Muse paralysis
the world could go and do
whatever the world might do
on a farm in peace he would reside
his writing a constant secret by his side

Never shared or sought to publish
those words on which his time lavish
no desire to share with printers and fools
a recluse's words his finest tools
crystallizing  ideas sharp and spare
caught literary magic rare
created Holden Caulfield for all he's worth
in dying escapes journalists taunts
beyond the rye and book covers he lies
escaped and yet his ideas lingers. 

Vale Salinger


+++ ___  J.D ___+++

A quiet man of words
Indignant if privacy violated
In writing sounded
Rebellion of generations
Tapped universal vein
Of growing up knowing
Seeds your ancestors sowing
Were insufficient to live for
So valueless as to need war
War of spirit and values skewed
In individualism be the Light
By which to pilot life's plight
Save those falling beyond the rye
Beyond borders safe and sound
Gather a body to a body
The only reality true
Physical existence of the me
Confirmed in physical holding of the you
And with Holden complete
Writer found himself beholden
To all the myths of truths and analysis
Intellectual study till paralysis
Overcame his outward communication
All future scribing for himself alone
The world could go and do
Whatever the world might do
On a farm in peace reside
His writing constant by his side
Never shared or sought to publish
Those words on which his time lavish
Children only he found to trust
Chlidren knew not his self imposed exile
Would not have understood such need
he was simply man who would allow them sled
Find words to share to pass the day
They sought no other agenda in these words
And words were this recluse's finest tools
Crystalized ideas sharp and spare
Which caught imagination in the air
magic tugged at reader's thoughts
Created Holden for all he's worth
In dying escapes journalists taunts
Beyond the rye and words he lies
Escaped and yet his ideas lingers. 


[On completion I discovered to much repetition, to much under developed imagery, and far too many words for an obituary to a writer who wrote "sharp and spare"; so a rewrite is demanded]

Completed

 + completed +
Disperse your rainbows
Silver elixir of life
Sprinkle forehead
Revive your smiles
Lay your head in clouds
Imagination stretch for miles
Free and unencumbered
Modern chains set aside
Exist in moments of rare clarity
Sustained by spirit not things
As growing ever do
Your love completed
Life can move to other things.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Life is not

 + life is not +
Life is not always wine and roses
brambles get in the way
thorns prick heart and lovers wander
always has been the way
Since the first Romeo and Juliet
Rosaline left standing in a corner
heart betrayed by fickle Montague
who could foresee what would be

Life is not always wine and roses
a true rose has thorns sharp as well
each hill you climb descends
requires an ascent to quell
Each lover's kiss edged with hope
salted with the doubt of life
who can expect to control anothers lips
ensure they always return to you

Life is not always wine and roses
between golden beaches is cold briny sea
accidents and fate confound
best intentions of lovers proud
Turn away and hold the wind
caress sunset cross shoulders true
ignore the squalls of life indecisive
challenge fate and accept love provided.