Monthly Archives: June 2013

Friday Poem: 1861

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Was it a past life memory, triggered by a music video, or was it just my fevered imagination?
Who can say for sure either way?
It was vivid, visceral, and it gave me this poem.

                 1861

(To the tune of “Horses”, by Palace)

I have seen a deciduous forest
Like the one where we once died
You were dying as I held you
You were bleeding from your side.

I feel cold as I remember
I was leaning on a tree
And your scarlet blood was soaking
Through the sodden, fallen leaves.

We were left there in the morning
All we knew was how to die
I could not bear to leave you
You were staring at the sky.

Someone came to claim my duty
I would not relinquish you
He raised his firearm and killed me
I did not let go of you.

It is long ago our bodies
Cooled and stiffened in that wood
But I’m glad that I remember
I did not let go of you.

leaves +1

 

Weekly Photography Challenge: The World Through My Eyes

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I guess every photograph is an attempt in some way to show the world through one’s own eyes.  I went to Perth for a few days of visiting Zoe and Matt (and their three cats), and my camera came along too, and got a good workout. Some of these shots were taken at the Uni of WA campus, a few in (frosty) Ballarat on the morning I left. I had a scant hour to fill before the airport shuttle took me on the next bit of the trip, so I took the camera for a walk…I also had an early morning walk around Subiaco, with camera in hand…

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/06/21/world-through-your-eyes/#more-30179

Friday Poem: Free Art

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Dull walls
of the built environment
decorated for free.

An army of street artists
risked their freedom
and their lives
To bring you this.

Just paint on a wall  It worked! I posted a poem on Friday last, and wrote a new one on the Saturday!Love graffitiAll along the railway line, from Melbourne to the suburbs, artists and others had decorated the walls and fences.Seattle sheep graf

I didn’t get photos from the train, so I’m sharing a few images of street art “prepared earlier”, from Brunswick, a postcard image of  graffiti, and a sticker on a bin in Seattle (round the corner from the Hurricane Cafe).

Weekly Photography Challenge: Curves

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The world is full of curves. They are completely natural, and so pleasing to the eye that we make more for ourselves, in buildings and crafted objects. The basket work building is both craft object and building! A team of helpers assisted a master basket maker to produce it, using cuttings from willow trees removed from along waterways, where they grow as a weed. It had a number of ‘rooms’, and was big enough to hold a dozen or more people, and it was full of beautiful curves. The ‘real’ buildings are both in Aberdeen, Washington –  a public library and a ‘mansion’, both curvaceous. The piece of knitting uses a simple stitch pattern that produces curves.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/06/14/weekly-photo-challenge-curves/#more-29797

Daily Post: Singing In The Rain

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As soon as I read the prompt, I knew I had the perfect poem…somewhere. By some miracle, I found it in only a few minutes, and here it is…

Rain Song

There’s a frog in the garden singing
Because it’s raining
And the cat in her cage is complaining
Because it’s raining
And I’ve brought in the washing
Because it’s raining
And freshened up the fire
Because it’s raining
And we wont go for a walk today
Because it’s raining
Hallelujah! I hope it lasts
Because it’s been dry so long.

froggy love

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/06/15/daily-prompt-rain/

Untitled Friday Poem

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I have formed an intention to post a poem a week, including those “prepared earlier”, but hoping to push myself to write more. This one was written 10 years ago…

Light as a leaf
I fold into you
I bend in your heart
When nothing is true

Touched by your passing
I fumble for you
And I lie in the dark
Where the true thing is you.

Sunlit leaves

 

The plan is to choose just one poem a week, and illuminate it, if at all possible, with just one photograph. Discipline! Watch this space, every Friday …

My Opinion: Gender War

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Brunswick lanewayWhere women once had to justify their existence by bearing and rearing children, nowadays it’s “get a job” (and bear and raise children in your spare time).

Most women these days are in the paid workforce, but they tend to be paid less than men for the same work; therefore, employing women saves money on the payroll.

Most women these days are in paid work, but it tends to be part-time, casual, menial, underpaid and undervalued work; which not only saves money on the payroll, but keeps women away from positions of power.Monkey in a cage

Most women these days are in paid work, but they still tend to do the bulk of the household work and childcare, which means they tend to be permanently tired and worn down, which in turn makes them unlikely to question the status quo.

Most women these days are in paid work, which is regarded as independence and liberation. But without equal pay for equal work, equal opportunities and training, and an equal share of domestic duties, women remain in a state of weary drudgery, all wrapped up in pretty pink bows.

That’s why it suits Patriarchy/ Dominator Culture to have most women enter the work force – part-time, casual, unimportant, underpaid…

Bend the rules

Overworked and underpaid is no better than the old “bare-foot and pregnant”.

And a woman in charge is a threat to the old order  – bend the rules, gender is not destiny!