Tag Archives: fire

Day 13 — aphorisms & platitudes + pearls

Read the latest Rupi Kaur today & I gotta confess. I just don’t get her Instapoesy thang. So much is just banal platitudes that have been done better dozens of times before (some of her longer poems about the migrant experience are actually kinda of interesting) — but the Temu-grade aphorisms do nothing for me. Anyhoo this is a pseudohomage to her by tweaking/reworking some of my fave reading memes.

The Poetic Factoid comes out of learning about Pearls of Wisdom.

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reading pl(attitudes)

1.
SIX MOTIVATIONALS
i.
You can’t read in bed all day …

… unless you start 
nice & early in the morning.

~

ii.
One does not simply 
walk into a bookstore …

… without an authorised list
detailing which specific book(s) 
you are going to purchase.

Bwahahahahahahaha hahahahahahaha huh 

~

iii.
Autumn is here. Winter coming …

… time to make like a scout & prepare
by ensuring you have between 33-42 
new books in your TBR stacks.

If you do not: to the bookshop — now!

~

iv.
Bookworms are cute
bookwyrms are better.

Our hoards of treasure
are ever so much bigger.

~

v.
If anyone needs me …

… I’ll be reading

WARNING: don’t need me.

~

vi.
I love books, my doggo
reading, & maybe 3 people.

You are not one of them.
Go.

~~~

2.
FOUR DEVOTIONALS
i.
My partner issued an ultimatum: 
Look. It’s books or me. Hmmm.
Was reading a Fielding novel last week
& I remembered her name. Aemelia.
Anna?  Anastasia perhaps?
Something ending with A anyway.
Or starting with it …

~

ii.
Tip to spice up your love life.
Get yourself pleasantly tipsy
Go to your fave online bookstore.
Spend up big. Sit back & wait
& see what the universe delivers you.

~

iii.
My ideal partner when I say
Turn me on:

Walks over
Whispers in my ear
Wanna go to the bookstore?

Instant goosebumps.

~

iv.
My ideal partner when I say
Talk dirty to me:

It’s cold out
It’s almost dark
I’ve done all the chores
There’s leftovers in the fridge
I lit the fireplace in the library an hour ago
The room is oh-so-toasty warm
I’m making us hot chocolates
It’s the weekend tomorrow 
I think that was thunder
It’s starting to rain

& while I was out earlier
I bought you the latest book in the series you love

~

*****

Day 13 Factoid – the usefulness of Wisdom Pearls

Pearl of Wisdom

Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding,  
for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold.
                                                                                                   Proverbs 3:13

TIL I learnt that Pearls of Wisdom 
have morphed from genuine spiritual insight 
to more rustic ironic home truths 

& I got to thinking wouldn’t it be 
wonderful if there was an actual mystic
Aunty Pearl who travelled the world

Dispensing advice to everyone annually
that you had to act on regardless of whether
you agreed with it (especially if you didn’t)

That combover doesn’t work 
— get a buzz cut, dye what’s left blonde
& go bald with chutzpah!

He’s never gonna leave his wife
Kick him to the curb sweetie
— find someone worthy of you!

You hate accountancy. Quit your job.
Play your guitar. You’ll never make much money
— but you’ll be happy till you die!

Anyone harbouring doubts over her advice
could come together on the seventh day of every month
surrounded by supporters to help them break out of their shells 

Day 03 – libraries: Alexandria + Congress

Poem about one of my very favourite things to daydream about…

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the Great Library

there’s a meme I love
you know you’re a book geek 
when you still get upset thinking about
the Library of Alexandria
& many are the times i’ve considered 
buying a t-shirt stating similar sentiments

there was another viral trend
first flagged a year or so ago
about how often men allegedly
thought about The Roman Empire 
(several times a week apparently)
but while i definitely enjoy daydreaming 
about both Ancient Rome & Athens
Alexandria remains my go-to contemplatory place

the Great Library of Alexandria 
shrouded in mystery, from its founding 
to its destruction a thousand years later
some say the massive, ancient library was
the single greatest accumulation 
perhaps 400,000 papyrus scrolls 
of human knowledge in history
up until that point

it burnt three times rather than 
one single conflagration
i) Caesar accidentally set fire to part of it
during his tête-à-tête with Pompey 
ii) several hundred years later a Christian 
Patriarch turned the Temple of Serapis 
into a church & repeated skirmishes
destroyed parts piecemeal   iii) & finally
Caliph Omar asserted the contents 
“either contradict the Koran, so they’re heresy, 
or they agree, so are superfluous” 
& thus the scrolls were used as tinder 
in the city’s bathhouses — supposedly taking 
six months for everything to burn away

it is this religious arrogance / ignorance
which most angers my bookdragon
for we’ll never know now what wisdom
we lost … what science was undone …
what stories forgotten … simply because 
zealots were too insecure in their own words
to allow contradictory ones to exist

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Factoid 3 – biggest modern library 

juxtaposition of red & blue

the Library of Congress 
in Washington, D.C.
is the world’s largest library

there are numerous interesting 
facts one could share about
this iconic institution 

— yet the thing I’m entertained by 
is the current irony involved in 
the juxtaposition of the words 

Library — & — Congress 

Day 07 – fire + balls

*****

Today my housemate spent large parts of his day in other roles: netball selector & volunteer firefighter.

The serious poem began playing with synonyms … & then stayed that way cos I was too exhausted to work it further … but I think it’s kind of fun for a first draft. Reflects how I feel consuming lots of climate change literature. The factoid came when it was suggested (perhaps facetiously) that I should write a netball poem. Regardless, challenge accepted.

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9:burnonyms 

1.
our house is burning : on fire : alight : ablaze, blazing ; it’s going up : up in smoke : in flames : aflame : it smoulders : flares : flashes : flickers

2.
we’ve burned all the letters : set fire to : set on fire : set alight : set light to : lit : set burning : ignited : put a match to ; kindled : incinerate : reduce to ashes : destroy by fire ; torch : inflame

3.
we forgot to turn off the iron & nearly burned the sky : scorch : singe : sear : char : blacken : discolour : brand ; scald ; cauterise : calcine ; torrefy

4.
our lungs burn with humiliation : be hot : be warm : feel hot : be feverish : be fevered : be on fire; blush : redden : be red :: go red : go pink : turn red : turn crimson : turn scarlet : flush : colour : crimson

5.
our lip burns where our teeth have pierced it : smart : sting : tingle : prick : prickle : be irritated : be sore : hurt : be painful : throb : ache

6.
earth is burning with curiosity : at what is still to come : be consumed by/with : be eaten up by/with : be obsessed by/with : be tormented by/with : be bedevilled by

7.
some (but not enough) are burning with fury that so little is being done : we seethe : boil : fume : smoulder : simmer : be boiling over : be beside oneself ; be livid : be wild : jump up & down : froth/foam at the mouth

8.
people differ considerably in the energy they burn up : use up : consume : expend : get through : go through : dissipate : eat up : exhaust

9.
i burn to know what the secret is : yearn : long : have a longing : ache : be aching : itch : be itching : desire : be consumed with the desire : want : want badly : be unable to wait : be eager : be desperate : hanker : have a hankering : wish : crave : lust : pant : hunger : be hungry : be greedy : thirst : be thirsty ; have a yen : yen : be dying; archaic be athirst : be desirous

*****

Day 7 – TIL about an odd netball name

ball games, sprawling names

netball once was known as basketball
— wait let me start again

in 1891 basnetketball
began life with : just 13 rules 
as a 9 versus 9 game ;
using an old soccer ball ;
two wall-mounted
peach baskets as goals
& incorporated rules from  
 duck on a rock (a medieval
kid’s game played as a child)

for about 3 seconds it was called
Naismith Game after its inventor
— but he hated that & said 
“we have a ball & a basket: 
why not basketball?”

a female physical culture instructor
tweaked several rules them to 
make them more decorous for ladies
misunderstood others & called the resultant
hodgepodge basquette

in 1893 : Madame Österberg  
who advocated : female physical fitness
thereby better preparing : for motherhood 
not to mention :  emancipation  : generally
tossed a version : of the new sport
across the sea : to her English college students 

tweaks a couple years later 
by American lecturer : Dr Toles
played with waste paper baskets : on walls
without lines : boundaries : or circles

more revisions : 1897 from another 
American teacher : Miss Porter
moved outdoors : onto grass courts
divided : into three zones : replaced 
baskets : with ringed : nets

hence : net ball which went : imperial 
thrown : to all quarters of the Empire
caught in Oz possibly as early as 1897
though most say : turn of the century

despite being :  netball  :  everywhere else
the Aussies & Kiwis kept : the name 
women’s basketball : until 1970

at which point I can finally return 
to my initial remarks — 

netball once was known as basketball
in fact, it was still that when we Ango Panthers 
won our previous A-Grade premiership 
but. no. more. — we are now : reigning : BLG : netball premiers 

Day 7 – fire alarm

Tonight was CFS (Country Fire Service) training & so I took the opportunity to pick a few of the old firies brains.

fire alarm 

at training tonight
there’s the usual banter
& the familar stories 
the old hands tell
about wild jobs  
they’ve been on

dead end gullies
their captains tried 
to order them into

walls of flame leapfrogging
roads  rivers  almost bare 
dirt to resume again
in forest canopies 
impossible distances away 

sitting in the truck
reflectors down
breathing apparatus on
under blankets 
waiting for the fire 
to burn over
hoping like hell
the halo holds up*
likewise hoping 
their sphincters do

i don’t know if climate 
change is the cause
but i do know fire 
season is starting earlier
lasting longer
& each one 
feels more of a bitch
than the one before

*a waterfall-like system which rings the cab

Day 16 – fire (& stone)

flames.jpg

Spent a large chunk of my writing time today trying to craft a pome comparing & contrasting the fire at Notre Dame with the fire in our climate. While many parts worked, a few did not & I realised longer would be needed to resolve the kinks.

However, while researching the idea I came across another, far less known story, which led to this …

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holy houses

in less widely covered news, the revered
al-asqa mosque in east jerusalem
was also struck by (a far less dramatic)
blaze at the same time as notre dame’s
inferno in france — damaging solomon’s
stables beneath a corner of temple mount

here’s a thought:
perhaps god is trying to tell us something

.

.

BONUS POEM: April 16, 2018

The theme persists.

*****

immemorial

stone is worn
moss softens
lichen gathers
chiselled lines
flatten
it rains hard
the sun shines
& pretty soon
everything
is forgotten

14b cornish grave

Day 03 – valleys (& hobbitholes)

03 misthouse

Reading a Carl Sagan book earlier, where he describes a perfect day from his childhood at a World Fair & got to wondering, what might a perfect day from my childhood be?

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a long ago perfect day

a sunday, naturally
  they’re always sundays

autumn morning
cool but not too cold
  not unlike today

overprotective mist
hugging the edges
of our tiny valley

book snug under covers
  wasn’t a doona then
  but in this memory
  i’m stitching it so

hurried lunch
sardines on toast
  tomato sauce
can’t be away too long
from the otherworld

back into bed
till tea

tinned tomato soup
heated in aluminium
saucepan on the stove
  thinned with milk

fire in the potbelly
  wood i probably chopped

not much mattered
beyond the old stone walls
  indeed other than grandparents’ homes
  i barely knew anything
  greater than a dozen miles distant

except the stars of course
always the stars

 

 

BONUS POEM: April 3, 2018

Visited a place I’ve wanted to experience, since reading about it nearly a decade ago. It was as wonderful as anticipated, even if I was disappointed to discover they now have their own iPhone app. The world changes even when we wish it wouldn’t…

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Civitie de Bagnoregio 

to live upon
a mountain top
                         alone
like many monk
incarnations before

a town of hobbit
holes on a hill
instead of in
if all mine i’d fill
every home
with books

if only

i were unaware
of the signs
of
      land
       slipping
        away

 

03b Bagnoregio

Day 8 – Daughter of the Poets

Second day of Judging a Book by its Cover … & today’s text is Wooroloo by Frieda Hughes. My friend & fellow poet, Jules Leigh Koch, lent it to me following my reading at Lee Marvin on Tuesday night.

Those who’ve read Day 5’s post Crows everywhere you turn, will know I elected to perform what amounted to a “concept album” of poems; with every one referencing in some way, a crow or crows; including a couple inspired by a chilling experience at this year’s Adelaide Writers’ Week, where the voice of Ted Hughes reading poems recorded in Adelaide 40 years earlier were played through the Pioneer Women’s Memorial Gardens. It made for a very a haunting session dedicated to Hughes, with guests Jonathon Bate (biography of Hughes) & Max Porter (Grief is the Thing With Feathers).

I didn’t know that Ted & Sylvia’s daughter had tried her hand at poetry. Nor that for a time she was married to an Australian and lived on a West Australian farm. Sadly, the collection did little for me, with only a couple of poems I found engaging. However, if the cover is anything to go by, she is a pretty talented artist.

conflagration

the sky is a golden fleece
— a beach furnace fuelled
by driftwood embers
— the front face of fire
leaping into the air
— flames catapulting over
themselves to escape
— everything it is destroying

wooroloo.jpg

NOTE: this painting is not called ‘Wooroloo’, but ‘Two Sheep’, 1996, by Frieda Hughes. Sadly for the sheep, they have been cropped out by moi.

Day 8 – it’s water jim, but not as you know it

A toast to one of my favourite substances. Been wanting to write a poem about this elixir for a very long time. What came out, wasn’t quite what I expected … but I kinda like it …

NB – I thought I’d uploaded this last night, but I was very tired & clearly I only saved it. Ooops. (Sarah saw it yesterday so she can verify it was written then 🙂 )

*****

uisce beatha : water of life

drinking you is:

sword swallowing
while swinging
from a trapeze

crashing a spaceship
into the sun
to save humanity
from … something

dancing on
the volcano’s lip
as the fire below
becomes the fire
sliding inside

your baptismal juice:

has restored my life
numerous times
drowning despair
in your amber fire
before hope somehow
phoenixes out soggy
& with a sore head
but ready to go on

give me:

an eternal well
of your water
& i shall always
believe

*****

Whisky_by_Hankins copy

April 22 – Day Twenty Two: night visitors

Disturbing visitors last night inspired this. NB this still isn’t on word press despite being back in town is because I got back to discover my electricity has been disconnected. The glamorous life of the poet.

The Outsiders

I’m the proverbial snug bug in a rug
Bedcurled, thriller-reading when the attack begins
Intimate thunder that sounds far off
Yet feels close, frantic rain beating, never falling

As the numbers build, so too the sound
The fury, dive bombers splatting glass
On the neighbouring mesh screen, maniacal harpists
Frenetic playing to appease the wild god of light

Again & again they bash themselves
Over & over they wingertip strum
Till they fall to the ground, broken

There turn violent circles, overwound
tops hypercharged on red bull
Tyre smoking donuts by kamikaze hot rods

Already dying, despite only abandoning
Brownpaper sleeping bags hours ago

If the desire to embrace fire is so intense
Why not fly, Icarus like, at the sun

By the time dawn arrives, silver light filtered

By low clouds, dozens of wing-wrapped coffins

Sleep on

Concrete

*****

moth

Image moi.