Rob Schackne #601 - "No hard food, says my Indian dentist"

No hard food, says my Indian dentist
I'm a bit out of it in the chair, I ask
She says no hard candies or bones
I mean no mints, table legs, laptops
Moon shoots, bar fights, or regret
No new liberties, grand failures, politics
Marathon boots, or downhill climbs
None of that is good for your old teeth
Poetry she says is OK (maybe Rumi)
Best eating pudding with soft berries
Soups, salads, the meat without trouble
Fruit juice, bug juice, juice of other planets
Good work, old work, the way of the bee
Noodles, rices, friendship, sweet goodbyes
I want them to last you all your life.

Kerri Shying R # 420 - Hobbledehoi

Hobbledehoi

it helps me teach   anything 

when I stumble   on a line   of ink

my thumb intruding in the charcoal

the sadness   our lady of the screwed

intention   how

does the butterfly   get the wing

to glow    why the sun-strike glares

until small flies   buzz like the bubbles

in a soda pop   right inside my eye

the inkling blackness

sucking   in three D 

someone  won’t you tell me

Kit Kelen #789 - this is where I never grew up (a note for my archaeologists)

789

this is where I never grew up

(a note for my archaeologists)

a rattle past of road

and there's the future mist

cow lowed

I went under the radar here

these few chords for amazement

succeeding as we come to our time

which seems on occasion to be a place

it was purchased for the purpose

I meant to wreck their business model

by being the hidden treasure

I was!

flit from dark dreaming

to what the sun's lit

yes all around it spoke

there was holy water

and the garden grew

empire of me on tip toes too

this has to be where the penny dropped

I pulled the wool over my very own eyes

and everyone else's

got lost in the piano here

and made myself event

I stretched to fit

and covered every surface

and even where I couldn't play

a scholar of my scratchy desk

an astronaut of nights

I could be anything

(boys always could)

was toasted under tin

and oft in effigy to burn

I made my own anathema thus

welcome to my Ark

or perhaps you'd say pyramid?

it must be here I landed

various parts come bring

they said the umbrella tree would tear up the slab

how tall and true all stories are

mixed flora in the cracks below

a lucky thing it all was

I've thought to call it 'parrot's dice'

yes I come down in the last shower

and shake a leg to start

the day was always bright eyes

and the night was always young

redistribution!

made rough justice here

though we won't mourn what's said

I had my head screwed on all this while

the things I've not yet tried are too scary

coming and going then one day I stuck

'it wouldn't work', they told me

tooth and claw some certain seasons

best of all I fooled myself

I could never add up and away

under the flesh I was down to the bone

still I kept my shirt on

and here's the seventh city

and the dust of it shook off

grandeur in the handspan, wings

anything you can dream upon

here's the fountain

you have to only sip from the cup

youth's patina applies

it was here I found out

my wallaby nature

and took things on the bounce

this is where schemes came to grief

and I must have been hatched

it's all proverbial in these parts

and quite a bit of the biblical knowledge

as in the spirit of creation

ironized as in due course

I keep the hemlock beaker here

just in case of coups

yes you can say it's half full

this is the place!

dig here!

Rob Schackne #600 - "The cockatoos"

        The cockatoos
        remind me

        skull & bones
        around my neck
        all weight
        ring the bells
        & prayer wheel
        death mask
        all weight
        trace a path
        my thangka
        all weight
        leave it there
        only this
        is reasonable
        scream the birds

Rob Schackne #599 - "Wipe my tears"

Wipe my tears
say it's raining
wash my body
creek beds filling
open a window
the wind is strong
help me to sit up
we all need shelter
boil me an egg
it’s still summer

Kerri Shying R # 421 - Adrenals

Adrenals

activate   two small glands

they   snug by flush red

kidneys been there done that

but not without a hand  no

not for a long time   this

tighrope flat against the ground

my feet   toe-out  in tabi

find every inch   by memory

here the fear   of eyes

shocked with flared up

pain  tiny vessels  swollen

how do they all communicate

without me   in the absence

of danger  running drills

I hear the bells sing out 

hope without

the juice  you hear

Kit Kelen #788 - everybody came in

788

everybody came in

out of the rain

all misted down

the out-there

dark of a window won

cows stood round of course

complaining

music sat in a chair

kicked back

and I could hear the creek

fur came

whiskers, wings

and more legs

the ponderous and the posers

ideas abandoned

and an outer world

to flicker in the cave

insectivorous

verandaration

all awash

we were trying out for an Ark

all suitcases and relatives

hopes of a place in the sun

each of them wanting a name

they came with the skills of another place

all of us under glass

ran round till naked

it was summer still

but you could see out

we had parlour games --

chase the spider

poison rat

spray the yet-to-name

what sports!

they'd play along

and gasp their last

and after

o such happy trees

all of us looking up

to the business blue

of a sky for these parts

then

run so the rain won't catch you

sweep it out the door

sing where the sun even now stands waiting

just to be shone some more

Rob Schackne #598 - Backtracks (redux)

Backtracks


                   I met myself in a dream
                   and I just want to tell you
                   everything was alright     (Lou Reed)


Four months later
below the snake-line
everything is not alright
I look each way
dangerous & foolish
what an imposter
I cross the street
the people he dreams
duck into a shadow
I'm barely recognized

Kerri Shying R # 420 Prednisolone taper

Prednisolone taper

no thrill   this   steroid reduction   got up at 6.30    made a good brekkie    took the pills    did some housework crumpled   like the forepetals of the jonquil across the bed    at some stage the animals crept along and warmed me    I heard the phone ring    off in the lounge    this made me recall the stage set of the play Boing Boing    thoughts of my tasks    for the day   began to enter and leave my brain    through revolving doors   I went along behind them sweeping   a small broom made of rushes    useless    in the rain

Kit Kelen #787 - the gamble

787

the gamble 

 

see it fall to ruins

just the weather let in

voices come to me through it

in a steady-on of rain

time not telling there

PAST ARRESTED IN PYRAMID SLAVE CRIME
OTHERS' LANDS & GOODS UNJUSTLY SEIZED

and nevertheless an idea at the time

and lived to

speak the grievance

I'm building it all to wash away
I'm building it all to burn

till I'm the one in the far far

and better

then was atavist

a neck behind and get it in

so swim through the weather

swim through the drought

condemned to days

my tribe escaped to this

time not telling

play hard to get and you're gone

Kerri Shying R # 419 - Sundays

Sundays

unpacked birthdays    fabric

strewn  the passions

of the past  unboxed

made ready for the march     on

new floors   I see the ways

the joins fall   this

most malleable

 of days  I ride

 the sawhorse

 of  the future   off

where of all this   is made

anew  

Sunday   raw  elements

fan out   see carousels

revolve

Rob Schackne #597 - "there's so much"

there's so much

in the wind

where sound goes

in the wind

but my friend

believes all poetry

aspires to silence

Kit Kelen #786 - nobody knows the moment we're in

786

nobody knows the moment we're in

all a hunch at having come

and even if we say 'we're here'

that hardly constitutes a claim

being just because

in a stillness set

and you see what stirs

blink

how is the plumbing in the tree?

the past like a puppy

and we're the stick fetched

calendar winks

over at

music is listening for us here

futures come when we call

someone sings

the weather for us, just for instance

this island twangle

diaries piled in a drawer

years before I was up for it

now blank, not even printed

years beyond me yet

it's gathered scraps by which we guess

must have somehow blown this far

a clock is always calling

radio speaks puzzles

the becoming of us

none of us ever lived for this

one day the drugs give up on you

nobody lives here really

but it's hard to get away

in a stillness set to go

we've come to know

what's next

Kristen de Kline #178 The sun

here it comes, the
sun     it feels like years
since you've been gone
on the last mile home
I carried it     close:
your     heart
everything
seemed possible
then

I wake to the sound
of cockatoos screeching
     you leaving
a burning coconut and elderflower candle
slowly melting     like ice
the emergency crews
scrambling on ladders
rigging up power lines

the highway
breathes

you leave

the ice
slowly melts
out the back of Lawless
I think   
I  can touch the sun

you say:
do you want to run away to Norway?

years     it feels like     years

everything: the sun, your heart, the ice
I don't know what the fuck I'm saying

Kerri Shying R # 418 young men, again

young men, again

you have me   smile

 your warm

 butter smile   follow

 about the pharmacy

he’s a chatterbox   all six four

a hundred kilos   an open paddock

of a face   tells me how he took his mates

to tapas  for the first time

and they rise up

coming through the screen doors

in cricket pads

these giants faces  

how they fell   even in that

 buzz box   excitement

the platters   bite sizes

 odd number appetisers  

aching on politeness

  smart casual

the unbumbled manhood

me too much

 the kindly old woman he knows

 to talk to    to say

  oh love

did you stop

did you get something

to eat 

on the way home

we sniffed

 the beard soap

while I waited for my script

he told me

how      maybe

the woman      she

likes the smell her man has

maybe

Rob Schackne #596 - A Day

A Day


Local churches     pray for rain
forecast today     rain     no rain
a glorious sunset     lively chat
about her faith     some dinner
her recent degree     theology
some Handel     a little MJQ
the piece is     A Social Call
real time     a hand of faith
the many callings     we missed
some Led Zeppelin     summer
won't leave     still we ramble

Kit Kelen #785 - birthday pieces - studio warming piece

785
two birthday pieces

1
soon we'll be fishing from the veranda
studio warming piece



the longer the nest to make
the lovelier the egg


this is the moment
all perfect now
ready to begin

if there is a world
it stopped
well before here

somewhere in the garden
we filtered out the dust

people say it's revving up
but this is where the bucked stopped
till you squeezed it out some more
all of this to banish the frantic

stood in a paddock
commanded this rise

... delayed reaction


then everyone came
it was a party
how the walls went up!

it took a lot of coaxing
miracles take work
but see how the breeze is
because of veranda

everyone says you could live in it

the Taj Mahal has no such pond
Ben Hur may be big
but this box is yours
you built it
herded the cats in a frenzy

this is where to go wild

all the colours are from day
and the dark is sunlit still

the bush is guard to this
the valley opening to view
sun powers it
breezes aboard
and from veranda
watch the pond

in ducks
and eels and water dragon
all lotus fronded, flowered
rose fingered for a first thing
pinking sunset too

here's

red bellied black
removes old frog from pond 
you witness this

and something you can never see

better than anything else
the place is blessed
with you

and all you have to do is

consider the everything to come
gets better and better
but now

be birthday girl
in the moment perfect
it doesn't come again





2
58

birthday cuddles
and birthday kiss
still in bed for birthday bliss

and best of all a birthday beam
when waking from your birthday dream

here's your birthday lie-in tea
brought to you by birthday me

birthday bird has come to sing
a birthday song to you

it's birthday up in the branches
and birthday here on Earth 

it's time to make the most of
so birthday for all your worth

then first thing up's a birthday stretch
prance about like a birthday fool
birthday yoga, birthday swim
sun yourself on birthday deck
plunge in birthday pool

and still it's yes a sunny one
so peg the birthday washing out
dries extra fast on a day like this
with added birthday clout

not that there's a word to say 
or need to lift a finger
not for this breeze in which we linger
it's birthday weather today

then present to present the day progresses
from birthday call to birthday call
and one forgets a whole year' stresses
all sorts of heckles begin to fall

till birthday snifter with the birthday bunch
birthday bubbly, birthday punch

and birthday rudeness on the cards
if we can fit it in
no matter what you will indulge
it's only birthday sin

but watch the birthday sweetmeats
or put on birthday girth

it's birthday up in the branches
and birthday still on Earth 

and Birthday 2 tomorrow
Birthday 3 the day after that
birthday after birthday
only need be said

it could go on forever like this
once the birthday poem's read

Rob Schackne #595 - "nothing doing" (after Bernard H)

nothing doing
at the hermitage
keith richards
full of honey
bhikkhu on drums
how do I sleep
when can I eat
this rain this music
all those bees
my condition
of the night
just sitting

Rob Schackne #594 - "Yes my word of the day"

Yes my word of the day
all I could do without
what was taken away

all I was asked to give
what you could remember
what I made a meal of

there won't be time
in this false economy
no one takes their time

the evening's spread
come watch us then
hooverized upon a table

Kit Kelen #784 - the novel

784
the novel 
 

some moment 
of high suspense
to begin

believe a sky
when falling

no one says but
you're in

and ride this wave
till the sea's across
till the river
runs us dry

Rob Schackne #593 - Benthos-12

Benthos-12

This old pond
the sky changes
blue to deep purple
a second's grace
what displays
this conversation
about enlightenment
the cave as library
a world where books
are disappeared
everything dark
what goats do

Kit Kelen #783 - re-priming again

783

re-priming

for those who have gone under

you get ideas from what's down there

from the lost

from their having gone

and often about to kick off the scaffold

sometimes tiredeness overtakes

and all the years till now

there's always a ladder

up and in

corner with your initials engraved

while in their ooze you splash

then summer comes

fizzle among

and soggy if sky down

come on a tumbrel

not even in their prime yet

not yet fleshed

now under! now forever gone!

all of them were children

none could vote

all served

and traitors!

we carved them up

crows pecked the entrails

you can always work with a stain

scrape back

you need some depth to carve

some of these ideas could push up daisies

and burying's too good for some

so we dig 'em out to flog some more

many drowned in the last storm

some bobbed up

sprayed them down like bugs

or left to bake

with the ants crawl over

honey-coated

left to wash away

some rot

we lay to rest

we burn

each for example

and let that be lesson

but am I finished with them then?

every one was tricked to be

not one had a choice

yes I laughed demoniacally

evil if not genius

came at them with the chisel

came at them with the knife again

why should they survive, not me?

so various

the launch into eternity

think of the forgotten

deep pile and dusty

spiders' home

death to the dead!

and as to those fortunate still writhe

in possibility -

on all those who are about to salute me

I slap down the paint

amen

hooray

Kerri Shying R #417 - the ladies auxiliary

the ladies auxiliary

don’t school me    by the ankle socks

here       my chin whiskers   leaning in

for lopping   brushing on the peter pan

of the collar     much too more the dessert

woman   than a statement hair   this

tired old consciousness   the thing

is gunna lap me    all lined up 

on the top oval   like the start of that

fucking futile cross-country   it gave me

asthma    and it never did rate fitness

curriculum  stamped me

like a letter     return to sender  

so   here I am and

what you gunna do

with me  now eh

Kerri Shying R # 416 - gaolhouse for KZ

gaolhouse  for KZ

all flying kites

 hands out

 between the bars

no

 electron swipes    to beat

 on rainy days   my heart

the node of tumbled wire

 tap taps

plug me   life's a drain

I hear you      speak  in

 messages    HA

winnow off

 that husk go

slop it    to the pigs

feed me    real

you    to the tooth

whole grain

Rob Schackne #592 - "Hard at work your heart"

Hard at work your heart
that quickens more, stays
for last reel & credits
waits for the dim poet
the impossible question
is this my life the afternoon
my bus my walk my dinner
forget the cavemen go
the 9:49 rolling through
do I advance the subject
the windows need cleaning
this is my notebook and pen

Kristen de Kline #177 Melting

The ice is slowly
melting     your
heart,   I dropped it
on the last mile home
phone lines are down
don’t cut me loose 
a blackout in the Valley
hold me tighter
don’t listen
to a word
they say

Kit Kelen #782 - three poems - it's with the first thing birds / upon the place below / now my kingdom is complete

782

three poems

1

it's with the first thing birds

bearers of light

I become a more sensitive instrument

all twinge of

they tune the weather to me now

this music has a knowledge of us

I hear the day strike up

2

upon the place below

at long bloody last

chimes with a rhythm we call roof

this is the first time for the rain

when it was arriving I almost took a pill

it has to find a way to earth

it has to be a cloud first

congregation of vapours

all paws for it

I stand in socks at last to watch

chutes tangles and the targets off

they could be ours down there

a long imagination of wonders

that it could be so

sky pissed itself pure again

the first green thing is yet to shine

blind in hopes of up

3

now my kingdom is complete

and all unruly subject

built!

but have they come?

I am a pyramid

all tomb if done

all around me

far as eye can see

already the shine is coming off

all the faith glow of it goes

there's no one in charge here

Kerri Shying R #415 - Holler

Holler

let me lean back

   past the sway

rest the scrollings

 in the spine   sit

the bony mountain

 top to unmined base

 spread me out

beyond the lines   of fault  

 shout    a slim crevasse to

get a whisper back     you

 go away    no

such thing   as bottomless

 no pit   to drop that stone   lean

 into this   my hard-pegged

line    of most resistance

 gentlest smile

Rob Schackne #591 - "I don't know if"

I don't know if
it's a roundabout
or a face, a grace
that's missing
one coming
in safety first
a wide margin
of true beauty
those flowers
drums are beating
the roads know
closer to the day

Kit Kelen #781 - on the grandeur of delusions

781

on the grandeur of delusions

mine's

full bodied failure

the lifelong

all who

where we are

so much to

hunger at

defy

could be

dark of the season

and tribe too

he showed her his love

she lapped at that

with baton grip

hit for six

and ruck

in

of

up until

take it lying down

be blown

old sky beard

was with with us

thunder vaunt

in the mirror

I am

and stroke myself

half a chance

it's emperor to be

so preen we

sing ourselves together

because a war was

we are free

let me burn your village down

raze it

be enslaved

and otherwise unspeakable

make nation

golden as a cloud

sun struck

dissolved

we each as thin as air

make my t shirt

make it now

do it faroff

I won't look

as much as you like

no one will hear

out of time home found us

we sent the others off

let's huff

that's an immortality

come to my bones

believe me

let me be your shrine

the Bible caught the bullet

closest to the heart

good ache

I need a little dark with that

the ever after's gone

there is nowhere but here

let us depart in peace

Kit Kelen #780 - the Barnabeast or Mr Pizzle

780

the Barnabeast

or

Mr Pizzle

(a political poem)

a man is fulminating

is at the beer frothing

he is all in his hat

a big horizon

look at him boasting

modest and shy

(firm of country solicitors)

burns up the forest

runs the rivers dry

the future's all these ruins to Mr Pizzle

sees progress

poor diddims in his baby socks

and cannot even knit

stuck in his finger

and pulled out too late

o how I love a doom like this

and how it slowly comes