Cataclysmic, tiger leapt

Cataclysmic, tiger leapt

Far below and unsuspected

Earth is cracking, shifting shell

On the fault-line, half forgotten

Clash of titans, gates of hell

Plates tectonic crash and splinter

Earth is cracking, shift and quake

On the fault-line fathoms under

Seismic giant stirs and wakes

Then the wall of water rising

Fierce the force unstoppable

Making matchsticks, shattered, scattered

All before it, swallowed

Swept

Mighty wave tsunami rising

Cataclysmic,

Tiger leapt

Fear the cracks the fault

Kept hidden

Far below the egg-smooth shell

‘Ware the fissure’s power

Engulfing

In a heartbeat

Gone to hell

15th March 2011, Adelaide

On the night of the luminous moon

On the night of the luminous moon

There’s barely a breath at Wayamba
In a spell, bound, the land is stilled
Wood smoke’s a ramrod rising
Thwack thwacking a whipbird woops
Only a space in the wild wood
Clearing but gently tamed
Where softly the human footfalls
Cricket hypnosis thrums
At the end of the track at Wayamba
The humming, the drumming the spell
Bound in a lunar enchantment
On the night of the luminous moon

20th March 2011, Wayamba, for Don and Rosie with much love

Graffiti girl

Graffiti girl

Here now, sudden

Comes the sun

And every shade of blue

Is in the sea and sky

Highlight bright white

Hopper’s buildings, surf and spray

Switch thrown

Technicolour filter floods

Graffiti girl

Beloved Chloe, laughing

Frangipani in her hair

Bali RIP

Someone’s sunshine now

Forever in eclipse

And her, switch thrown

Forever young

6th March 2011, Bondi beach cafe

Do you remember Tamarama?

Do you remember Tamarama?

Do you remember Tamarama
Sky of the deepest blue
Brightest of white where the breakers crash
Flash of the planes coming in
A place for a poem
Blown on the wind
Dreaming a longing for words
Orange and yellow, the artist’s daubs
Iris and lily grown wild
Borne on the breeze, swooshed in the waves
Like Prospero’s magical airs
Do you remember Tamarama
A poem a dreaming come true?

3rd March 2011, Tamarama Beach, NSW

Fair Go the lorikeets!

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Fair Go the lorikeets!

Someone perhaps
Could tell the lorikeets
To cool it, cut the cackle
Consider the Fair Go
For their way,
Each one screech one
Louder, all at once
But not in harmony
Cacophony
Flap and flash of far-from-subtle
Lurid red blue green
Such egotistic squawking
Talking?
Is hardly the democratic way
You’d think it was Mardi Gras daily
The brashest and gayest of Pride
Yes someone should tell the lorikeets
To consider their place in the ‘hood
It can’t be just me
It’s clear as can be
Their behaviour’s just frankly not on
Can’t they give us a break
For sanity’s sake
The gorgeous, the garish
The neighbours, exotic, from hell

March 1st 2011, Bondi