Kerri SHying R # 435 # - fragile autumn

plant me   and I won’t resist

    the burst  the opening

from seed to sapling

 danger

likes the offside rule

fragile autumn

still supplies us seedlings

of the hardy sort 

 fat feeders   strip the soil   years

cry fallow  ground ahead  

Kristen de Kline #188 Another poem about clouds, Berlin and you

I
the clouds gather
colour bleaches out

remember when we hit Berlin
I was shocked by the spectrum
of colour,   everywhere

I'd expected blitzed buildings
sepia landscape, monochrome ruins


II
you were talking about

       space

did you need it    or did I

was it a gift   
or another straight-jacket,   
like remorse


III
clouds clear
in the morning

I down a third pint
from the sun

you watch
lights flash


IV
today you ask:
do you want to run away to Denmark?

I throw my cherry Reds in the back-pack
you hit the all night foreign exchange


V
In Berlin all the cabs were Mercedes,
bright yellow       just like New York

the highways were nothing
like the old news reels, not
scratched          mercilessly

even the skies
were a dark grey shade
and the clouds,   deep
and purple      like runaway
watercolours

Red Cone- Not adding up #340

not adding up

2016
up to #336
now add 4
#340
in 2018

twenty sixteen
three hundred and thirty six
add four
three hundred and forty
in twenty eighteen

if
twenty is red
sixteen yellow
then twenty sixteen would be orange

if
twenty is red
eighteen is blue
then twenty eighteen would be purple

three hundred might be blue violet (or cold green)
thirty six red violet (or warm green)
four blue
add four or blue
three hundred and thirty six
plus four blue
then three hundred and forty
is a warm blue (or blue green)

if
all the numbers
in the world were coloured
how many colours would that make

eat one red apple

Rob Schackne #623 - "Not the crime"

Not the crime
not the person
a state of crime
a minute of image
this water witness
come a bit closer
this burned down
look around you
leave out most of it
leave some right in
a fire was arrested
don't ask for any leads

Kit Kelen #816 - two poems in socks & tracky pants --- clouds, is it? - the original solar collector

816

two poems

in socks and tracky pants

clouds, is it?

my territory

are they gone?

are we here to see?

some days leaning

misted in

a whiff was once

how a horse stood in winter

where a wardrobe flew

open head

scud through

how long can you look

till gone?

the original solar collector

pumpkins up

you patch

you've had your rain

now take the vine

track soil

make map

to match the sky

now butternut

now shine

remembered #211

remembered

clouds
an endless fascination
never too much gazing
never too much
admiration
no two the same
ever
but
remembered
reminded today
of my childish fascination
my childish belief
that
another world
invisible
to us
a human like me
living in the same space
but invisible to me
sometimes lightly felt
like a shiver
perhaps
nebulous
we could pass through
each other
like mist
or a cloud

an explanation of where dreams went
or of any other mysteries

Rob Schackne #622 - "another detail"

another detail
about clouds
why the un- really
makes us uneasy
when I was a kid
I used to think
all strange things 

unique in form
fell from the sky

not belonging
to natural order
& the junk
no one wanted
just waiting
for someone
to pick up

Jeffree Skewes #44 Blow

Nothing can be done

of a wind so determined

buffering

battered bruised

nothing takes it down

sit down

before it takes you down

you got to get in to get out

or run

staying on's the gift

best high-life ever

underneath

what's on top

ring the bell

drunk again...

image:  acrylic and enamel paint,found object on board 90x120 cm j.skewes

Kit Kelen #815 - a turn around the place

815

a turn around the place

petal strewing

tree full of chords

under another

squeeze-out sky

and no encouragement required

myself low lying

apt to be swept off

distance is thunder

we measure it here

have seen it all before

foot pressed into the drying mud

a plastic lid pretends to be a penny

that's how far we've come

that's how long we've been here

see the moral of the story

get it right the first time

always too late for that

you trip on a little sunshine

scamper off in the rain

Kristen de Kline #187 Another poem about clouds

the clouds gather
it's funny where life takes you
the girl's breathless
she puts her drink down
rain falls for three solid hours
my whole world
fell
a p a r t

I won $6.83 on my 23 million ticket
then wrote a letter to my heart:
dear heart, I write, please don't ...
what follows the word don't 
isn't worth talking about

she picks up another drink
remorse is like a straight-jacket, she says   
clouds clear
lights flash
she says again:
do you want to run away to Norway?

horses graze in the acreage
the CFA sends alerts every hour
we can't pick them all up
the beeps about buildings, falling down
or burn offs in far flung paddocks,
the bricks     and the hearts
we can't rescue them all

I can see the clouds
again   illuminated by light
they're drifting,
languidly,

    away

far far away

2010-Early evening

early evening

rain ran
unsure of its
direction
sometimes horizontal
sometimes
angled or
tri-angled
with affection
trees swish
north west
south west
birds race to nests
not looking for a rest
but flung about
like some sort of revenge
gods are yelling
gods simmer
gum leaves glimmer
ever in the wet
and soon the sun
will set

Rob Schackne #621 - "a utopian flash"

a utopian flash
to be a rock
and not to roll

nothing says

solar system
like the rain
wind up
slow eyes
birds scatter

I mop the floor
a poem or two

clouds clear

Kit Kelen #814 - the gods only die

814

the gods only die

with popular wisdom

where we tear them down

set fire

where we lullaby

fall asleep

forget

let tourists in the Pantheon

that's when the gods are making a living

thumb noses

mock their garments

trample the effigy

piss on them

shit

wipe arses with their holy words

would you say that they had our attention now?

so many believers

do all of this with the gods of their enemies

so that we'll know what they believe

to keep their gods alive

where we come in disguise

and say their secret names

it's ours to misbelieve then

gods die

when we stand up to light

when we put their fires down

recite the date till it sticks

count years since the last miracle

when we call the clouds to us

lean into the world's wind

pinch ourselves

call the garden home

own up to our blessings

confess it was us all along

and no, we don't know

when we dream our own way

where we call the sunshine ours

James Walton #93 The bald truth

It is true

what they say about hats,

ask anyone who wears gumboots.

That perfectly naked line

adjusted in walking,

a below knee commentary.

Its knobbly veracity

an inch or a couple of centimetres,

of incontrovertible gospel

depending on your religion.

Rob Schackne #620 - "Astronomers with haiku"

                                  don't the moon
                                 look big
                                 comin' after me

Astronomers with haiku
between bouts with
Supercomputer
listen for a sound
sharpening a pencil
counting syllables
the clouds fidget
the moon sneezes
the Milky Way forgets
what rockets do
how high up
how far away
nothing will say
the rain has stopped
this very large array
it slips off track
how it works

209 Fifteen minutes

fifteen minutes

fifteen minutes before
my class begins
read or write
choose most pleasurable
write

fifteen minutes before
they arrive
to play poems with paint
move colour and shape
paint

fifteen minutes before
my time is up
choose mood
thoughts and words
play

fifteen minutes before
decisions to make
panic and pressure
not long now
dream

fifteen minutes before
five remain
talk art stories
choose art history
discuss

fifteen minutes before
sunny day class
moving to Autumn
still life set up
stare

fifteen minutes before
they arrive
one minute to go
too late
a voice

fifteen minutes before
fifteen minutes ago
sweetly passed

KIt Kelen #813 - notes towards a riddle of the creek

813

notes towards a riddle of the creek

first understand it is event

a certain season draws the sky

dark to this fold of green

caught close it furs

and spumes like sea

drunk with all this drink

it is always pointing

you could say down

with a camera and

we wash this

what lovely light in the after-rain

jungled to the tune still rings

and will till days from here

208 Fresh start

fresh start

a new beginning
a fresh start
moving forward
getting a grip[
not looking back
no backward glances
or sideways

a fresh start
a late start
a fresh start

Rob Schackne #619 - "The chook raffle"

The chook raffle
lotteries won
who needs a feed
this week gets one
a crescent moon
don't get excited
jokers everywhere
your turn is next
how do we miss it
placed in a landscape
waiting to be born

Kerri Shying R # 434 - Who who who

Who who who

you told me   all people

 are the same fifty 

people    re

concocted  over decades

into new drinks  

savoury snacks

for tapas  for

brunch   après

the funeral  of that friend

I never met another

you

I’m still

looking

Kristen de Kline # 186 Poets in a bookstore

poets in a bookstore
dangerous,    gobbling
up the end of the alphabet

outlaws chattering
loose threads
hanging
commas
,,,,,,,,,,,,,

words, I can't get my head
     around
rent is overdue

the moon is waning now
Mercury is retrograde

the mantra is to hum
chant it out - loudly

the third ray is yellow
what are they on about

pass me
another whiskey shot

read me
another poem

poets in a bookstore
lawless, dancing over
the end of the alphabet

Fifteen minutes

fifteen minutes before
my class begins
read or write
choose most pleasurable
write

fifteen minutes before
they arrive
to play poems with paint
move colour and shape
paint

fifteen minutes before
my time is up
choose the mood
thoughts and words
play

fifteen minutes before
decisions to make
panic and pressure
not long now
dream

fifteen minutes before
five remain
talk art stories
choose art history
discuss

fifteen minutes before
sunny day class
moving into autumn
still life set up
stare

fifteen minutes before
they arrive
one minute to go
too late
a voice

fifteen minutes before
fifteen minutes ago
sweetly passed

Kit Kelen #812 - comes again

812

comes again

and after us

who knows what creeps in out of next

sky is over the road now

swimming with us here

all falling fresh

rain does a darkness in the day

and dampens all outside ambitions

that could be exciting

the grass will get away

one of those stay-in-bed jobs

though you might yet have to dig someone out

run ag pipe under the whole of the world

better to build on stumps

gravel the track to think through this

much too late for that

haven't we slept till this to now?

creek wakes

a voice to top it altogether

we're passengers of rhythm

it's come again

and after us

discover new places in the rain

always some hiding hole

and stood to attention

everyone stops for the parade

pay respects to the fallen

the falling

clouds to come

the school bus splashes through

ducks tuck in dark of it

no one barks

it's serious

full of prodigies

and omens!

this is the stuff foretold

and often eases for a breather

then buckets down again

it is a far flung better fall

than we have had long ages

still steaming where they

cattle stand

philosophize

to wash in such a sky

bones of us lie under

all well rinsed by now

you're everywhere in it

puddle boots muddy again

strike up a jungle

and sing!

somewhere all above this

a sun is shining now

James Walton #92 My internet is intermittent

Half a picture loads

as though 1969 won’t let go.

The grainy of a July winter’s day

ball bearings roll a school corridor.

Smaller steps slipping,

that masquerade of orange

clinging to old photos.

Peel away the valleys

earth beats a seethe.

But you choose to live there,

is the technical advice.

Buzz Aldrin waves in fly by,

for a while

everything is clear.

Rob Schackne #618 - "Water of life"

Water of life
where sometimes
life cannot go
two sides of spirit
no argument
of deep things
the outlaws talk
the single malt
satori tomorrow
the rent is due
all the rivers
next stop
no stop

Kristen de Kline #185 Touched by almost everything (for Rob. S)

Poets:   brother and
sister poets, I told you
it was dangerous
meeting in a bookshop:
gobbling    up
the end of the alphabet,
Citizen, conversations
snatched from commuter trains
supermarkets downtown Putin
embarrassment Trump white guilt
book launches drunken
Limited Editions linked
by hanging threads
-   words  -
I can't get enough off
falling off the walls at Collected Works:
GOD, DADA, POWDER MONKEYS,
If you meet my family ...

In Melbourne lane ways
the poets:  sisters   brothers
we tread on fake lawn   star
signs   being gypsies  living in satellite
towns   dislocated   an annoying drill
how far to Southern Cross? 
you speak French, are the
cockatoos in Seymour
chattering
lawlessly

is this
what makes
us tick:
poetry, poverty, whiskey,
salted seaweed crackers 
and     always,
another two cold Stella's   
on the tab 

Rob Schackne #617 - "The waxing moon" (for KdK)

The waxing moon
so still tonight
behind the gumtree
no birds tonight
my new binoculars
I feel my sister poets
shopping for books
they write poems
under the lights
and my brother poets
find old whisky bottles
a little noisy
two-thirds full
the cold mountains
the warm clothes
the hope and waiting
it comes and goes
and we are touched
by almost everything

Kerri Shying R # 433 - Evolver

Evolver

I saw a dog loving himself sick

  all up in the back of a ute

wind-surfing  down Industrial Drive

 doing eighty   Doberman mouth

open   that was some sweet deal

done by canines   when they crept

 up by the fires  man tooting

his own horn   how

 premature   the winners

cross the line

KIt Kelen #811 - grey

811

grey

hat headed

suited so

the day

down drain

or puddle sat

a frog has come this colour

such socks will never dry

this is the grey

won't go

like wick

but there's no candle comes

concrete of forms filled

of the filing away

this is the grey that bites

is shaped to flight

from blood begetting

biblical

you'll see right through these wings

all arrows point grey

things crawl in out of it

insects find themselves indoors

grey of who can blame them (?)

of a certain tide

abysmal

hymned in some thunder

thing I acknowledge mine

of the wall

of the flag

saluted for a sky

sometimes the sun strikes through it

like an arrow in the heart

it's grey

of the green got

how else up?

Kerri Shying R # 432 - The change

The change

what is the taste of lollipop   left

beside the bed   to bond along

the bare  blonde boards

a trick  left-over from the summer

hoarding-up  of sweetness

winter treacle sites itself

firmly  under fat

Kit Kelen #810 - live in the midst

810

live in the midst

it itches here

as often told

as if this were

an ever after

you won't remember that

in thunder

too early to tell

mid-sentence

in throes of

the event

(in flagrante delicto)

culpable in

years, seasons

moments

equally

spoken till

the wind stills

woven in the web

spit of the garden

blessed down to size

never knowing

how worlds get on without

but here we are

limber in lower

reach

the storm lives here

there's someone always visiting

on all fours crawl

get thee behind me

go hard

a great persistence

whoever we are

it's grown up all around

I grew up as well

you balance this

on the head of a pin

roar of the road

there has to be a twist

fate fiddle

in all the dream of waking

this has to have been it

stray from stars

light falls to us

imagine very very far

you might just get a glimpse

Rob Schackne #616 - Yesterday

Yesterday


It meets the eye
yesterday we met
migrants walking
on the beach
out of sight
they turned
waxing crescent
yesterday we met
they came back
there was a boat
that's not it
what meets the eye
yesterday we met
a bloodbath
yesterday we met
at the poetry shop
yesterday we met
on the beach

waxing crescent
there was a boat
clouds gathered
what killers
yesterday we met
what meets the eye
that's not it

Kristen de Kline #184 Fish 'n' chips (For Rob. S & The Migrants)

I've bought
too many
chips, it's
easy to do,
the hoki
is fine
but they
always go
overboard
with the fries

it's been a long time
since I've heard the stories
... we ran for our lives
thought the end of the world was upon us
good men died, bad ones survived
the clothes we stood up in ...

was fumbling with newsprint
I didn't say a word
crunching
the chips up
into a
disposable
fist-sized
portion

she says:
my father died of starvation

no indents
no pauses
no extra spaces
between words

temporarily, my son stops
his SnapChat session
I unfurl more waxed
paper, live-streaming into sepia
news: Jacinda Adern talking
about her first weeks in office
splattered with grease

it doesn't matter
that we've enlarged
the only photo
breathed colour
back into him
mounted the shot
in a sturdy frame

it all comes down
to the fish'n'chips

what we can't    do
migrants   walking off boats
at the old domestic terminal
what we can't    say
clouds       gathering
what we won't know
more birds      falling
out of the skies, searching
for stray chips
on sandy beaches

I've bought too many chips
that's    not    it

Kit Kelen #809 - creatures

809

creatures

here we all are

open to

creeping

cover the allotted

with ceremony

and display

kingly queenly

jungle crowned

so much skin

wave arms about

and still the bastards land

waking where we

lay me down

come in the last shower

we are in the vast

wool over

only just arriving

turns take

fleshed and pumped

best dressed for bliss

quite a climb to be

unnoticed in the upper branches

triumphing

aren't we under all

?

we run the rug

rake rafters

sit up straight

bow heads of prayer

inside out to snooze

and all a body should

wry meeting

with a heigh and ho

so light of limb

and lithe

must mean

we are up to tricks

stroll the rooftops for some height

beckoned, weren't we (?)

to be here

followed, winged along

or it was an old tune drew

some skin to scribble

still in all to do

sprung up

when well watered

coiled spring

two bob watch

you tell me

some roar like traffic

some set light

we only figure speech

from time to time

is how we're here

burden

and we give

we creatures

we are on the way

catch all the light

that falls to us

though mainly must forget

a breeze will bear us all off

we tend where we have touched

much loved

and roll to rub

let weather other-end us

follow a trail

you'll sniff us down

fall off the radar some day

and sometimes off the back of a truck

have to walk from there

it's sobering

every creature is to bliss

as all of elsewhere in us

say!

heir to

vale of slings

and stings

and make a deal

today we're good

carnival creatures tomorrow

by mask met

so you'll never know

but be my pet

this once

o stroke

and come to the cliff

sad after

every animal is

oh well for the fisherman, so on...

then chocolate in the after-Lent

juggle the selves

till creature come home

be blessed

grass grew up through our fingers

gone

here we are

death beckoned

wear specs

for a better look

make mine manna

touch the wind

and we were led

by lightning

that's how struck

the heart