30. Top Ten Zebra Finches (Ekphrastic)

Last poem, yay

30. Top Ten Zebra Finches

(A Video-Clip Ekphrastic)

Look at this clip and take
your time. Unenviable task!

We judge too. Dog shows
Grade essays. Make a list

Pick favourites. Compare
apples and pears, a Don Juan

to Barkis Is Willing. We've
adored raspberry jam. Tired

of raspberry jam. Craved
Peach Bellini. Got tired of

Peach Bellini. Fallen for
the coast. Got fed up with

the coast. Dressed up all in
black&black. Got tired of

black&black. Dressed up in
lime-green. Got tired of

lime-green. This comparison!
Of zebra finch to zebra finch

Who wants the job? Anybody
here NOT tired of comparing

Jee with Jee? Or Dunc's 13
with Dunc's 11, or cookie's

luscious fruit poems with
cookie's baby poems? Who

wants a Top Thirty Countdown
of Howard's Small Songs? Why

compare Hare's Cupid poem
with her Dog? Our zebra finch

judge does not speak, yet speaks
for all of us: O Happy End to NaPo!

Sorella

Poem 30: Siri and Me

Siri and Me

The dangers are not immediately apparent.
You caress my palm oh so gently; I feel safe.
Soon your glowing screen moves from my hand
to nestle cosily inside each neuron and I
experience withdrawal when parted from your weight.
Angry Birds gobble my hours. More are wasted
listening for the chime that means message received;
I exist in the world! I left my iPhone
behind today and after the tremors passed
I really didn't miss it much. Now where did I put it?

Poem 29: Paris in the Rain

Paris in the Rain

Is a cliche that doesn't wipe out
the warmly glowing sandstone buildings
or the shock of white pyramids
painted against an inky sky.
People throng the streets, dashing
between drops, pinpricks of laughter
floating upon a river of red wine.

Poem 28: Morning Coffee

Morning Coffee

A small insect dances on the edge
of my coffee cup. I brush her away
and wonder whether she likes caffeine.
Or is she just taking a rest?
My hand has the power to shake
the foundations of her universe.

Poem 27: Clouded

Clouded

The sky is steel wool this morning,
pressing down on thoughts that run
quicksilver in sunshine. Today, putting pen
to paper resembles wading through mud.

29. Thirty Poems in Thirty Minutes (Challenge)

1.
Grocery store refurbished
Can't find a thing
Excitement!

2.
After rain, a blackbird
More leaves open

3.
Bought spring green candles
Sky threatens rain again

4.
New mattress arrived
by Kosovo-Albanian messengers
Thrilling to hear their guttural chat
I try to guess at the conversation:
- No, turn it! Bit further.
- Leatherman for the polythene please.
- Will she tip us? - Nah, she's too poor.
- One-room flats are the pits.

5.
Red wine in a beer glass. Who's to know?

6.
Spicy aroma in Grandma's little copper bucket
Nutmeg, cinnamon, cardamom after all these years

7.
I open Boston Legal Box 4. Guilty pleasure.

8.
Cashew nuts are fattening
that's what I like about them
Having worked my way up
to this clothes size
I can't afford to diet.

9.
People I am not but
wish I were during NaPo:
Jane Hirshfield

10.
Aubergine and moss green
My fashionable arm-chair

11.
A full- length mirror
is not needed here

12.
A full-length mirror
is not wanted here

13.
A full-length mirror
takes attention away
from the important part

14.
Grandma's empire mirror
faces the window: shows me the world outside
Lady of Shalott style

15.
Two seascapes lean against the bookcase
I still can't use a Black&Decker drill

16.
Airports are more fun than the destinations on the board

17.
Meandering Thames, go on it and see the Gherkin
Big Ben, London Eye, St Paul's, Battersea Power Station
from both sides.

18.
Three soft toys: a frog, Garfield and two fat ladybirds
holding a heart.

19.
Mobile phones should be uninvented
or at least the ringtones

20.
Threads, every colour, so many bobbins
in the sewing-box
but no sewing to speak of

21.
I remember my mother singing out of tune
She enjoyed it more than Callas did


22.
I need eight ways of looking at an iPad
My iPad in a red leather case

23.
Open it: A screen to see the world on

24.
Tap and swipe: A way of reading: eBooks, you can virtually turn the pages

25.
Tap: A way to speak: iPad tapping

26.
Tap: A way to get your mail

27.
Tap: A way to listen to music and see the singer

28.
Tap: A way to type your poems

29.
Tap: A way to make tapping sounds

30.
Tap: I work faster with pen and paper probably
Too late for that now.

------

Sorella

28. Ludo & Top Hat

28. Ludo & Top Hat




My Dad loved board games
Ludo, Snakes & Ladders
Monopoly, Top Hat
Even more than that

he adored card games
Twos and Eights, Bondebridge
Sprøyte, Katt
Even more than that

he liked winning

Gleefully, he'd announce
an assful of trump cards
and take every trick
with four little kids

round-eyed or in tears
What did this teach us?
Oh, nothing of life skills
or gamesmanship

Only that Dad was happy
to play with us, he'd take defeat
quite well, but Lord! he loved a win!

Sorella
----

Ace in the Hole - George Strait

----

32. Google search poem

Your title is a phrase or quote you put into Google with inverted commas around it. The poem should be made of whatever comes after the title in the results. You don’t have to use every result or use a particular order; you can be selective! [I have cheated by taking snippets from the results, and doing a bit of mashing up as far as line breaks and punctuation go.]

I'm sick of

pretending.
I don't “get” the cultural implications of male facial presentation.
Following the rules and doing what I'm “supposed” to do in life,
cultural awareness ringing in my ears,
are troublesome ideas to me.

I'm sick of all the insincere activists who talk like:
Hey Bob, call the whaambulance:
he doesn't feel like he “owns” his mega-hit anymore.

I've spent the last 15 years
skinny and popular like all the other guys.
I hate how you treat your girly friends.
Dressing like women doesn't make you special?
It makes me happy.

You think I'm kidding?
Sexist vermin.
One day, our computers will have their sentient revenge
and cling to your body like a wet cotton dress.

31. Advice for Newbies

Don't aim too high.  Remember you suck a lot.
Your journal's dull.  You whinge and say fuck a lot.
You're not permitted to steer the scansion;
treat all devices with apprehension.

One draft should take at least half a century.
Don't push it.  If you're feeling adventure-y
just shove the thing in a drawer and lock it.
Pour some cement in the keyhole socket.

The critter's job is murder and massacre.
If bleeding, death, or pain-in-the-ass occur,
don't spank the critter the way they spank you.
Note that the proper response is thank you.

Can you look grave and maintain decorum?
Then welcome!  Come in and enjoy the forum.

27. Universal Chaos Part II (Challenge)

Jeanne G's NaPo Challenge:
Spin-Off of Kamala's fantastic NaPo 2011 poem Universal Chaos.


----

Universal Chaos Part II

With a new mattress the size of half my flat arriving
and the old mattress the size of the other half propped up
against the bookcase awaiting removal by the delivery men

I experienced a modicum of universal chaos today. The Planets
(BBC 1999) DVD was playing while I dusted under the bed
(easy with turnable mattress gone, and not done in light years)

and just as the narrator got to the number of stars being equal to
the grains of sand on Earth (my favourite part, so poetic)
the mobile rang its Star Wars jingle, downloaded by some ex

Quantum Leap Messengers were downstairs. I buzzed them in
hid my drying rack full of underwear, then put the Planets on Pause.
Flattening myself against the hall wall, I waved the muscular duo on

into my kitchen-bedroom-sitting room-office. The narrow passage
remaining between my two book-laden chairs-cum-nightstands
was just sufficient. They spoke outer-space-speak and broken Norwegian

so I quickly signed the receipt for fear of being abducted. The three of us
squeezed in between piles of bed-linen and two lovely paintings
of sandy beaches from under the bed, not seen in said light years

(I nearly asked them if their Leatherman included an electric drill
so I could finally hang the grains of sand on Earth next to the Universe
on a creased and torn poster I kept since college). I have space

here now. They wrapped the old mattress in the polythene
from my new one and took it away for an added fee of four hundred.

Sorella

-------

26. Top Five Things Not To Do Before You Die

Sell all your stuff to see the world
(you might live longer than you think)

Exhaust the patience of your friends
(you might need them longer than you think)

Plan your funeral
(by then folks no longer care what you think)

Take a lover
(he might be with you longer than you think)

Confess to all wrongdoings
(jail-time might be longer than you've got!)

Sorella
----

Texas When I Die - Tanya Tucker


-----

Poem 26: River

River

Water flows while birds
chime crystal sound tapestries
between the clear drops.

Poem 25: Sticks and Stones

Sticks and Stones

To avoid swallowing sharp sound stones I veer round
your words and sketch out precious space between them.
Equilibrium is easily spoiled by words or crunching feet.
When twilight's quiet glow powders rocks and trees
with pink and grey the stream of conversation
stops and silence unfolds within the velvet dusk.

30. Toothfish: Epilogue

He's just the same, but bigger, greener.
She rubs his back.  At last they're home.
Their pub is growing. Critics gloat:

those sumptuous roasts that fill your throat,
oaky, smoky; karaoke
Friday nights; a hundred drinks!

just off the eastern coast of Greece.

29. Toothfish: Shipwreck

Hello to Greece!  The eastern coastline
waves and winks at Gretchen's ship
through gouts of rain.  Stone cliffs rise ghostlike
from the storm.  She bobs and dips
and whacks a rock.  The hull rips open.
The sea's a Scylla: gaping, gulping
hunks of crew.  It swings and knocks
our heroine onto the rocks.
While Scylla barks, she shakes and chatters
but hangs on tight.  Her grip is sharp
to match the rocks.  She starts to slip
when something capers through the breakers—
a shape that chitters... is that... Liszt?—
more great and green than any fish.

25. Chicken Poem - It Was The Egg

Asked a Darwinist today
There were eggs
long before chickens

Probably poems preceded poets too

Sorella


Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens - Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five

-------

24. Heirloom

grandma's oval
pewter plate

her fragrant cake
gold of eggs and butter
amber of apricots

shop-bought
pastry on it now
pale and flaky

Sorella

----

MacArthur Park - Donna Summer

------

23. Desperate Poet Takes A Hostage

or
A Quiet Exchange with Jane Hirshfield

You never signed any of my many collections
by you
on account of we never met.
This is a virtual meet
unbeknownst to you. Hope you don't object
but I am stumped for material.
Oh, and I do admire your poems.

Large moon the deep orange of embers.
Also the scent.
The griefs of others—beautiful, at a distance.

(Sonoma Fire
by Jane Hirshfield)

I couldn't have said it better myself.
Lovely to meet you.

What?
Yes, you are free to go.

Sorella

------
Desperado - The Eagles

-------

Poem 24: Revenge in a Sophisticated Form

Revenge in a Sophisticated Form

It takes place under fluorescent lighting,
not in dark corners. Key performance indicators
and neatly pressed suits and ties are the tools
of this trade. Everyone sees you leave and they
cover their shame with clickings and murmurings,
a hive of bees busy choosing a new queen.

Poem 23: A Stupid Tree Frog Daughter

A Stupid Tree Frog Daughter

You're an unemployable lazy little shit.
Stop wasting time, be grateful
for what you have, don't be so negative.
the refrain batters through my skull
in sharp red sparks of strident sound.

Now I have legs and a voice I'll damn well sing
and leave you to measure my distance from you
by its chirrup, chirrup until it dies away utterly
to silence steelier than any bird's beak or wasp's sting.

CHIRRUP!

28. Toothfish: He's Sick of Being Back

He's tired.  He's drunk the blood of hundreds,
left a trail of empty hulls
from port to port.  The ships he's plundered
open their entrails to the gulls.
So many dead, and still no mobsters.
He's through with men.  He'll switch to lobsters,
become a chef and stuff his days
with lobscouse, bisque, and bouillabaisse.
His skin still stings with steel, still itches
where fragmentary fishhooks hack
the heavy leather of his back,
but now he's done.  Goodbye to scratches!
Goodbye harpoons! Goodbye police!
Hello the eastern coast of Greece!

22. Don't Explain

hoot hoot hoot
splash rock creak

ping slam

evening!
mutter
swipe punch tear

whoosh
foam slide

clunk
scrape thud creak

crackle pop flare

cough

gulp clunk

rustle crunch

slide slurp clunk

jingle

hullo

mutter

crackle pop

slide gulp clunk

dum-dee-dee-dum-dee-dee

slurp
thud

creak scrape

ping slam


Sorella
-------

Don't Explain - Robert Palmer

21. The Surgeon's Dream (revision)

Cutting hair, now. Shiny, silky
to the touch. I'd chat

with the customer. She'd flirt
in the mirror, admire my skills
with sharp utensils

Instead this drugged body
sheeted, masked, bleeding
under my lonely scalpel


Sorella
-----

The First Cut Is The Deepest - Rod Stewart

-----

27. Toothfish: Scientific Potential

Gretchen's turned out okey-dokey,
says her dad.  Her fishy phase
is finished.  Now she studies ocean
archeology.  She'll raise
a wreck next year, complete her thesis.
Tough girl.  She's picking up the pieces
of some ancient Grecian vase.
Staring at the shards, she says
nothing.  There's a black glaze monster
gazing from the shattered clay
with one red eye.  Far off, the sea
cries out. Her heartbeat roars an answer.
She'll find him if she has to sink
a hundred miles in the drink.

Poem 22: On the Beach

On the Beach

The wind teases hollow bones,
gets inside our secrets and disturbs
our waters. We are forever pulled
backwards and forwards by the ebb
and flow of moon tides announcing
our kinship to the fixed stars.

Poem 21: Fade

Fade

She can't move the bow steadily across the violin strings.
Not because her black dress isn't really warm enough
for this autumn day. Not because the hymns she plays
seem scarcely to penetrate the thick silence with thinned
out sound. She is shorter than the rest so all she saw
of her grandfather was a waxy nose poking out
above the sides of the coffin and now she can't look
at her mother's face. She does not want to see tears
and be reminded she is still an outsider to this grief.

26. Toothfish: He'll Be Back

He's in a swamp.  A hellish throat-ache
burns our hero gill to gill,
and fury stabs him like a hot stake.
He'll shish-kebab them on his grill
for what they've done.  They stole his Gretchen,
gouged his throat, but soon... his fish-grin
halves a hapless crocodile.
He veers and steers the muddy mile
toward the river—blackish, brackish,
lined with bracken fern.  His jaw
is tough enough to shear clean through
the shinbones of his foes.  He's peckish.
The turbid water masks his glow.
He snarls and turns toward Tokyo.

20. Shopping Lite Made Hard

20. Shopping Lite Made Hard

I never pick up a basket, thinking I will
only buy a little bit, so between digit
and thumb, I dangle slim corners of food

On my little finger, pierced toilet roll
package, against my body, tins of caribbean
beans and shampoo, a loaf of bread

If I carry half a dozen eggs, kind
people let me pass ahead in the queue
Sometimes I see a comic I get for an ex

abroad, bend down, and everything
crashes to the ground. Love is a pain
even after the fact. Or I remember

confit de canard and double back
to pile the heavy tin on top, stretch
out for cashew nuts and nearly crush a small

toddler in another disaster of item avalanche
I should get a grip, get a trolley, face it: no one
can live on three pieces of groceries a day

Sorella

----

Closer - Travis

19. Amazon Book Search (after Crashed Pilot)

19. Amazon Book Search Poem

(after Jon's Bookshelf Poem Challenge)

I can’t feel you anymore, I can’t even touch the books you’ve read
Every time I crawl past your door, I been wishin’ I was somebody else instead
Down the highway, down the tracks, down the road to ecstasy
I followed you beneath the stars, hounded by your memory
And all your ragin’ glory

Idiot Wind - Bob Dylan

Greedy Zebra, Little Zebra
How the Zebra Got its Stripes
A Zeal of Zebras

Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers
The Good Husband of Zebra Drive
Ice Station Zebra

Two Zebras Borrowed My Car
Zebra Tears, Zippity Zebra
and the Windy Day

If I Were A Zebra, Chasing Zebras,
Anteaters to Zebras
African Animals: Zebras
Augie to Zebra: An Alphabet Book

The Zebra Foal, The Sun Zebra
Quagga and Zebra Mussels
The Zebra Who Was Sad

On Beyond Zebra,
The Zebra Murders
From Antilope to Zebra: The Exotic
Meat Cookbook

Zig Zag Zebra Saves The Day
Chess for Zebras
When You Hear Hoofbeats Think of A Zebra

I've Lost My Yellow Zebra
Condition Zebra, Zebra Finches
Lots and Lots of Zebra Stripes

-----
Idiot Wind - Dylan

Poem 20: Dialogue with Donne

Dialogue with Donne

Batter my heart, three personed God;
slice through doubts lovingly erected
brick by brick and let them breathe.
Of course, we often don't want You
too big to understand. We like tidy
packages. If You still knock, breathe,
shine and seek to mend, its no thanks
to us. Our door stays firmly shut.
We are afraid our lives will never be
the same and prefer to remain chaste.

Poem 19: Exhibiting the Floods

Exhibiting the Floods

One year on, a chaotic week
has been tidied neatly into graphics
videos, shiny iPad screens and maps.
Virtual mud leaves no mess behind.

Then I notice Anna Bligh's notes,
hastily scrawled, and the glass box
can't cage the nervous energy
and I remember We are Queenslanders,
the people they breed tough north of the border.
On the screen, voices break,
shaping tragedy into quavers of lost sound.

People approach my desk, leaving technology
go, because they want someone to hear
and hold their words within the silence.

Poem 18: Immolation

Immolation

This poem is naked.
I tried tamping down the muse's fire
using a flimsy plastic colander
of grammar and form while the flesh
of my idea melted beneath my hands.
The smoke has reduced my voice
to a hoarse croak, yet I still move
my pen across the page
inch by painful inch.

25. Toothfish: Sabotage

At night, he grows: the pale green glowworm
of the sea, the mutant bass
from Mars.  His bulk abrades the glass
and when he shifts, the shockwaves flow from
tank to table, rise and ripple
til the beams and floorboards wiggle.
Her mother begs her: please forget
your fish.  Adopt some normal pet:
a bonsai tree? a snail? a puppy?
Her father, more proactive, hires
a mobster who, with sheaves and wires,
slyly garottes the goofed-up guppy.
He claims the fish has gone to romp
the hills.  He throws it in the swamp.

24. Toothfish: Their Burgeoning Friendship

She grabs her schoolbag, brings him homework
(which he eats), and plays him Liszt,
explaining keenly—"listen, Fish"—
how hammers, keys, and metronomes work.
He could bust through glass, through bands of
stainless steel and bite her hands off,
but when Gretchen reaches in
to scritch his fins, he purrs and grins.
They share bag lunches, Twixes, Twizzlers,
invent code names.  Their secret call's
a theme from the Mephisto Waltz
conveyed in burps and chirps and twitters.
She sprouts up tall and tan.  He glows
pale green at night.  She grows. He grows.

18. Pressing Matters

I was told today
on the phone

trying to buy
a new mattress
after all these years

that my preference
for hard
was wrong

The mattress
will not be able to adjust
to my impression

So what!

I don't need
to impress a mattress
surely?

Sorella

---

A Hard Day's Night - Beatles

17. The Zebra in the Room Today

17. The Zebra in the Room Today

For elephant, substitute zebra. And we are good to go.
In the Cozy Coffee, a girl leafs past the front page, quickly.
I turn off my iPad, hide the live news broadcast from Court.

Friends pass by outside, some getting on for drunk:
The drink and dance all night ferry from Denmark's back
with all the local pensioners and cheap bacon, an annual junket.

Downstairs plumber joins me. We both work hard
on our health, a fellowship of CT scans, MRs, surgery.
The UN Peace-Keeper Nurse on leave eats her sandwich.

As we chat, on screens, front pages, the Oslo mass-murderer
trial proceeds. We ignore it. Can't hear you, la-la-la. We wave
at the mall guard buying flowers, at the Iranian kids next door.

Sorella

The La La Song by Zebra

Poem 17: Olympia

Olympia

There's no avoiding her eyes.
She is naked, but what you see
is her face. She is the subject
of this picture. This is not a performance.

She almost leaps out of the frame,
her head severed by the ribbon
resting upon her neck. But underneath
the challenge I see terror; a caged bird
that has lost the ability to sing,
though she will never admit that.

Poem 16: Ophelia

Ophelia

Even in her distress, she is aware
of an observer. Notice how her head tilts
at an attractive angle, the rich tints
of her hair and luminous skin
in contrast to the green leaves.

Her face is lost in the performance.
Shakespeare killed her but she is now
forever arrested at the moment
before her death and seems almost
unaware of what is very soon to come.

23. Toothfish: Secret Sideshow

He's slight and matte as any old fish—
no swirly fins, no flashy scales—
but he's got tricks.  He'll vanish goldfish
and sever tetras tip-from-tail.
His teeth would rouse a fanfare somewhere
(Woods Hole, perhaps?) but at the funfair
he floats unmarked, a minor prize
for ping-pong ball, his garnet eyes
offset by eighty-seven eyeteeth.
Here comes Gretchen, six, to press
her luck.  She chucks the ball, and yes!
It splashes down on this awry-teeth
demon in a plastic dome.
She grabs the bag and brings him home.

22. We're surrounded by vampires:

the teenager who lies to his mother
about the stain on his collar,

the librarian nursing a tomato juice at the bar
(you really think it's a man she's after?),

the politician who shouts blood-sucking
capitalist pigs!, his voice shaking

with terror or hunger.  But they're a lunatic fringe.
No one you know is a neck-munch.

Still, you hang a crucifix on your ceiling.
Still, you gargle with garlic every morning.

When you read an article about a city
of dusk and coffins and immortality,

you feel it twist,
the bat in your chest.

21. Dusk Disco

The yellow-purple drape descends;
the laser show fades out.
The sun has plunged into the sea
bright as an orange trout.
The techie shines a spotlight on
Emcee Moon in maroon chiffon.

Day-birds screech out. The regulars
swarm in: some tipsy gnats,
owls and toads who drink alone,
a cloud of biker bats.
They swoop to tope the champagne light
and suck the nectar from the night.

The wind plays tambourine, and limber
Venus croons a bluesy number.

16. Epigraphs & American Sentence Again

16. Epigraphs & American Sentence Again

It ain't over till it's over
or till the fat lady sings
(Trad.)

Sonny: Everything will be all right in the end... if it's not all right then it's not the end.
(from the movie The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel)

AS

Sunset here, a magpie, and somewhere else, zebras: a good time to die.

Sorella
----

The End - Beatles

-----

15. Zebra - A Halfway Song (after Dunc)

15. Zebra - A Halfway Song
(after Dunc on Zeus)

Zebra as in zed
or zebra as in zee --
it all seems to depend
on tongues across the sea

Zebra as in zee
or zebra as in zed?
Stripey as a bee
from tail to horsey head

or stripey as a bed?
To Bed or not to Bee --
a zebra with a zed
or zebra with a zee?

Stripey it may be
yet nothing's black and white
A zebra zed goes zee
by transatlantic flight

Zebra, what's its name?
Zebra, which is right?
On paper, it's the same:
It's Z in black and white

And thus I think it best
we leave its name unsaid --
let both sides, east and west
read silently instead:

ZEBRA

(that didn't hurt, did it?)

Sorella
----

We Can Work It Out - Beatles

-----

4. CQD MGY

It’s twenty-twelve, we have no icebergs here—
well, maybe a few puny ones, but we’ve
got cruise missiles, sonar and radar, lasers in space,
F-104s rigged with Sidewinder missiles,
Robotic dolphins, submersibles seven miles deep.
We’ll belch greenhouse gases to par-broil the atmosphere
thaw all those little bergs out.

It’s twenty-twelve, there be no dragons here.
No more gray edges on maps (Street View, instead),
no frontiers except the doorway to the dream—
Only the husk of bravado remains.

It’s the freaking third millennium, folks!
We’ll fluff you with Plasma TV.
We’ve got Gigabit Ethernet, nanotechnology,
iPhones with light-saber apps. Our hadron colliders
make mincemeat of particles, our neutrinos zip
faster than light.

We’ve shorn up our methods of dealing with danger,
with shoe searches, patdowns the rules of the day.
The hearts of our downtowns all bristle
with videocams. Geiger detectors at all ports of call.
Thanks to the latest in cyber-security,
you’re protected from 12 million dangers online.
Heck, you can even buy insurance from asteroids.

Yeah, but try and find someone to pay it out—
or, for that matter, to collect.

14. Party Talk - A Shadeling (after shadygrove)

Trying a form created by shadygrove a few NaPos back, the shadeling.

Shadygrove's instructions:

"What is a shadeling?

A shadeling has a title with multiple (at least three)
distinct meanings, followed by a minimum of three strophes
that each illustrate one aspect of the title.
The poem as a whole should also tell a coherent story, albeit
perhaps from multiple perspectives or facets."


14. Party Talk - A Shadeling

A wise old party, they call me. Oh all right
I am, and I can see he's coming back
again. Used to fuss over me, before she
there opposite, sister of the hostess, got him
interested. No more breakfasts in bed for me
nor roses. Called me spoilt, he did!

It's better I stay with her. Will soon be all over
the papers otherwise, my little bit on the side, and me
Local Party Chairman. Spell the death of us, spoil
our chances in the next elections, and what else
is there? I do love politics.

Why oh why did I invite these people --- all to fix
my sister up with a single man. Obvious she wants
that politician. He looks worried, the wife smug
and Emma puzzled at the lack of attention. I'd tell
young Joe now's his chance, drag Sis aside and scold her
-- only I don't want to spoil the party.

Sorella

------

I Don't Want to Spoil the Party - Beatles

10-13. Broken Solo Renga

13. Snow-covered cliff bench
      inscribed with two names and dates –
      their mute white wedding.

      With fleeting need for relief
      the seasons rise, dip, lie, sleep.

12. Polythene bag, leaf –
      first and last of the Summer
      on Fisherman’s Walk.

      Their feet brush the gravel path
      with the moon’s masking fluid.

11. A black-headed gull
      wears a brown balaclava –
      no one’s skin has tanned.

      One reason to mask the face:
      wind’s indiscriminate burn.

10. Spring leaf, Bournemouth bus –
      both wheel high by the playschool
      until their routes end.

      All day long sing the children,

      their schedules growing fuller.

Poem 15: Forbidden Fruit

Forbidden Fruit

Miss White slimline IPad
killed my poem. All its delicate
flavour and subtle imagery
mangled by too clean font
and chopped up lines.

Her shiny screen imparts
a cotton candy sweetness
to my metaphors but the words

come when I turn off her seductive
glare and return to pencil and paper's
crisp and bitter aftertaste.

20. Big Freeze

It's so cold I'd wrap you around my chest like
flannelette. I'd swallow you slow like wine. I'd
climb inside you, snug as I climb inside my
cable-knit stockings.

Come upstairs and nestle your head inside my
blanket fort. We'll put on some Bessie Smith. We'll
lean in close to whisper the words. We'll make sweet
cream and hot cocoa.

No? All right, but look at that blizzard. See those
huge, fresh snowflakes, slapping you til you blush. How
can you stand there shivering in your jacket
without a scarf? Please

come upstairs. There's no point in walking home when
it's so cold.

[edited slightly for scansion]

Poem 14: Trampolining

Trampolining

For a brief moment,
winged angels shrieking with joy
defy gravity.

Poem 13: Walter Crane updated

Walter Crane updated:

If my face is my fortune, I must be completely bankrupt by now!

Poem 12: Salt

Salt

You have long been despised.
A king rejected you; you were
an instrument of punishment
for Lot's wife. Due to her fate
she is remembered but not named.

You inhabit our tears
and the world's oceans,
but still find your way
into the humblest kitchen.
I taste, and remember
that bitterness gives flavour
to the sweetest joy.

Poem 11: Finger Painting

Finger Painting

The breath between God's
finger and Adam's is equal
to the space between Eve's
mouth and the first bite of fruit.
Our humanity exists within
that emptiness.

Poem 10: Liquid Gold

Liquid Gold

One drop of blood multiplied
by hundreds means
the difference between life and death.

Poem 9: Mental Static

Mental Static

An angry bee buzzes
inside my head. Even
the infinite blue bowl
of sky above me cannot
calm the frantic noise.
Finally a light breeze
caresses feverish neurons
and synapses. A vivid idea chirps
brightly, breaking the silence.

13. A Poem's Poem

A Poem's Poem

If I wrote myself, instead of waiting
for the poet to tackle me

there would be REAL poetry here
End rhymes, a simile. I would be like

a rose
what's wrong with roses anyway

Some iambs
"Such lines will never be forgot
This poem puts all others out
A sun among much feebler stars"

I would be dedicated to someone

Handwritten

I bet my handwriting is poetic
if she would only let me write myself

instead of clutching her iPad mindlessly
in front of the TV. There is a deadline!

I tell her. But I am only a poem not written
yet. What does she care about my feelings?

Might put a zebra in it. Zebras belong
in poems. They really do.

Let me see, what else:

gin and tonics, major sonics
emerald green, a lottery ticket
no cats --

That should do it. Oh, and the moon.

----

Nowhere Man

19. Ice (Revision)

Feel free to don your critical hat for this one.  In particular, if you think the revisions haven't made it better, please let me know.

Ice

When the cosmic glassblower blasts his blowtorch
over trees and trash cans, anneals the snowbanks,
seals the pickerel under a frosted panel,
that's when I need you.

Melt for me.  Glow gold where the chips of sunlight
tangle through your hair.  We can meld our colors.
Twist me, trail your tongue through my mouth, and we'll be
red reticello.

Soon I'll leave. The snowmelt will scour the river,
swell the lake and shatter the ice.  We're spun from
inconsistent glass.  In the heat, we'll crackle,
crumble to gravel.

but today, my love is as sharp as pikes' teeth,
naked as the glass in a hungry pike's eye.

Original:

When the cosmic glassblower storms the alleys,
blasts his icy torch over trees and trash cans,
and anneals the snow in his frozen furnace,
that's when I need you.

Molten bright, you trickle across the marver
of the quilt. Come bend to the blocks of winter.
Let me kiss the frost from your nipples. Let's be
red reticello.

When the snowmelt roars through the creek, devouring
crayfish, minnows, caddisflies, when it shocks us
lukewarm, our zanfirico love will crackle,
crumble to gravel,

but today, we're naked and sharp as pikes' teeth,
naked as the glass in a hungry pike's eye. 

18. Deadly Sevenling: Avarice

Why do these people expect me to pay
for their libraries, lunches, birth control?
Why can't they shut their legs, mouths, minds?

I've eaten the social contract.
I am the self-causing first cause.
I mix my labor with the infinite

and the infinite is mine.

9. I Am Odd Craven

An abnominal for David Cameron

A camcorder? Come on den, Mr,
A dare: video me doon common.

Record me road on CD and DVD.
Deem, and re-deem me (in code):

Vacuous criminal. O mon acrid Con-
Dem cad, midd'man no one needed

Carved in avarice no’ candour. Aidman,
Medic – no one I admire, or ever did;

A dad, canned in a maniac cameo,
Dire comedian, a drier Avid Merrion;

No’ even a canard, cod in a marinade,
Cider, caviar, anodic cadaver on a divan;

A dram, a drone, a doer, a nice idea,
An icon, an income, a divine invader;

I dreamed I danced in an anaemic void,
A revered deacon in a coma, near-dead.

I carried an I.D. card, read: Never come
Near me! Advanced cancer! Reader, no

Economic arena armed me, an avoider.
Receive me, O Can-Do-Man! Amen.

17. Deadly Sevenling: Vanity

Here's my sister, thin as a mink on Facebook:
string bikini, doctor fiance, highlights.
Honestly, I couldn't be jealous.  I've got

curves like a mofo,
ringlets, and I look
gorgeous in corsets.

First I'll hit the gym; then I'll get my hair done.

12 - The Journal Entry That Got Away

12 - The Journal Entry That Got Away

Today started slowl ...

Get this poem moving --
away!

OK?!

from syntax, grammar --

You a slammer?
Went to work. Interpreted
a sad case of...

Who wants to know?
Shut up!
Mash it up, loosen up
make it up!

Then a beer by the harbo...

This poem needs less
beer --
add a cockroach, Bob Marley
Elephants, Lucy
in the Sky

Moon is wani ...

Hold it! You already did
the bloomin' moon!

Dictionary time, check Z, zebra crossing
zebra finches, zebra butterfly
zebra mussels
(if you must stay with the sciences)

Music playing, Beatl ...

Make it a cool Beatles
track
is all I ask. Not YESTERDAY
all over again...

There's no Beatles record with zebr...

That's what YOU think!

Abbey Road Medley - Paul McCartney

8. Whipper in, Lad!

An abnominal for Andrew Philip

When sparred, win;
Reap reward in lead and pen.

When hindered, ill,
Plan and nail a wilder reel.

Delphian piper, shrill siren,
Drain and din nae-endin’,

Wander deadened lane and land,
Render a pariah healed

In laden-heid, dry-heel,
Raw-pain hip, peripheral ail.

Ne’er drain a red drip;
Wear his Laird’s plaid and help.

Repel all pinhead, linear war.
Wield an inward, radial hinner,

Happier allied wi’ a Philippian line.
Heir wi’ his heid laid in hea’en,

Heap, pile, drap a lid on dire peril;
Hae air rap and plane him wi’ hail.

Padre de Aidan, wee pearl: new deer
Leapin’ adder, drywall, rail, alder,

Dine in wi’ a lap dinner,
Dear winner, hill, hairpin, hame.

update

Hi, guys,

I am still woefully behind and the last few entries are pretty bloody awful stuff--but I am determined to persist if I can.

Now that the PFFA server is back up, I MIGHT when I get home this evening try creating a thread (for the third time!) if it is still allowed? Anyone know? If its ok I will then paste what I have so far into that thread and continue from there. Otherwise I'll stay on this blog.

Enjoying the pavement napo group too :)

Mari.

Poem 8: Titanic, 1912

A last strain of music moves
over the Atlantic, into space
and rolls back the centuries.
I have often wondered
whether voices from the wreck
reach distant planets
as sound waves. A child's shoe
rests upon the seabed
but her laughter echoes among the stars.

Poem 7: Miscommunication

Anger blinds the mind.
The blue sky and light breeze
barely touch the surface
of my eyeballs. The murmur
of voices bounces off my ears
without penetrating. I want
you to reach in and connect
so I can stop pretending
that your words are colourful
balloons and I am a child,
laughing and playing with them.

3. Fish Fingers and Custard

aka Fish Shtick, Take 2

Fish fingers and custard--

a delicacy out of Dr. Who.

Maybe fish have fingers on Gallifrey

or some such world, but not on good old Earth

(barring Dr. Suess)—but why not?

If sharks had fingers, they’d reach

their knobby hands over gunwales

to snatch snoozing sailors,

 give the finger to the sharkfin massacrists

and maybe fire a bazooka across their bow.

Eel fingers would be prehensile

akin to tentacles—adhere to rocks

leave mouth to gulping unwary fry

(Liesl sells eels—sessile eels. Elvis levels Seville.)

Think of the boost that salmon fingers

would give to their upstream trek to mate.

clutching at handholds, vaulting up the rapids,

climbing waterfalls, embracing their sweetheart

at journey’s end.

Doc Who goes for fish fingers and custard—Amy Pond, too

but they've given poor fingerless fish amputations to rue.

Poem 6: Day's End

The sky breathes a sigh
of relief as the heat
dissipates, brashly
bringing forward afternoon
colours. Vivid blue/gold/brown
green trees shine in the lingering glow.

Poem 5: Space or Time

Each minute stretches out.
The rubber band of this day
won't snap back and nothing
can occupy my mind. Time
is life itself. That's why
five minutes at the dentist
is an eternity long, and a party
flashes by at the speed of light.
Einstein's equation has lodged
itself inside my skin. Uneasily
I inhabit it, curve myself around
pockmarked space/time
along with Schroedinger's Cat.

16. Deadly Sevenling: Sloth

I can't mop the floor.  I'm busy.
I'm too tired to write.
It's too late to call my mother.

Now I've scrubbed my eyes with gravel,
drawn my hamstrings tight,
squeezed my lungs out circling on my

stationary bike.

15. Deadly Sevenling: Envy

How the hell are you a professor
with your cashmere scarves and your schoolboy French
and your head full of cottage cheese?

I'm an adjunct with a broken space heater
and perfect German, and at least my brainpan
contains a wheel of brie.

Who did you blow, pretty boy?  What's his number?

11 - Yesterday

Yesterday

It was Sibling Day on Tuesday. I have two
- used to have three. It chokes me up

when people ask how many siblings
do you have? He was alive, more than the rest

of us -- and now he's dead. Last time we met
he showed me how to get a free lunch

at the Cancer Hospital (Don't spend your money
in the foyer cafeteria! Are you nuts?) So we two

walked the underground corridor. On the way
he showed me where the Radiation Unit was.

(This is where I wait.) I'd come for consultation
about the latest find. (You sad about the new CT?


What, me? I told my role model, I'm not afraid to die!)
Lion King and Queen, we laughed in the face of danger.

Eventually we reached the Friends of the Hospital
Free Sandwich and Coffee Bar. There was ice cream.

Sorella

Enough with the ten days of Country Music. Let's move to the music of our generation, The Beatles!

Yesterday

14. Deadly Sevenling: Gluttony

Bring me twinkies slick in plastic,
six-pack soda, jumbo prawns.
Swaddle 'em in bacon.  Fry 'em.

Let the otters choke on plastic,
oil-slicked and starved for prawns.
Piglets squeal in cages?  Let 'em.

Screw your diet; it's my body.

Inconstant Sun

In the time of inconstant Sun
(which is anytime, know it or not)
through the safety of a filtered view
I gaze at Active Region 1429
barely an hour after the latest flare blew—
Brightsnake writhing in that roiling orb portends
the geomagnetic storm blowing in
to mess with the airwaves tonight.


I twist the 40-meter dial, cacophonous clashes
an incomprehensible ocean of noise.
T-storms over the Ohio Valley
or perhaps the Amazon.
I key the circuit into the gale:
_._   ..   …   …       _ _   .     _.   _ _ _   ._ _

Kiss me now.

Little-Known Truths About Dragons

A pocketful of dragons comes in handy in a pinch. 

Dragon eggs are scrumptious with parsnips and Worcestershire sauce

            while dragon snout is best when stuffed with trout.

A whiff of vampire breath makes dragons sneeze to death.

Dragons of the outer darkness

            play dodgeball with comets and asteroids. 

The dragons of Atlantis

            live on as flying fish.

 Anyone who barbecues

            needs a mini-drag or two.

 To vanish, a dragon just turns inside-out. 

A flagon of dragon tears

            is nostrum for goosebumps and gout. 

Fearless vintners lure dragons in to stomp their grapes. 

Dragons are deathly afraid of baboons. 

Once shed, a dragon scale can make an awesome sled. 

Young dragons love culverts and cul-de-sacs,

            alleys and stairwells and hot-air balloons.

No dragon can pass up fresh King a la King.

A Blanket of Fluff

Sorella, Featherless, Pclem, and Hydro,

For what it's worth to ya, I just gotta say... whatever this blog is bringin' out in all y'all's writing -- I'm diggin it.

Janelo

April 10 - Short - Inscrutable Man's Not Last! An Abnominal

An Abnominal (should be abominable)

Short - Inscrutable Man’s Not Last!

(For Robert Stanislaus Schlottmann - otherwise known as Bob or hubbypoo)

Hello, Southern Cro-man, beans-n-rice man.
The marsh calls. Hear the little nite heron.

The last rabbit u shoot, screams. No more.
Trout lines and marsh hens.

Nite transitions - salt to salacious. Burns.
Take me. Scorch me.

Stories - Merrill, u, bees on a limb, a car.
Cousin Al-n-Catahoula hunt Nutria, beer.

Crab boil - mushrooms, corn, aunts, uncles, crabs (natch),
cousins, little ones. Beer. Beer. Beer.

Moon-scent roses - Sombreuil, Alchemist, Taboo. U. Me. Ache.
Sun-bitch thorns.

Am I, am I ur Rorschach blot? Untrammel me.
Am I ur neurosis? Let me be a testament.

Cat shrill nites-n-curtain trauma.
Bounce. Hiss. No shut I’ll O.U.

Oh, Saints-n-Shelties! Oh, Cat, oh, Ace, oh, Son!
Oh, bother-n-lather! Oh, mine, ours.

Louisiana man, tie the boat to a tree. Let’s lie here
on the canal. Let’s listen to the little blue heron.

#10 - Going Out

Going Out

She's sociable

all right

In her blue diary

three invitations

all accepted

Thursday, a court case

(trafficking of prostitutes

which she's not)

Saturday, a dinner party

(married couples

which she's not)

Monday, a CT scan

(for cancer

which she's got)

No man is an island

and so on

and so forth

Sorella

The Wild Side of Life

April 9 - Afterward

Afterward

Natural as lawyer's fees, subpoenas and divorce decrees,

we compare notes. I say, you know the marriage is gone

when you count his condoms and one's missing.

She says, no, it's when you find one in his wallet

and he says, it's just in case something comes up.

I say, I discovered he was cheating on our tenth anniversary

and gifted him my diaphragm, cut in pieces.

She says, she woke up one night to find him

under the kitchen table jerking off

into another woman's lace panties. You win, I say.

Hers picks up the kids on Fridays and hands over clippings

from advice columns on parenting.

Sometimes I open my garage door

and mine's standing there. I can't decide

if he looks like a beaten dog

or the guy from the Halloween movies

and the hell of it is, I'm not sure there's a difference.

13. Deadly Sevenling: Lust

So girls don't want you.  What am I,
your dog?  Your looking glass?  I know:
your robot psychotherapist.

It makes me hate you.  I could shove
your back against those crates and bite
your lips until you begged for more.

I can slant-rhyme “hate” with “want”.

12. Deadly Sevenling: Wrath

Fat Bat sucks all the honey from my tea,
wraps his gamey wings around my face
and squeezes til the world is leather-red.

Fuck you.  I'll smash my mug against the wall,
wishing my rooibos into blood.  I'll chitter
a bat-nose song:  You stink.  I hope you die.

Bat scratches me; I'll rip my claws through you.

# 9 - Disclaimer

Disclaimer

This is not a haiku 
but
I could not help
the view 
from my window today

Cold April winds  
Magpie in a treetop
Hang on!

Sorella

---
Four Strong Winds 

April 8 - Making Brownies - Teenage Edition

Making Brownies (Teenage Edition)

Break the first egg.
Admire its snail bright slither
off the counter, down the cabinet.
Keep cracking. Eventually you will have enough
in the bowl. Embrace bowl one armed,
as a dancer holds her lover.
Whisk and twirl.

Add sugar, cocoa, flour, butter.
Ponder the meaning of Medium.
Flip mixer on High. Re-envision
splatter on ceiling as expressionistic art.
Call dogs for Floor Duty. Pour remains
of bowl into…whatever. Bake.

Ponder meaning of “Chill.”
Ask older sister. Ponder
if “give them weed and a movie”
is viable advice.

7. Hurrah! Sober on Piranhas!

This poem requires a bit of preliminary spiel, so I've just copied what I've written on my own blog:

I have fallen a day behind! This poem should have been posted here yesterday, but I got waylaid. The poem is an abnominal, a form devised by Andrew Philip. The creation of an abnominal is as fun and exciting as it is surprising and mind-bendingly challenging. In the end, I found it to be an excellent form for a tribute poem (which is what it is, essentially). Without further ado, here are the rules, followed by my poem, written for my partner.

The poem must use only words that contain letters found in the name of the dedicatee.

The poem should be 20 lines long.

It should be arranged in two-line stanzas, although other arrangements are permissible.

Each stanza — or every two lines, if another arrangement is used — should contain each individual letter of the dedicatee’s name at least once.*

The opening and closing line should address or refer to the dedicatee in some form, with a strong preference for not using the name. However, the address in line 20 must not be a simple repetition of that in line 1; there must be some difference/transformation.

There are no stipulations for line length or other metrical constraints.

The title must be an anagaram of the dedicatee’s name.

---

Hurrah! Sober on Piranhas!

An abnominal for Sarah Harrison-Burnhope

So, is she Le One? Oui! Si!
She has been. Pinup: U R ON

LE BRAIN upon piers’ rails.
Narnian sun, san’, shore,

Lan’-‘rain o’er here. Hop on!
Brap! Shamo(ne) (one's a hen).

Nae pain. Soar in brine-airs,
hon; hear no ruse or harassin’.

Hair raisin-broon; near bulb-
Solar – on a par. Son-bearer,

A plush pair o’ (blush). Sleep
In, an’ – aye – snore sub-bass.

Hail our Ash S. Raise a posh /
Brash session parsin’ real ales,

Nosh; pissin’ oursel’s LOLin’
(Herps, P.R.A.S*, lesbianism).

Sea. Splish-splash-splosh!
Reasons are borin’ bull-sh…

Ass-o’er-heels, I bless her.
Shine on, lassie: urbanhippie.

*Portsmouth Reptile and Amphibian Society

Dunc 7 and 8

7 April 2012


SEVENLING

On the black drop of heaven
the rings of Saturn
in scalding beauty

On the black pan
in butter-spat pattern
the fried egg on roti

Oh astrogastronomy!



8 April 2012


THE MAYOR RECEIVES AN HONOURED VISITOR
LOUPEUX-DES-REIS 1869

Yes, we know God and Jesus, Sister, but we
do not care for them, nor the priest. They scowl and
threaten us, send foxes to the lambs, curry
strife. Only Mary has Heaven’s keys to hand

and, more everyday, Saint Cassjambe’s sepulchre
for broken bones, the oak stumps at Perpont if
you squint, and when the mounting stones won’t do for
your needs, moss from Samson’s diddle to conceive.

Fairies? They only trouble us on certain
days, and at night the Devil’s beasts pass mostly
above Rambille, not us, so we do well then
except the new priest won’t baptise our cattle.

So our faith is strong - ask all you meet today
though you’re not born here - you won’t know what they say.

Poem No. 8 - Easter Day Notice

Easter Day Notice: Awaiting Resurrection

(Found Poem)

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Sorella and the PFFA
----

Gimme One More Chance - Exile

April 7 - Pharmed

Pharmed

I am like that joke about the spider, stoned
on cannabis, who spins a holy hammock. Pray,

no, not even thoughts will stick, not even
a teaspoonful of morning do to sip.

I lie and blink, words slip
through these worthless threads that brake

in, too. The wheel spins off its axes,
the spoke is chopped to splintered would

that I could perseverate. Prey, prey, prey.
No God can eat through this holey miss.

Poem 7 - Moonbathing

Moonbathing

The oncologist told me to stay
away from the sun. Malignant
melanoma, metastasis too

So here I am at the open window
basking in a chilly full moon moving
in and out of lapis lazuli clouds

Still in a fleece top and tracksuit
bottoms, just in case

Sorella     

When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again

11. The Couple Behind Me On the Bus

Pardon me, Ma'am. That book you're reading—
Crystal Healing Vibrations. Here, sit down.
Are you headed to the Homeopathy Festival?
Yes, you too? Oh! What a beautiful pendant.
It's limonite. For strength, virility, and calm.
May I touch it? I feel the energy radiating off it.
It opens the heart chakra.
I feel a balance of masculine and feminine energies.
The masculine energy corresponds to the warrior.
While the feminine energy corresponds to oneness?
Yes. We must embrace each within ourselves.
Wise words. Will you join me at the Reiki tent?
I've always wanted to learn Reiki.
I'll teach you. Ah, here's our stop!

10. Road Trip to Arrawarra

(Easter vacation!  Spent yesterday on the road and admiring the the ocean, so it's a list poem.)

Road Trip to Arrawarra

Giant banana
Tropical Fruit World
Macadamia Castle
Byron Bay Pie Shop (closed)
Giant prawn (with eyes that light up)
Cows
Galahs
Ocean

#6 - SUNDAY MORNINGS

.
.

A piece of chocolate filled pastry to go down
with a double cup of my favorite joe; the newspaper
spread out on the bed, sorted into groups -
main/entertainment/travel, house/car/want ads, coupons to clip;
Debussy mellowing his way through the iPod’s speakers;
the sun’s silent aubade filtering through the windows…
.
and Baby, snuggled into the crook of my neck, napping,
oblivious to the intermittent rustle of paper, the iterative
arc and turn as I read each pressed page;
and me, feeling like a placid sunset
at the end of a summer’s day.

Dunc poems 5,6 and 7

5 April 2012

SONG

Fie on woe!
Balls to sorrow!
We shall drink
much less tomorrow.

Bugger angst
and lend, and borrow!
We shall drink
much less tomorrow.

Drain tonight
the botte d’oro!
We shall drink
much less tomorrow.

6 April 2012

GLAGOLITSA

Were I trout and this the hook
I’m already in the creel
having no will to resist
the long savoury allure
of its bubbling syllables.

Half-close your eyes - you can see
Saint Cyril’s candle-shadow
on the walls of the cow-lord
penning new shapes out of Greek
to render salvation’s words
into his host’s tangling tongue;

and beefy parchment volumes
inked red and black with monk-care
in the granite confidence
of the Slavic Almighty
and chanting to paint the air
with the matched sonance they make.

Glagolitsa! Soak the mouth,
the busy tongue and the throat
in this sensual freighted
plenipotent conjuring
word.

7 April 2012

COSTA CONCORDIA

In the dark water, sadly, many died,
good folk forever severed from their kin.
But when I first saw Concord on her side
my face was riven with a mighty grin.

The irony was sweet as liquorice,
the giant vessel flipped by some diabolus,
a painting called The Sack of Sybaris
or Shipwreck of the Sardanapalus.

Rise, Habakkuk, I have a job for thee!
Bewail obesity of wealth, appal
us with the idlers’ stark depravity,
the crime of pissing fortunes on the wall.

No, I’m ashamed. I’m kinder by a mile
than that. (Remove the picture or I’ll smile.)
Dunc

Poem no. 6 - Chatterbox under Epigraphs

Poem No. 6

Chatterbox Under Epigraphs - American Sentence

For Jee, who shares my love of epigraphs

C                 G7            F             G7

The smile on your face let's me know that you need me

C                       G7          F            G7

There's a truth in your eyes saying you'll never leave me

C                 G7               F                  G7   F G7

The touch of your hand says you'll catch me if ever I fall

    F               G7                      C    G7 F G7

Now you say it best when you say nothing at all

(When You Say Nothing At All

Recorded by Keith Whitley

Written by Don Schlitz and Paul Overstreet)

I like for you to be still: it is as though you were absent,

and you hear me from far away and my voice does not touch you.

It seems as though your eyes had flown away

and it seems that a kiss had sealed your mouth.

(I Like For You To Be Still - Pablo Neruda)

American Sentence

On the bright side, you can turn me upside down for an outboard engine.

Sorella

Good Friday

Not the one who takes up his bed and walks
But the ones who have known him all along
And carry him in
                          -- Seamus Heaney, ‘Miracle’

Not the one whose bed daily bears his iniquities
Because it was made by a fine village craftsman
Not a corporation.

Not the one who nails a hand to each stretcher
Handle mentally, so that if his friends try to tip
Him off, it is harder.

Not the friends who, in the beginning, were sold
On his humour, bought by his struggles, levelled
His militant-victim scales.

But the one who, if he can bank on a story about
A blind man, comes unlearned in silver-glossolalia
And offers a clean hand.

April 6 - Note From My Secretary