Four of the past five nights I’ve fallen asleep, sitting upright in my computer chair. I’m feeling totally run down. Writing the poems is wonderful as always. But draining when combined with actually trying to live a life also. So even though I’m not sure what this topic is going to be, I do know. It has to be short. I can’t endure a long session today. I’m working on poems about Sacrifice Zones & NIMBY politics (Not In My Back Yard). So this little lightly ironic poem was pretty easy to write. Just what I needed.
The Poetic Factoid was found on the same page as other research & made my day simpler.
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fracking NIMBYism
no one likes fracking near them no, not even Exxon King CEO & briefly US Secretary of State under Donald. J. Drumpf — Rex Tillerson — who once joined a lawsuit opposing fracking near his $5 million Texas home worried it would lower property values
Rex drops his own microphone
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Day 10 – TIL aboutelection contributions
Republican Rex
Rex has given a total of $468,970 in contributions to Republican candidates & committees between 2000 to 2016
according to Federal Election Commission records he contributed to the campaigns of
George W. Bush Mitt Romney Mitch McConnell Jeb Bush
ironically (or not) he never donated to Donald J Drumpf
Today’s main poem has exploded. I’ve been collecting billionaire facts & memes for several years & today I began the exciting but overwhelming task of trying to poetify some of them. There are currently about 7 sections (the borders are amorphous) some are datapoems, others more like actual poems, one is quite lyrical. They’ve been fun to play with (& I don’t think I’m finished yet). They make a nice sequence (even if that too is ever-changing.)
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idols? false
II how much is a billion?
postulation 2.1 — basically the same
if you believe billionaires are just, like, slightly richer millionaires !! think again
a million seconds is 11.5 days
a billion seconds is thirty one years !! six months !!! plus a handful of loose days ! (the maths eventually got too complicated for me)
postulation 2.2 — conclusion
billionaires ! are ! immoral
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Day 09 – TIL about the truth concerning dragons
the truth concerning dragons
In the Old English saga the dragon was once a wealthy king jealously hoarding & brooding until selfishness & avarice turned him into a monster — till Beowulf kills him
Smaug amassed vast loot in his Lonely Mountain lair plundering Middlearth over millennia stealing from hapless mortals hoarding gold Elvish armour dwarven gems — till Bard kills him
who says fiction doesn’t teach us how to deal with real-world issues?
Climate Change is going to affect different parts of the world slightly differently (mostly the same broad brush strokes, but the detail will vary from place to place). For several years I’ve been collecting examples of things that will in all probability be affected right here in Oz (itself a wildly diverse ecosystem/area) under the working titles of — ecosystems : species : food and farming : water : coastal erosion : health : damage to homes & property : coral bleaching : miscellaneous.
The poem is a poetic attempt at breaking down all the fun things we’ve got to look forward to. I’m sharing just the Species section of the poem. (Not doubt this first draft will have new consequences added to it, as I research further. It’s been ever growing for the past 4 years, don’t see it changing now.)
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So many consequences …
ii. species
One in six : faces ex:tinc:tion risk
To survive plants : animals : & birds alike must : move : adapt or : die
But climate change : is happening : so fast it’s often im:possible : for species to adapt : swiftly enough : to evolve : with their ever-changing : environments : with changing seasons : with timings in the rest of the web : altered : delayed : enhanced : shunted : days, even weeks : out of whack
And even : if they could : move : swiftly enough the sheer : volume of human-driven : habitat destruction makes moving : moot ; kinda hard to move : when : there’s no place left
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Day 08 – TIL about the pachyderms outside the room
Bill’s Moving Tales
1. Supposedly the average person (Bill) moves residences 11.7 times in their lives 2. Allegedly it is the 3rd most stressful event in Bill’s life (behind death & divorce) 3. Apparently 55% of Bill’s moves happen in the summer 4. Purportedly Bill needs around 60 cardboard boxes to move all their stuff 4b. Reputedly 60 cardboard boxes is equivalent to around 6,500 pounds — or as part of the penchant for Americans using anything except the metric system to describe things — the size of a smallish-sized elephant
5. All I know is, when the truck with the shipping container filled to the brim with most of my books tried, it couldn’t make it up the gentle slope of Gully Hill & had to go the long way round (not enough torque or cylinder size or something — definitely *not* too. many. books).
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
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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
Many methods for dealing with increasing temperatures are touted by people who have an interest in solving the climate changing crisis (I won’t say their interest is purely financial; although the advocates seem to favour different techno-fixes depending on which start-up/research project they’ve invested in).
The geoengineering lingo for the various means of injecting particles into the atmosphere in order to reflect more sunlight back to space is known as Solar Radiation Management (SRM)
[The many other proposed techno-fixes are a whole other kettle of batshitcrazy that might form the basis of a different poem later this month, but today’s poem gonna focused solely on ones that deal with the sun — & the three short stanzas I’m sharing concern sulphate aerosols. Not the space mirrors. Not the billions of aluminised, hydrogen-filled balloons. Just the sulphate. Aerosol.]
This poem written, the topic for my Poetic Factoid practically wrote itself.
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dim the sun
spraying sulphate aerosols into the stratosphere via specially techofitted airplanes
or to rush ludicrously to the other extreme via very long hoses hanging from helium balloons
even squirting it into the sky — somehow — via cannons (yes, you read it right)
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dim the sum
“dim sum” can be translated as point of the heart — or touch the heart
dim sum is also best enjoyed with a large group of friends — explaining why i never eat it
Today’s poem & factoid are both indirectly about a topic that long has bugged me — the fact that the 5 permanent members of UN Security Council have veto powers, thereby significantly maiming the ability of that body to deal with world issues. The “serious” poem concerns the US behaviour during negotiations for what would become the Kyoto Protocol.
There’s also a bonus Factoid about Kyoto itself.
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The United States Government vs Kyoto
greedy industrialised countries are responsible for the bulk of historical emissions — he protocol attempted to cap theose emissions then systematically reduce them by taxing carbon so beginning a shift to renewable energy
instead the US wanted to create international carbon trading modelled on the cap-and-trade system
these “pollution permits” could be used — sold if not needed — even purchased to allow more possible pollution
projects that kept CO2 out of the atmosphere like carbon-sequestering tree-planting programs — producing low carbon energy — upgrading a dirty factory to emit lower emissions were carbon credit eligible
the US was so passionate about this strategy carbon trading’s inclusion was a deal breaker in the negotiations
ironically — despite belligerently getting their way the US then — failed to even ratify the Protocol
[Note: this in itself is not the worst thing because I believe carbon trading is an inherently flawed concept — however, what is hubris-smackingly irritating is that the US’s tactics tied up so much time energy with this as a keystone component of the negotiations thereby prevent other better options being discussed & potentially adopted.]
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Day 5 – TIWTR about something ludicrous
The P5 Veto
the United Nations’ Security Council has five permanent members, 5 big boys 5 bullies — Russia, the US, China, France, & the UK
any one can veto a resolution, scupper it — even if it’s supported by the rest of the world
since the U.N.’s founding — the USSR/Russia has cast 119 vetoes — the United States 82 The People’s / Republic of China has vetoed 16 times (13 since 2000 – & always in conjunction with Russia) The UK cast 29 vetoes & France 16 before both voluntarily ceasing to use it at the end of 89
the US has vetoed resolutions critical of Israel 45 times out of its 80+ total — Russia’s vetoed condemnations of Syria — China : Myanmar, Zimbabwe & of course — & so sadly on —
some of the world’s worst atrocities get overlooked due to petty politics
the veto needs to go go
*Veto statistics are from the Dag Hammarskjöld library. These numbers are for vetoes on draft resolutions & do not include vetoes on amendments other proposals.
*Veto numbers may have changed slightly since the research for this poem was undertaken.
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Fun Fact BONUS Day 5 – TIL about the capital of Japan for more than 1,000 years
Capital City
Kyoto’s nickname is City of Ten Thousand Shrines
there are over 3, 000 temples & shrines in & around the city
so why is its nickname not City of Three Thousand Shrines?
that to me sounds just as beautiful & has the benefit of truth too
these are the type of questions — that keep me awake at 3am
It’s strange how often the poem you set out to write, morphs into something unexpected. I began the evening playing with climate “cliches” — things deniers say to disprove/discredit the science — & trying to tweak them into new forms. Which lead to a poem I’m pretty pleased with using a quote from Ronald Reagan (implementor of the neo-liberal “experiment” in America). Because I like its potential, I’m only going to share a few lines: the opening ones & ones near the very end to give a taste of it.
Today’s Poetic Factoid practically wrote itself as the idea/awareness has been in my mind ever since I read Peter Wohlleben’s The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate: Discoveries from a Secret World several years ago. There are so many cool tree facts I could write dozens of factoids & one day just might … one fact I couldn’t fit in this time, is that trees can recognise their own kin!
NB These poems were written yesterday, but when I startled myself awake at the keyboard at 12.22am I realised I needed to go to bed & upload them later. Hence, this…
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barking up
The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best is today.
neo-liberals have long believed a tree is just a tree how many must you look at to know a forest?
no doubt Reagan & his ilk never planted a tree under whose shade — they never expected to sit
trees are connected : by their toetips via : an underground fungal internet the wood wide web : a mycorrhizal symbiosis of mutual benefit : root-clinging fungi aids tree absorb extra water & nutrients from soil : tree reciprocates by sharing : tasty photosynthesised sugars
trees even text : messaging : when insects attack : the victim warns : trigger defences : networks have hubs : older : larger : “mothers” connected to : hundreds of younger ones who send : excess carbon through the system to understory seedlings : quadrupling their chance of surviving
more evidence : of collective strength : over separatism
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
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
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
gareth roi poet boi 