Michele Elliot #37 Skylines 6 (after Lizz Murphy Poem 379)

I tell the moon the time is now

she rises in magnificent silence

I ask the tree for shelter

in her green shawl

Lizz Murphy Poem 379 Skylines 6 (after Michele Elliot # 35)

I ask the stars is there ever a right moment no good asking the moon it just questions the tides The moths are waking They leave the cool of cave take to the night skies travel the migratory route Lay their eggs Die The pupae hatch navigate the same path to the Alps gather in the billions cavern cavity crevice On the way they may divert block the light

Lizz Murphy - Poem 364.2: Monochrome

MONOCHROME

Just a week ago the land was a wrung out cloth streaked gold through the olive damp This week it is a bleached sheet heads of wheaten grass shimmering champagne and silver with each breeze I have only just left the ghost of winter behind Everything is opposite

a guitar shaped leaf

a bird raising its wings

its downy underside

its second cast shadow

the ghost of winter

Lizz Murphy - Poem 360: Which line

Which line will I follow

the hard black where my feet might fall through shadow

the arrow veering everything off to the side

the shimmering wind up into the blue

Lizz Murphy - Poem 328: Open the heart (part I-III)

[Scroll to the raven image for the new section]

 

OPENING THE HEART

Raising arms (six times)

Mt Bobbara becomes golden

blue shadow streak each rock

etched into the horizon

Open the heart (six times)

out of the old

leaves shine lime

gum blossoms are

ruby pendants

Paint the rainbow (six times each side)

evening light draws

the edges white

cockatoos separate the sky

Part the clouds (six times)

at the foot of Bobbara

a thousand trees the red tips

of new growth

Rolling arms in fixed stance

cockatoos

flakes of cloud keeling

into trees

Rowing the boat in the middle of the lake

you can see the water

tank for the steam trains

ironblack rustbleed

 

Supporting the ball in front of the shoulder

a door

unusual

am I needed

Gazing at the moon

freight train

orange rush

Turning waist and pushing palm

the old bath

weeded

what to plant

Cloud hands in horse riding stance

dandelions close

something invisible

flicks a stem

Scooping the sea & looking at the horizon

ravens

harbingers of myth

they play with our minds

Pushing the tide out

cockatoo

a Christmas ornament

on the neighbouring

oak tree

Flying dove spreads its wings

grey gathering

a dog barks across

the railway track

Punching in horse stance

Mt Bobbara olive

must replace that board

a horse kicked in

The flying wild goose

geraniums

forgot they were in bloom

the rooster is up

The rotating firewheel

grey heron sailing by

neck scrunched

Stepping and bouncing the ball

a bird chips at air

another winds up

for a song

Balancing the chi to close

the guinea fowl

have lost their panic

graze quietly

Practising Shibashi a T’ai Chi/qigong form — with shades of Leonard Cohen (sorry I can’t remember the title of his T’ai Chi poem)

Lizz Murphy - Poem 327: Open the heart (part II)

OPEN THE HEART 

(part ii - Shibashi continued)

Rolling arms in fixed stance

cockatoos

flakes of cloud keeling

into trees

Rowing the boat in the middle of the lake

you can see the water

tank for the steam trains

ironblack rustbleed

Supporting the ball in front of the shoulder

a door

unusual

am I needed

Gazing at the moon

freight train

orange rush

Turning waist and pushing palm

the old bath

weeded

what to plant

Cloud hands in horse riding stance

dandelions close

something invisible

flicks a stem

Scooping the sea & looking at the horizon

ravens

harbingers of myth

they play with our minds

Lizz Murphy - Poem 326: Open the heart (Shibashi)

OPEN THE HEART

Raising arms (six times)

Mt Bobbara becomes golden

blue shadow streak each rock

etched into the horizon

 

Open the heart (six times)

out of the old

leaves shine lime

gum blossoms are

ruby pendants

 

 

 

Paint the rainbow (six times each side)

evening draws 

the edges white cockatoos 

separate the sky

Part the clouds (six times)

at the foot of Bobbara

a thousand trees the red tips

of new growth

On the first four moves of Shibashi, a T’ai Chi qigong form

Lizz Murphy - Poem 324: Lotus

LOTUS

Greet the break of day

I didn’t write a poem last night

Turtles swimming in the ocean

Words fallen to the bottom of the sea

Rabbits digging in the snow

I dive for pearls

Fair lady scoops up all the water 

scoop out shells

spreads it across the land

build middens from the empties

It rains on the lotus

and now it pours

the lotus blossoms

the ink runs

sends its roots deep into the mud

draws its own blooms

The wind blows to the north

I blot petals dry

to the south

blow on paper

lifts to the heavens

ink all over my hands

presses to the earth

dark smudges on my face

White cranes flash their wings

Nope - still no flashes of inspiration

the rabbits still digging in the snow

I dive and dig

as we say farewell at the end of the day

My muse sleeps on

The lines in italics are the moves in Lotus a T'ai Chi qigong form.

John Bennett #1 - November musings

birds not pets

‘Australia has provided the world with a remarkable range of pets, including budgerigars, cockatiels and other parrots, various finches, bearded dragons, bluetongue lizards and even the spiny leaf insect (Extatosoma tiaratum).’ Tim Low in this morning’s Australian Geographic ezine.

Birds in cages !!  Last week out west . . .

Silk scarves flying as the sun slips, jewelled wings

spinning colour, a Turquoise Parrot beating overhead,

brighter than Rainbow Bee-eaters, Rainbow Lorikeets

or rainbow. Brilliant blue wings charged by electric

current, golden belly, red flash and green shimmer

reaching the limit of colour. I felt naked.

And hundreds of Musk Lorikeets (a rarity here in Valla, we get Rainbows and Scaly-breasted). Here are two:

Lizz Murphy - Poem 262: Gifts

GIFTS

white         blossom           

           sprigs

scattered

by

the

back

door                          parrots

in the Elata

Lizz Murphy - Poem 251: Train ii.

ii.

Who stirs down there

You know it is still day

your sleepless eyes tender

in the bright sun

A row of pines casts

a heavy collective shadow

looks like a zip

broad strong

one you might use for baggage

or the fat leather calf

of a high knee boot

Lizz Murphy - Poem 250: Train i.

TRAIN

Riding through the Highlands on the Countrylink looking down 

into the forests (from a 2011 notebook – I have a few backlogs)

i.

Returning from Ireland I remember the word sclerophyll that hard leafed word of the basalt forests I look down into Watch as rock folds over itself melts and flows in all shades of stone Above it is flax flower blue the grass with its hackles up the underfoot of animals

Gold tinted train windows reflect on passing white tree trunks They are changed into flames or warm memories or something torn out of us some part we didn’t know was there we didn’t know we were a part of

Lizz Murphy — Poem 158: Catchphrase

CATCHPHRASE

Waking  trying to catch phrases 

like some bear fishing for salmon or 

a man missing a finger fishing change 

from his pocket  Above our home 

a wedge-tailed eagle  circling

Lizz Murphy — Poem 139: It's in the detail

Lizz Murphy — Poem 121: Meditations for a gardener

Lizz Murphy — Poem 113: The extra hour (after KK, SH, AC, SSTVW, RV)

The extra hour

In that gift of the extra hour the sepia cloud 

of summer dreg  wings lift  spread into the 

fresh and the idea that time has stretched

after Kit Kelen, Susan Hawthorne, Anna Couani, 

Sarah St Vincent Welch, Robert Verdon with thanks

Lizz Murphy — Poem 108: multi-coloured/wild ...

multi-coloured

wild woman whirling

season turning

Lizz Murphy — Poem 82 (Take 2): Paperbarks

with thanks to Sarah St Vincent Welch 
and her New Acton Ekphrastic for the prompt

Lizz Murphy — Poem 82: Paperbarks (thanks to SSTVW)

with thanks to Sarah St Vincent Welch and her New Acton Ekphrastic for the prompt

Lizz Murphy — Poem 81: Breakfast (for Mikaela Castledine)

BREAKFAST
inspired by Chatting about this and that by Mikaela Castledine

What’s for breakfast today says crow

Echidna served in its own spiny bowl

start at the belly work on through 

heart lung liver and then a toe or two