Lies Van Gasse - day 2

Ik vroeg me af of je nog langskwam,

er bleef geen plaats meer in je afdruk

voor iemand die tussen de wanden
mensen kon indammen als water.

-

I wondered if you would stop by,

there was no room for someone in your footprints

for one who, between walls,
could embank people like water.

Iris Fan – No.1 – a growing poem series about the colour green

Green

is our dimension

nothing but dry land beyond

embraced by green embraces us

/

is a foreign country

a glimpse on the bus of your childhood tree

in someone’s front yard

/

Friday on my mind

friday on my mind
farewell lead singer
today is the first day
twenty sixteen
two thousand and sixteen
friday on my mind
friday today
a begining of some kind

yesterday
the beach house
heat wave stillness no breeze
my hosts go for a swim
I am handed a frosty fruit icicle
on a stick
I stay in the air-conditioning

today
stillness in the quiet of pre dawn
trying to avoid the oncoming heat
afraid of the sun whilst admiring its strength
its ability to beat
I plead to who ever will listen
please make the heat wave go away
not just for this day
and bring back weather
of near perfection

I go outside pre dawn
my pleading to who ever will listen has been answered
the sea is choppy
the trees thrashing
and  it is almost blowing a gale
some would say even chilly
thank you who ever listened

Silence: poem 1, burke

“make a poem that does not disturb
the silence from which it came.”

-          Wendell Berry

 

Berry, poetry demands silence?

I have no hope. This year starts

Living with two grandchildren

And their mother. Electronic

Beeps and bops drown out

The peace of this hot day

When even the parrots

Take a siesta and the family pet

Lies doggo on the floor.

Perhaps I’ll tape the sprockets

Up so the soundtrack of

This family is mute.

Maybe then I’ll bear fruit.

 

-  Andrew Burke

Lizz Murphy #1 SUMMER

Lizz Murphy #1 SUMMER

Summer paddocks ski-slope smooth

sheep dark as spat up boulders

Christmas tinsel around the pole

someone killed themselves on

season of sadness merry trinkets

a frown on a baby too young to know 

frowning Daddy please shade his eyes

red hot chilli peppers and the earthquake

I felt face down in the green river she is 

comfortable in her big ass cool as the 

cucumbers she steps lightly around

what you want me to be a loud voice

looping through the crowds a chimp in

a food hall jingle a hum like insects in a

swarm that screeching bird Post-Xmas Sale

wresting every last dollar happy poor year

Sarah St Vincent Welch #1 - Half Moon Bay

Half Moon Bay

on the last day
we waded out
out through the bay
to Cerberus's
hulk

I find you singing
of flight and air
clouds
mazed cities
quiet kitchens
statues and stars
your gifts

our kitchen this morning
cracks with stories
(none mine)
is built again
as the fiddle practices
over us all

in the old year's night
in blue violent haze
so many people waded back
waded back
through the bay
to me

Kevin Brophy #1 Flight Again

Flight Again
Responding to Kit Kelen's 'Imagine Me Made of Mist' and Andrew Burke's 'Taking Flight'

As we stand thinking about bread and coffee,
on the first morning of what still feels like
next year,
the kitchen window glass stops
a rare azure kingfisher in its flight, knocking it down
onto the verandah
where its orange legs retract
into its orange-and-cream washed chest,
its wings close over its blue back
and its long beak opens quivering,
its eyes fixed on nothing as it lies
on Patten's hand now,
new honey poured out on fresh bread
on the kitchen bench,
fruit itching to be harvested or stolen
in the orchard,
potatoes bursting with themselves
in the dark soil,
zucchinis nosing around
in the new sunlight,

and a kingfisher laid out
under the Linden tree,
the small bird fearful it might have been mistaken
in everything
it thought it knew about flight.

Mikaela Castledine #1 Something new

I bought the ebony beads

from the artist

because they called to me

a rosary

for a coffee god

with their dark roasted shine

and because they recalled to me

the two wide black bracelets 

I wore always

on my left arm

when I was young

oiled from my skin

and smoothly striking

together at forearm or at wrist

with every gesture

I stopped wearing them

later

when I had babies

and gradually forgot them

and then

when I was no longer young

first one then the other 

broke brittle on some hardwood floor

into three or four ebony arcs

which were gathered up

and put away 

I could ask the artist

I think

if she could take my broken pieces

and make me something new

Kit Kelen #1 mediodia, Albayzín – last day of '15

mediodia, Albayzín – last day of '15

a rooster in the city

tells dawn to the walls

all morning

pigeon flocks stir something in him

it is a puzzle of winding ways

churches far below and above

voices behind me of solo pedestrians

a hand to head as if tooth aches

they have other worlds in mind

overtake me

as I write this down

climb into cars, drive off

some sit the stairs

action is anxious

there are rug beaters

clouded in dust

there are dogs of great patience

sometimes it's just conversation

slow two stroke ascent

'fandango de la mari' on the cliff above

ruins abound in hashish whiff

spat seeds are cobbles in miniature

first fireworks before noon

could be a terror attack

such is the age

in which we are passing

bells of twelve

are a distance to chime

they're for the stillness

we're well beyond here

the pigeons have another world

at least the rooster still commands

imagination's harem 

 

Anna Couani #1 Glebe stars haiku

plastic stars lit up 

the window and summer rain

opposite, Glebe shops 

the stars are festive

glowing yesterday’s new year

drunks weave their way home

Lies Van Gasse - day 1

Ik vroeg me af of je nog langskwam,
er bleef geen plaats meer in je afdruk

-

I wondered if you would stop by,

there was no room for someone in your footprints