Thursday 31 May 2012

The Signs


were all over
the streets

symptoms
of simultaneity

and the society
was the society

of the street signs
and billboards

and its poverty
was an absence

of something
partly completed

but of course
in the wreckage

there was mis-
representation

after all it was
only our lifeworld

with its newly shifted
levels of reality

its incidental
distortions



Tuesday 29 May 2012

The Nomadic Traveller


journeys on with his son
and objects found on the road
are making the journey too

an album of drawings
a portable ancestral altar
a tree without roots

_________

The Nomadic Traveller 
and The Signs
first published at
Catapult to Mars

Thursday 24 May 2012

haiku




sundown lighting 

 the glacier high

 in the deep dark lake

Wednesday 23 May 2012

haiku




white-haired 

the clocks in the fields 

 tick away softly

Tuesday 22 May 2012

Monday 21 May 2012

. . . listening post . . .


There is something here even more important than poetry and for example the fact that Poetry Salzburg Review has lost its government grant which was going to be the subject of today's post.

The future of our planet could be in jeopardy.

Arnie Gundersen's current analysis of the Fukushima situation is available on Helen Caldicott's If You Love this Planet Radio.

HERE IS A LINK TO "IF YOU LOVE THIS PLANET RADIO"

 real poets should promulgate the real news 

UPDATE: - A swarm of quakes in the 4.5. - 6.2 region ongoing off the nw coast* - another 6.0m today 23/5 at subduction depth (where one tectonic plate slides under another). Hope this rock 'n roll  show is not a precursor to something much more serious.


*site of the earthquake activity - on the map - to the east - roughly between the 3 green oblongs and the 3 grey ones just below them - 50km - 200km offshore.

Wednesday 16 May 2012

How to be an almost instant poet!


So you want to be an almost instant poet? Well, it won't take long. And it's easy.

First thing is to find a poetic pen name. To save time I've chosen one for you. You will be the bard known to all the world, well ok - let's say the 100,000 visitors to the Poet-in-Residence blog, as Locksley Hall.

I've also saved you a few minutes with actual writing of the poem. I've done the basic donkey work for you.

Using an anthology of "old stuff" I've copied out some poetic lines and phrases from several long forgotten poets and poems. These tidbits I've written on bits of paper which I've shuffled about on the table until I've got the basic skeleton of the poem. (3 minutes).

Some scribblings and crossings out were needed to make some kind of sense. (1 minute)

It's best to give a poem a boring title if the historical record of English verse is anything to go by. So naturally I have done so. And what's more I've also typed it for you! (2 minutes).

SUMMER'S END

The unpurged images of day receed . . .

We sit together at one summer's end
Friend of the wise and teacher of the good

What is he buzzing in my ears?
Grow old along with me?

The wind flaps loose, the wind is still
Clouds linger and extend in solid bars

The rain sets early in tonight, he says
That civilization may not sink

He's seen the bishop on the road
His shadow falls on the castle walls

A dappled partridge flecked with blood
Of heaven and hell

It has no power to sing

Eat well and drink
Tomorrow you shall die it said

The woods decay
The woods decay and fall

The wind sways in the pines
And I dream of the red rose tree

Of someone waiting there for me . . .

___________
Locksley Hall


Congratulations you are now a poet!

You should for the rest of the day forget about your poem.

After 24 hours has elapsed spend 2 minutes revising it to bring it to perfection.

Total time per poem: 8 minutes.





Monday 14 May 2012

Fukushima Daiichi - the truth and the future

"nuclear energy is perfectly safe"

with their heads 
in their cesium clouds
they will suffer to lie

Fairewinds (see sidebar link) is the best website for keeping the mind focussed on what is really going on, as opposed to relying on the misinformation the mainstream media is permitted to release. The new Fairewinds video Fukushima Daiichi the Truth and the Future is a 'must see'. 

Wednesday 9 May 2012

Who's Afraid of Ernest Miller?


I don't imagine for two seconds that it'll be easy finding too much poetic phraseology in the works of Ernest Miller Hemingway. His work in general is without the ingredient we like to call poetic quality. Some have called it reportage. He has many imitators. Some good. Some bad.

He's no Virginia Woolf. With Virginia you can pull workable phrases from her novels and diaries almost at random; and with these phrases knit together Virginia Woolf poems for ever and ever as in Poems from Beyond the Grave.

But now to Hemingway, and it's with great trepidation and fear that I look in. I shall begin quietly, with a two fingers of rum and all the words from To Have and Have Not.



The number 
Two 

'Two bacardis
Freddy'

It was a little after two o'clock
Two pelicans on the piling

Two tins of coffee
Two tins of condensed milk

Two loaves of bread and
Change the number two plugs

In
about

two
hours . . . ?

Goddamned Rummies


The two of them swaying

And their shadows from the arc light

Swaying worse



Poet-in-Residence in search of Hemingway 


I have been tempted on many occasion to write a novelette in the style of Ernest Miller Hemingway. I may yet do so. I can think of no other writer that I would wish to model myself on when it comes to story telling. The danger is that I would send many of my readers to sleep. But then isn't it true to say that most books are read in bed for that very purpose, or in the bath, or on the train in order to fill time? The secret of Hemingway, although it is not a secret, is that he writes in the manner of a police report, or a reporter at the scene; in other words with details such as colours, sounds, appearance and so on  but without frills. But to this he adds puzzlement. It's a trick he has. He makes you read a sentence twice. It has two meanings. He likes to interrupt the flow. It's like catching fish or going to the bullfight. You are kept waiting for the next such 'moment'. It is an anticipation. It's his thing. He does it well. But if you, the potential author, have not been involved in reportage from the battlefront you probably can't do it. It needs a special skill. One that has to be honed on the front line. I may have it. Or I may not. When the day comes the reader will decide. 

16th Mainichi Daily News Haiku Contest

The 16th Mainichi international haiku contest is now open for entries.

Contestants writing in English may submit, free of charge, a maximum of 2 haiku to the Mainichi haiku page which can be easily accessed via my A-Z LINKS.

The haiku must be submitted on the form provided and written in the following manner with slashes (i.e. not set out as a 3-line verse):

line one / line two / line three


Tuesday 8 May 2012

Broken Toy




the split

of the skull
the one limb

intact
the right arm raised

fending the blow
and the mouth open

gaping
and the remaining eye open

this was the friend
the doll someone loved

cherished
hugged

who now lies alone 
with stuffing torn out


abandoned
beside
a riverside path





/gw2012



Monday 7 May 2012

WHO TO BLAME?



The World Health Organization should publish the true facts and be damned; they should tell us what's going on in Japan, especially regarding the health status of children living within the evacuation zone as defined by the Americans at the outset - that is 80 kms from Fukushima Daiichi - not the 20km or 30km the Japanese authorities prefer.

When Fuel Pool No. 4 collapses, which it will do when the next major earthquake hits the region, statistically probable within 3 years, it will be too late for anybody to do anything.

The fact is that nobody in a position to do anything has any idea what to do with No. 4 sitting there lopsided with its 1500 fuel rods on the roof. You can't cover it with lead and concrete like at Chernobyl. All TEPCO's so-called experts can do is basically hope for the best. They hope that the Worst Case Scenario doesn't arise on their watch.

The other important fact is that the No. 4 Pool contains the same amount of radioactive material as that released over the whole planet during the airborne atom bomb tests; that is more than 800 nuclear bombs going off - and, as Arnie Gundersen at Fairewinds points out, happening "all at once" and in one place.

One of the main reasons we are not being told the truth about the looming Doomsday Scenario is that the WHO is in bed with the IAEA. They are both in the arms of the UN.

As I see it, the time has come for the WHO to stand up and be counted. Sadly it won't happen.

The Japanese-led IAEA won't do or say anything useful either.

If you live in the Northern Hemisphere be aware of the danger and keep yourself informed. The mainstream media, as usual, will not tell you anything*.

__________

*Did you know for instance that Blueberry Jam from Poland contains over 200 bq/kg of radioactive Chernobyl cesium. And you wonder why all your friends have got cancer? Wonder no more.

*Mushrooms in Japan found to contain 400bq/kg cesium; tea, rice etc. up to 500 bq/kg. Japanese field mice with 350 bq/kg.

*Numbers of migrating Muttonbirds returning to New Zealand from Japan 30% down. Failed to grow new feathers. Poor condition.

*BBC/Lonely Planet: Tokyo Recommended for Honeymooners!!!!

*Cesium-137 at Fukushima Daiichi site 85 times greater than Chernobyl.

*of all the children who were exposed to Chernobyl radiation whilst in the womb only 3% were found to be healthy on reaching age of 7.

*11th April RSOE-EDIS Update: Polar Bears in Alaska are suffering from loss of fur and lesions which may be due to events at Fukushima. Similar problems detected in seals in same area.






Overheard Overhead?


 Scene: A building site in Dublin.

The new construction worker was a bit confused and asked: 'Joist? Girder? What's the difference?'
The foreman patiently explained: 'Joist wrote Ulysses, Girder wrote Faust.'


______

The joke is from the introductory Note on Pronounciation to John Armstrong's Love, Life, Goethe - How to be Happy in an Imperfect World (Penguin - ISBN 978-0-141-01128-8); an enthralling book currently occupying my reading hours. Not heavy going at all. More like a fireside chat; illuminating and informative without being difficult to read. A suitable book for our times.

Sunday 6 May 2012

Robinson Crusoe at the Burg


I had almost given up with the state of affairs at the Burgtheater when along came a much needed breath of fresh wind, well more of a hurricane really, in the form of Joachim Meyerhoff who is for me head and shoulders above many of the players at Vienna's grandest playhouse where he currently stars as Robinson Crusoe twice nightly.

To watch Meyerhoff in action is like attending a one man training course in acting. First he establishes contact with the audience and takes them into his confidence as it were. Then he articulates and shows what he has to say. Always he suits the words to the actions and the actions to the words. He is the genuine gold coin. With Meyerhoff the slightest nuance is always telling; and often it can be  electrifying.

Before too long he will, I sense, need to become a theatre director in his own right. Perhaps a kind of player-manager. It would be a good way for him to go. In this kind of role too he would doubtless excel as he showed in yesterday evening's first performance of Daniel Defoe's classic desert island story which he conducted and arranged himself with the able assistance of veteran player Ignaz Kirchner.

Symbolically Meyerhoff was the lonely castaway in the auditorium where he rearranged his affairs, ostensibly using the furnishings, with an almost uncontrolled violence, and became the restless half-mad king of his lonely domain.  This action speaks volumes.

I left this amazing performance with the feeling that the stately ship the Burgtheater was a vessel fitted out with new sails. Shall I chart its course? Yes, when Mayerhoff is on board. Otherwise? We shall just have to wait and see.






Friday 4 May 2012

Eating Out - Behind the Scene



Sweet Melon 
sent from Costa Rica 

Mixed Fish 
boxed and frozen 
posted on in Panama 

Sepiidae
- that's Cuttlefish - 
flown in from India 

Shrimps 
whipped in from Vietnam

Octopoda 
- in this case Squid -
sent out of Thailand


Anyone 
for Coffee?






Wednesday 2 May 2012