Kerri Shying R # 463 Wood patten meditation

Wood patten Meditation

Off-centre mitred beams

 and steel this roof,

 a workman's quilt,

 coverlet of metal cord,

 last crib

 before the coffin

 and it's mine.

The yard,

half length,

the breadth,

the deep

is made of shed,

 working bedrock

 left behind

 low tide of

 industry,

 wrecked here,

 on the shoals.

As I lie flat, sinking

into gravity, I see

the complicated gum tree

snaking past the gutter,

my work-shed

flat behind it,

telling me, come on.

Kit Kelen #881 - not holier than any thou, not singing for the choir

881

not holier than any thou

not singing for the choir

on so-called political correctness again

but here among amid the fray

just as dark

as down

as hid

and devious

and cunning

not above the laughter

not above cruel fun

and taking it out on

selfish as the next and then some

with insects I've been arbitrary

animals, I've eaten a few

and more than

I admit delicious

I have used the bad chemicals

even on myself sometimes

oooh and it felt good

although suffered something after

made an omelette, I broke eggs

I like to set fire and see burn

tickle you if you come close

I party

I have dirty thoughts

I know that's too much information

I probably smell my age

I can't tell

buggered the shnoz long ago with tobacco

my heart's at least

as dark as yours

teeth are yellow too

there are some secret passages

trap doors

I have hateful thoughts

I won't confess

who'd listen anyway?

I'd like to do unto those ...

slap them about at least

but I am known by right

from wrong

I've often been there

will come again

stretched as head will far

I break the grammar with my tongue

I am a mongrel dog

couldn't be more proud

the precious shit me big time

I say that just for instance

they're sensitive as

and I do that too

I know you do

and wipe

we have no bidet

I am a rough fuck

so you are

and I am enlisted

signed for

stood up

staunch

for faith in

what's a vanishing thing

can't see the point

in having all the forest gone

too many of us and nothing to eat

I'm keen on air for breathing too

I think this planet's warm enough

weapons? I don't think we need more of them

not us, not anyone

there's too much money somewhere

chocolate's great, but there must be a limit

I drink coca cola

do you think that the poor might be poor enough now?

I see that you've still got a few screws...

that was very clever

this big wind blows everything off

we just might have caused it

I'm not any kind of scientist

bottom line's I think, don't you?

I'm sickened when songs have a nation

but music can savage

hope against hope

fucking hopeless

I'm old for new tricks

and turn over leaf

yes, I admit I'm a miserable bastard

and no that's not confession

that's just cussed pride

but when the sunshine comes

up all blue above me

I'm moved

I believe

green for the world

I just want to save it

that's all

Rob Schackne #665 - "The photo bye-bye"

            The photo bye-bye 
            miss american pie lord
            like a karaoke night
            please tell me to stop
            with a half-life
            of roughly a year

            the shopping trolleys
            left out by the creek
            the grasses waving
            signal strength to noise
            the ratio is pretty low
            black and white
            leave the eyes
            in the glasses case
            I mean to tell you
            you have to see
            they don't last forever

Kit Kelen #880 - no hat requires me now

880

no hat requires me now

suddenly winter's the middle

we're keeping the fire inside

light's slow

and goes

any sun precious

to roof to scone

the same

comes with a hunger

harder to stretch

expect no news in such conditions

still news comes to me

year's cloud come

and in the dim of rain was

hear trickle down

see shone

as trees for far

and it comes again

be all indoors

for her

for him

cuddle up ice extremities

(your new name)

be intimate (o mine)

balance the world on this edge

time beyond us all lies here

James Walton #100 Even the Broken Things Entreat

Each day the border      

becomes a line of retreat

a swinging vane

declining lids

over the almond iris

reduces to standing space

the things that were once apart

even the broken things entreat

out of their tenacious memory

a daughter’s hand at four

in an acrylic blue kindergarten print

last school bag of a boy’s years

a ragged clay dragon coiled by fire

the chipped koala salt and pepper shakers

texta lines of height on the kitchen door

this house has swallowed a library

now the overdues are called

each box of go or stay

has a notice of acquittal

fares for the van to release

a recusal of all vanities.

Kerri Shying #462 - listening for flowers

I hadn’t thought   until you said   that time you stayed     

how different  the candles are   that men and women choose   

when the two of you left   I went round all the rooms 

 snout deep in warm wax   in soy grease 

 listening for flowers  

the verdigris  the spots of spice and

citrus  so much vanilla and cinnamon

how right you were    

my taste   seemed awkward

and all sweets

Kit Kelen #879 - ave!

879

ave!

hail full of grace

one flown

forget the words

because I am not here

it's not with words

to know

hail mother was

and a church of her

choir fire

so sings to me

the brightest paint is sunshine

the bluest sky clear air

time runs out

drips from us

best dreams are slept away

tin skin

and flimsy up

but sings

hail one gone

for history

the shell beyond

to show the egg

forget the words

all best unsaid

it's what you taught me

with your eyes

once when I came

to world

Rob Schackne #664 - "Ridden hard" (redux)

Ridden hard
and put up wet
the melancholy bet
survivor of the storm
and the posturing
fruits of the mind
a series of failed utopias
to look forward to
not look back
not angels or devils
not contentment
but a full belly
a short-term feed

Kit Kelen #878 - first notes for an electric forest with gone koalas

878

first notes for

an electric forest with gone koalas

concerning the plans of government to build forest fed electric power plants along the NSW coast

concerning the government's denial that there are any koalas where koala habitat is being destroyed

first the birds

no irony

you'll see a human face

to them

and who's that ever stopped?

we will survive!

so much of the human spirit there

the forest lives in our lights

in our fridge

it lives in our washing machine

who will survive?

who's not against once had a chance

but we have come for them again

our treaties warm you for a moment

ash then all the air is

who's with me then

spotlighting

for a little pie

like looking for yeti

but harder

this one's Little Foot

widowmaker of legend

(thylarctus plummetus)

miniatures of a terror

first light catches like a web

at first you won't see the smoke

for the trees

you won't hear the saws out of distance

these are long ages mind

before the electricity

the sun was hardly known down here

knock for a door was a tree

a god begging

come for this drunk stumble with me

the blade is a machine now

I pour dinosaur in

and forest

call and the calendar comes

they're all gone

there must be no politics of this

here's the riddle

how is the forest

when it's gone?

of tin and timber, world

o mine!

once used to telling a lie

how effortless it is

I've never seen a koala here

may lightning strike me blind

the forest hangs over itself

as a soot

ash fall

we say the soil was once

they were here before truth

how should we rate their chances after?

every government says

one tree and another lit

because it doesn't matter now

knock knock

how is a forest electric?

that's when you plug it in

wait for them to speak up for themselves

they say there are none

it's wood for the trees

someone is watching with more of a mind

what haunts you here?

who haunts?

here's a hand to stifle scream

another undoes trousers

solemn is this evidence

of how it wasn't me

more hands lent

just this one silence

renewable

they mean that stubble comes back

here's the razor

this is your paint

and here is your corner

see how you get on with that