Tag Archives: activist poem

Day 12 — denial + heart is a muscle

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These guys have been in my poetic sights ever since I first read This Changes Everything. I regularly cite the key tenet of this poem in discussion with CC deniers.

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Heartlessland

i.
one of the most strident 
climate change deniers
is american conservative 

think tank — & i use
those words advisedly — 
the heartland institute 

by rabidly rejecting 
the scientific consensus 
on climate change it has done

perhaps more damage than
even the trillion dollar 
fossil fuel corporations

that put us here

ii.
to the surprise of no one
this organisation took the coin 
of tobacco giant philip morris

spent the 90s discrediting 
smoking’s health impacts, the risk 
of secondhand smoke & fighting smoking bans

i guess that says it all

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Day 12 – TI Wrote some heart poems as easy as shooting fish in a barrel 

miles & litres

supposedly my heart pumps 
almost 7 litres of blood around 

the over 60, 000 miles 
of blood vessels in my body

every. single. minute.

& i’ve driven each. & every 
one of them
                      twice. 
          looking for the slightest
   signpost
that you still love me

BONUS #1 — above average 

the average heart
beat of a woman 
is (on average) 
8 beats a minute faster 
than a man’s
— assuming it beats
at all

(i always said 
you weren’t average)

BONUS #2 — all I want for Xmas

each year more heart attacks occur
on Christmas Day than any other

Monday, likewise, has more cardiac assaults
than any other day of the week

Lookout 2028 emergency rooms
when Christmas falls on a Monday!

Day 11 — imposter + composter syndrome

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Reading It’s Not that Radical: Climate Action to Transform Our World & Mikaela Loach talks about how not everyone in the movement needs to be a front line activist. Everyone has their role to plan … & grass roots movements only succeed if there’s a broad spectrum of supporters doing a range of roles. Which got me think. The Poetic Factoid started as a joke google, & I’m still not 100% sure if it’s a real thing, but I went with it anyway. 

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imposter 

for a long time : i’ve wanted : to do more : to be more : active : to fight harder : for the world : i want : the world : i believe : we all deserve : but at the same time : i’ve suffered : impostor syndrome : because : after all : what have i : really : got to offer : what do i know : of struggle : i’m a reasonably : well off white man : in a reasonably affluent society : who has more : than the majority of : most people on the planet : i want to speak up : but i fear my voice : or voices like it : have been heard : too much : for too long : already : & in many ways : is/are largely responsible : for the very mess : we’re in ; i want to whisper : but i’m different : but am i : after all : with all my : bundled up griefs : & rookie mistakes : blundering bumbling bumping through life : not deliberating setting : out to harm : but doing so : anyone : what good : after all : will my contribution : be : to the cause : to any cause : to all causes

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Day 11 – TIL about a potential self diagnosis

Composter syndrome

a psychological phenomenon affecting
compulsive individuals incredibly unlike me
who may exhibit the following characteristics:

i. obsessive attention: 
preoccupied with composting
that perfect balance of organic matter
temperature control, & moisture 

ii. perfectionism: 
always researching alternate techniques 
experimenting with multiple systems
striving for the ideal mix
composition, texture, & odour
& heartbroken when it fails 
to meet self-imposed standard

iii. waste management anxiety: 
deep responsibility concerning
environmental sustainability
heightened guilt when organic waste 
is discarded rather than transformed
into nutrient-rich compost

so very not me till i realised, last night
i accidentally peed on the compost heap

it was no moon dark & i’d taken the dog out 
& now i’m freaking out in case i’ve totally wrecked the nitrogen balance

Day 3 – energy + Eiffel

Ironically I’m sitting at the puta writing a poem about energy when I am exhausted after a very long day.

Two Notes:
1. Formatting is an issue (the poems don’t look as good as they do properly formatted in a word doc) as is often the way with WordPress.
2. The old maxim, sorry about the long poems, I didn’t have time to write short ones is particularly true tonight.

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Australian Energy                             —                          a call & response poem

Australia is 
the third-largest exporter of coal in the world 

no, it’s the biggest

home to two of the 10 largest coal mines in the world

four of the 10 

Australians believe  {of the total workforce} :
the coal mining industry makes up 11% 

in reality it’s just 0.3% 

oil & gas employment make up 20%

just 0.2% 

Australians believe  {of GDP} :
the economic value of the gas industry is 12.4% 

2.5%

coal mining contributes 13.6%

2.6%

50% of Australians believe  {of what we should be building} :
new gas power stations

only 21% believe we should be building new renewable energy projects

my apologies i was confused

let me try that again

50% of Australians believe:
new renewable energy projects

only 21% believe we should be building new gas power stations

the 2023-2024 Australian Federal Budget has been released 
fossil fuel subsidies (such as the Fuel Tax Credit)
– will cost the Budget over $41 billion 
over the next four years

significantly more than all the funded climate initiatives combined

despite fossil fuel industries being the past

& clean energy initiatives, the future 

(perhaps, assuming

we survive)

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Funfact Day 3 – TIL how to grow iconic French architecture 

Paris’s brutal metal heart
— the Eiffel Tower can be 
as much as fifteen to sixteen
centimetres taller in summer

{ thermal expansion heats the iron up
the particles gain kinetic energy 
& in so doing : take up more space }

think how tall she will get
when The Iron Lady starts 
experiencing month long 40+ degree days

when Ville-Lumière becomes Ville-Chaleur 
& Ville d’Amour becomes Ville d’Sueur

{ City of Light melts into City of Heat 
& City of Love drips into City of Sweat }

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Funfact Day 3 (bonus)  – TIL other Eiffel things

i.
the Tower was initially 
intended for Barcelona
but those pesky Catalans
thought it an awful eyeful (ouch!)
so Gustave pitched her to Paris instead

ii.
initially the French weren’t 
overly impressed either
metal-shaming her as
“useless & monstrous” 
“a stupefying folly”
& “an odious column of bolted metal” 

always something of a prickly loner
writer Guy de Maupassant 
dined every day at the cafe directly below 
— the only spot in Paris he claimed
he couldn’t see the damn thing

but they grew to love her
— as did the whole world
till she became what she now is
(like so many modern landmarks)
little more than Instafodder

Day 2 – heating + pleating the eggs

Not sure how long the poems will synchronise but today, as with yesterday, they do. The whole first poem is included as it didn’t turn out, quite as I intended …

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morning zoo kookiness 

mid-january 2019 : an Adelaide-based : morning breakfast radio crew : conceived a whacky notion : can you really fry : an egg : on a car bonnet : on a hot enough day : the forecast was for 45º : so using a brand new car : provided by a car dealership : i shall keep remained nameless : as a cynical : free marketing opportunity : they cracked : a couple of eggs : (& sadly : more than a couple : so-called whacky jokes) : before throwing on : some bacon, snags & hash browns : the eggs : allegedly : commenced cooking : straight away : thrilling the cool gang : except a deeply concerned : car paint expert (that’s a thing?) : who called in to explain : why you shouldn’t try this at home : raw egg will eat right through your paint : he wheezed : yep : that’s the takeaway : not that the world : today : was really farking hot : & only getting hotter 

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Day 2 – TIL about Chefs’ hats

a good yolk 

i. 
according to ancient culinary legend
the pleats of the “toque blanche”
the tall white chef’s hat
subtly represent the many skills 
acquired over long years of kitchery

ii.
furthermore & specifically
the 100 folds supposedly show
the chef knows the 100 
different ways to prepare eggs
— but let’s be frank —  
if you can poach properly
you’re tiptoeing towards … perfection 

iii. 
today i also learnt
upon doing a little extra 
interwebbing that this
so called “fun fact”
culled from some 
chirpy digital listicle
is actually total BS

bonus
iv. 

The One Hundred Egg Preparatory Methods are:

hardboiled (15-20 minutes) : medium (5-10 minutes) : softboiled (3-4 minutes) : coddled eggs : curried eggs : scotch woodcock : pickled eggs : beet pickled eggs : tea eggs or soy eggs : deviled eggs : angeled eggs : hammond eggs : egg salad : egg tetrazzini : over easy : fried hard : over medium : sunny-side up : eggs au beurre noir : frog in the hole : toad in the hole : scrambled eggs : cloud eggs : baked eggs : shirred eggs : shirred eggs and ham : eggs mornay : eggs florentine : egg nests : eggs in potato nests : eggs in tomato cups : omelette : cheese omelette : ham omelette : omelet fines herbes : baked omelet : puffy omelette : omurice : frittata : quiche : quiche lorraine : poached eggs : poached eggs in red wine : poached eggs in soup : spanish eggs : eggs sur le plat : scotch eggs : eggs benedict : meringue : cheese custard : creole eggs : egg casserole : cheese egg float : cheese pudding : dutch bunny (old time egg pancake) : yorkshire pudding : souffle : cheese souffle : asparagus souffle : chocolate souffle : vanilla souffle : eggs goldenrod : french toast : eggs a la king : eggs fu yung (foo young, various spellings) : egg timbales : egg drop soup : creamed deviled eggs : eggnog (not usually cooked,  i know) : creme brulee : floating island : baked custard : custard pie : custard soufffle : frozen custard : coconut custard : chocolate pots de creme : zabaglione : coffee custard : rice pudding : custard sauce : angel food cake : shakshuka : ham kedgeree : eggs au gratin : nicoise salad : piperade : coin purse eggs : iron pot eggs : steamed gold-and-silver eggs : huevos revueltos con totopos : huevos revueltos con chorizo : huevos rancheros : higaditos : enchiladas sencillas : whipped cream omelet : sweet (or jelly) omelet : three pepper tagine with eggs : kefta tagine with eggs

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Day 1 – slow time in a fast forward age + solitary maw

April is here again & so thus Na/GloPoWriMo 2024. I’m moderately motivated by the month ahead though I always enjoy it, as things kick into gear. 

As late as mid-afternoon, I wasn’t sure what to focus on this year. My themes-based approach to Na/GloPoWriMo which has worked so well over previous seasons will continue — but I wasn’t sure which direction (or project) most appealed. Then it happened. The collection of poems I read today (I always try & read one volume a day during this hectic month) was bought for two reasons: because it had herons on the cover & because the poet is an acclaimed activist/political poet.

So that’s what my focus will be each day — an activist poem (a poem about one of the many issues I feel I should be doing something about, but aren’t). Hence, writing poetry — because we know all how that a few lines of well-crafted verse can change the world.

However, as with last year, I have a project in mind which may depend on the poems not being made public prior to their appearance. So I won’t be posting the entirety of each poem on my blog, but a [hopefully] tantalising snippet (many journals/etc refuse to accept poems even if they’ve just been on personal Facebook pages or blogs with only 100 subscribers). 

As a wonderful compensation for skimpy serious verse, I’ll be repeating my daily Poetic Factoid poem assignment from last year — which I thoroughly loved & from which I got some absolute cracking poems.

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bad timing

this crisis is so slow moving — and intimately place-based
a flower blooms early — an insect’s life cycle alters by weeks 
& suddenly birds have nothing — to feed their chicks

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Day 1 – TIL more about cool Japanese words

solitary maw

i.
i’ve long suspected the Japanese do words 
better than us — ever since learning electron 
means electricity child — today’s discovery is
Kuchi zamishi which describes the act of eating 
when you’re not really all that hungry 
but because your mouth is lonely
Koo-chi-sa-bi-shē is how it appears phonetically
— & honestly it could be on my family crest

ii.
it’s kind of “peckish” : but not
— less brazen than “stress eating”
— technically you’re not starving : 
but you keep checking the cupboard 
every 7 mins or so to see if something 
new & delicious has somehow
miraculously appeared in abstentia
— only my eyes want it : but 
i’ll eat it anyway : & so food 
silences mouth

iii.
sure we could cultivate awareness 
become mindful when we devour
overcome our unconscious consumption
through gratefully savouring each bite 
as Zen Buddhists do — but honestly
where’s 
    — the bleedin’ fun 
                 — in that