24 Poems ~ 24 Hours
Is a member of the dandylion collective, a small writers' group based in South Australia. He is primarily a poet, who strangely, enjoys drinking wine (his predilection is Sauvignon Blanc, bubbles is second preference, & is also partial to pretty much anything else - except red bubbles, urrrgh!). In 2014, he co-edited the Friendly Street Poets Annual Anthology 38 "The Infinite Dirt" ... ... & co-edited it again in 2020, Anthology 42, titled simply "Q" (& if you remember the weirdness of that year, you'll soon understand why) ... as well as judging the SAETA Awards for that year. 2019 Two chapbooks published "the soft humus of sleep" & "the loam of our dreams" 2012 a solo collection ‘Gunyah’ Healing published as part of Friendly Street Poets New Poets 17 in 2012 (along with John Pfitzner & Rachael Mead). He has been published in Eureka Street & InDaily Poet's Corner; as well as poems in The Infinite Dirt, Patterns of Living, Light and Glorie, Flying Kites, dB magazine, Iron Lace & others. Career highlights include: having his poem “Many-Worlds Quantum Mechanics Vs Earth-Based Grease Monkeys” published in The Best Australian Science Writing 2013; winning Second Place & $1000 for writing a poem on a pretty obscure topic after finding a competition which closed in 6 hours that same day; & having “i thought the moon was a cop car in my rear vision mirror as i drove home late last night …” short listed for the 2012 Satura Prize, 2014 WP Yeats Poetry Prize, 2015 Interstellar Award among others.
Ω
the melting ring ; the roof top
leap ; the no longer struggling
fly ; the cracked screen ; silence ;
a battery that will not charge ;
the flaming fireball ; the sunken
stone ; death’s ship ; endless white ;
the great long O ; & of course ,
the brittle orange flakes slowly
eating out my heart
#37
fleas in heaven
i hope there’s fleas
in heaven
cos all dogs
have fleas
& if heaven
has no dogs
then heaven
is no place
i want to be
Well, thank dawg!
That last one was easy (careful, it’s deeper than it looks!) ((It’s not, it’s just an end point, huzzah!!))
The card above got the most number of hits, but no bingos sadly. I got 3 x 3 in a rows overall. A pretty sorry performance by many bingo-ers expectations. But I’m pleased enough. & so to bed … :P.
The sestina isn’t complete, so this placeholder will have to suffice.
#3
goodness me
dearie me
monkey on the tree
& one little flea
you and me
debbie mcgee
one more cup of tea
& i’m free (nearly)
& finally — the last for today, #37.
#74
Candy store
every adult still harbours
a child who hankers after
the candy store of their youth
an old world style lolly shop
whether it was a Willy Wonka
wonderland or Harry Potter’s
Honeydukes — or just the local
deli down the cornershop
nothing tastes that good again
though the chance to timetravel
back before everything got hard
is most likely the sweetest treat
#3. Second last one. OMG
Incomplete, more drafting necessary; but no time available. A shower & clean teeth helped, but already the steam is fading.
#30
appropriation
16 feet of very nude female
bronze ; on her toeballs ;
arching on her own ball of earth
sword aloft ; a colossus in V ;
grand scale commemorative art ;
celebrating war ; shouting victory ;
triumph ; black silhouettes the sky
somehow towering above
the surrounding scrapers.
locals have a colloquial ;
as Dubliners do for
“the Floozy in the Jacuzzi”
& “the prick with the stick”.
hence the symbol of German
defeat, Paris’s protection ;
becomes “the Wicked Woman” ;
& “Dirty Gertie” ;
all stemming from a time
when bus passengers asked
to disembark at the stop
next to “the Naked Lady”
when buying tickets …
#74. Oh dear.
Reduced to writing doggerel coz my brain has imploded in the sky. Or exploded insky me. I’m not sure. Boom-boom. Chickenfart in any case.
#52
Danny La Rue
loves chicken vindaloo
I know this to be true
because so do you.
What really turns on my screw
is wondering if Winnie the Pooh
loves his vindaloo too
or whether it races straight on through
#30 — another good candidate for dodgy rhyming poetry (might even get time to have a refresh-me-up shower this hower.)
Another limerick, cos I’m low on energy & been napping sitting up at my computer. 5 to go …
The lovely fat lady with a crutch
perhaps is eating a wee bit too much
———cramming in scone eleven
———with her cream tea in Devon
before exploding at the waiter’s touch.
Oh dear, grandma’s gone to heaven …
Next on the agenda: #52
This was a poem which presented many choices. Yet, surprising myself, I went a different way than I thought. (One of those out of nowhere experiences.)
#11
Legs’s Eleven.
for the first time in a decade
i am remembering Harry Mulroney
nicknamed Legs because his were short
a fresh faced boy as he remains to me
though when i knew him, of course
i was about that young too
played cricket in the same team
as head-in-the-cloud teenagers
he was the wildly talented captain
whereas, i, was just wild
good friends, only semi-close in the way
boys often must stay, not best mates
yet we talked of renting a place
in the city, when we went there to study
two country kids planning for uni
most around us had no such goal
we’d talk about it for hours, at training
in the car to away games, making the idea safe
yet as he was a few years younger
i went before him & we slipped apart
another precious thing lost
for reasons i still don’t understand
#87. Dammit, one off the other call I really wanted 🙂
The dictionary defines “duck and dive” as — using one’s ingenuity to deal with or evade a situation. & that’s exactly what I’m about to do now with my next poem.
#25
the water fowl went
———–beneath
the surface of the lake
Wahoo! It seems right that I should get to do perhaps the most famous call of all. Legs Eleven. Not sure what I’m gonna do with it yet though. (After a rocky start, my fingers are pulling out better numbers lately: that’s sure to jinx it!)
A slightly post-modern, self-referential metafictional style poem — which, when I was doing my preparations, I thought I’d be excited to see the #1 come up, but when it arrived, I was like “Oh no, I have no energy for all that”. But it was actually fairly easy flowing. I kinda like the end product (good jumping off point for revision hopefully) … & it uses every call I found about number 1 — including a very modern one. So pretty chuffed. Plus if I upload it quickly, I’ll get 20 minutes off.
#01
i am the B1 baby
first on the board
at the beginning
of all time
i am little Jimmy
who sees with Kelly’s eye
lack of sleep means
i don’t always make sense
but when i do
— Nelson’s column —
i am the son of a gun
top of the pops
number ace
Bernie’s formula
means i win the race
now if only someone would
make me a number three
& maybe butter a scone
but i’d better not lie down
or my marathon will be gone
More 5’s — #25