Poetic Gems

The Land Of Counterpane - Robert Louis Stevenson

When I was sick and lay abed
I had two pillows at my head
And all my toys beside me lay
To keep me happy all the day

And sometimes for an hour or so
I watch my leaden soldiers go
With different uniforms and drills
Among the bedclothes through the hills

And sometimes sent my ships in fleets
All up and down among the sheets
Or brought my trees and houses out
and planned cities all about

I was the giant great and still
That sits upon the pillow hill
And sees before him dale and plain
The pleasant land of counterpane

For The Weekend

Gretchen Am Spinnrade

still at school
eavesdropping on teacher conversation
she first heard of you
so did destiny
the mischievous minx

you taught the ingenue
everything
saturating her with a tsunami
of culture and knowledge

in the turmoil of frantic youth
her fledgling brain still grappling
trailed behind seduced by the
lure of adventure  
unlike the disciplined schubert
who wrote this
at about the same age

she has since succeeded
in being a terrible disappointment
to almost everyone in her life
not living up to expectations
or realising her full potential
a success of sorts in itself
one could say:)





your ashes lie
somewhere in this lake - gretchen
sings and you appear

Heeding Haiku with Chevrefeuille MLMM

Goodbye Little Yellow Bird

another loser
has-been fades into
obscurity
Michael Leunig

it's a choice
between
the devil you know
or
the devil you don't know

out of the cage
more space to think
more space to breathe
a better view
the outsider looking in
on the cramped hostile herd

if only one could find
another escapee
a gentle little yellow bird
to fly with
instead of the butcher bird
magnificent song'd
sharp beak'd killer

Mid Week Motif PU

Poetry

book of poems
on each page
fingerprints of a soul

Jane Reichhold 

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai

reading poems
a few moments of escape
from a harsh world
words clutched to the heart
bearers of light in the dark

The Milky Way

the bright milky way
i touch it with a finger
in the vast night sky
a sudden rustle in the trees
birds woken from their slumber

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai

in spite of weather
every day is a day
at the beach

Haiku Horizons

they carry huge loads
black women still being used
as beasts of burden

Driftwood

three days clinging on
picked up by a passing ship
never spoke of the war



Carpe Diem Haiku Kai

Protestor's Falls NSW

deafening sound
dangerous and menacing
sound of waterfalls

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai

Twilight

deepening colours
cast by twilight - a light show
unparalleled

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai

JustSomeMotion (JSM) - Parov Stelar - All Night - #neoswing

                                                    CINQUAINS

                                                      this guy
                                               can really dance
                                              a young canadian
                                            who lives here in australia
                                                      cool dude

                                                        liquid
                                             lithe moon walking
                                            gliding with graceful moves
                                          the street person's balletomane
                                                       awesome
                                      
                                  

For The Weekend

From the sound track of  the movie "Ceux qui reste







Good Movie *****

Deck Class

sailing sailing over the ocean blue
across the equator
sumatra to malaysia
deck class 
the cost of a local bus fare
glee and  squeals 
so cheap



thoughts of old black and white movies
deck class
sleeping on deck chairs with blankets
starry starry night
some one serving tea
what fun and adventure

reality hits
we sleep
in the bowels of the vessel


a fun trip (some of time)
porpoises following
the tramp steamer all the way
watching the sunset on the equator
meeting experienced travellers
who all brought their own food and drink
(not us)
black tea  rice with
watery vegetable slop was
the only food on offer

the stern captain
shouted orders
imposing the sleeping arrangements
women one end - men at the other
with all the luggage piled in between

we were
innocents abroad
the road ahead  - endless
now it all seems
so very long ago  - worlds away
a tiny faint memory
captured
in some old photographs


Midweek Motif PU

Monday

monday
not my best day
weekends go too quickly
i look at the list
too many things to do
how can anyone be
this busy
there are no longer
24 hours in a day
i am the only one
who has noticed this
will visit the geese in the park
at lunch time
the swans
do not like me
they rip food from my hands
one of the cygnets has gone
they follow me to the car
must be the hair
they think im building material
for their nest

Haiku Horizons

once a frog
always a frog -kisses
make no difference

Paradise Lost

Terania Creek

how many times
have I crossed that log
to protestor falls
swimming in the heart
of alternate utopia
rainforest hippy land
stunningly beautiful

if i had've been
in my hermit phase
it might have worked out
but the overwhelming
pressure to adhere to an ideology
the rejection of any life style or thought
different to the prevailing
counter cultural mores
made it  just another type of conformity
dressed up in beads and thai dye florals
fascism in variegated shades of bliss

terania creek
dreams drift in dope 
paradise lost


 Carpe Diem Haiku Kai

For The Weekend

Rall's Hen Party

heated grave firm
3WW


their conversations
are grave often heated
expressing firm opinions
incorporating 
gentle humour without spite
always a sign of intelligence

Dear God

yes i think that too
looking at the vast expanse
of the milky way on the plains

also
thank you for
the blue green sea
white sand
nasturtiums
bush roses
back rubs
lip balm
purple hydrangeas
cuddly cats
fur rugs
neck pecks
bubble baths
perfume
apple walnut strudel
black swans
music
maja soap
rock paintings
candles
books
poets
the whole shebang cornucopia
of beauty ever present
and granting me the artist eye to see
enjoy and revel in it
and for
not giving sydney melbourne weather

Thank you
for all the lovely simple moments
too many to count and
for all the sadness unkindness
betrayals disappointments
endless fodder for
poetic inspiration and
creativity



Midweek Motif Poets United







 

Acceptance

we are indoctrinated
by the media
to accept change
regardless
of our personal beliefs

secular values rule
out with the old
in with the new
we have freedom now
conditional
to upholding the prevailing
liberalism
cultural marxist cant

if we do not
then
the thought police will point fingers
make accusations of 'phobic'
tagged on to just about everything
with other assorted pejoratives





so a lot  sit quietly sensibly saying nothing
warn their children in hushed tones
to be careful not to express certain views
outside the home
reminding them of the consequences
remembering what happened to Muti's family
all those years ago in the war




the voting stalls as yet do not have cctv cameras
one can still vote secretly
fear it seems is running  through
the powerful politically correct 
desperate to shut down the plebiscite

every day on the goggle box
we hear how the vast majority of the public
support same sex marriage



so no worries then  - it's in the bag
Or is it?
there's only one way to find out


The Australian Government has decided to have a plebiscite on same sex marriage in February 2017.
The majority vote will decide if this country accepts or does not accept same sex marriage .Homosexuality is not illegal in Australia and under Australian Federal Law, homosexual cohabitation is already regarded as the same as a heterosexual defacto relationship, with the same rights.

Unlike most other countries,Australia has compulsory voting ...There is strong opposition by same sex marriage supporters in the community to a plebiscite.

Haiku Horizons

mend your ways - quit smoking
keith richards is old enough
aging rockers never die

Aimless Love...Billy Collins

Aimless Love - Billy Collins
An Erasure Poem








An Erasure Poem

This morning as I walked along the lake shore
I fell in love with a wren

In the shadows of the autumn evening
I fell for a seamstress
still at her machine in the tailor's window

This is the best kind of love I thought
without unkind words without suspicion
no waiting, no huffiness or rancor
just a twinge now and then for the wren

No lust, no slam of the door
my heart is propped up in  a field
on a tripod ready for the next arrow

I found myself standing at the bathroom sink
gazing down affectionately at the soap
I could feel myself falling again
as I felt it turning in my wet hands
and caught the scent of lavender and stone

For the Weekend

one day
you will fulfill your dream
to see the northern lights

one day
i will become
a cabaret singer
in a small bar
on a white sandy beach
on a small tropical island



adventures in paradise

Departing Spring

five little fluff balls
the swans guard their cygnets
one chases a dog



it will break my heart
to find there may be only four
tomorrow in the park
it happens every season
nature is not always kind

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai




Centennial Park Sydney

departing spring
to remember the words
i hum the tune

Jane Reichhold

Jottings

***** A good read.

 Hughes was never to be free of Sylvia Plath. His tragic history did not end with her suicide.
When Sylvia discovered his affair with Assia Wevill she ordered Hughes out of their home.
Assia was very beautiful, sophisticated and poised but like Sylvia fragmented and vulnerable.
Sylvia hung above them like a ghost.Hughes said we tried to escape the shadow,live as if we started anew but he never seemed to be able to free himself of Sylvia's memory.



Assia Wevill

We didn't find her - she found us

She sat there in her 
soot -wet mascara
In flame orange silks ,in gold bracelets
slightly filthy with exotic mystery
A German Russian Israeli
with the gaze of a demon
Between curtains of black Mongolian hair 

Ted Hughes Birthday Letters

Needless to say Assia's friends were not impressed with this description and the feminist movement was strongly opposed to Ted Hughes as well and blamed him indirectly for the deaths of both these women.
Ted in a letter to his brother suggested that women he lived with caught the darkness from him without similar resources to deal with it.

Hughes was reluctant to marry Assia, who was now his common law wife. She also killed herself, along with her daughter Shura, six years after Sylvia Plath's suicide.






as a reader
of this saga
on the outside
looking in
i found their lives
unenviable
interesting but thin
most of it
felt like winter
not a rainbow hue in sight
maybe
it was the biographer
a lot of them can't write

cannot say
i like these folk
genius
though they be
better to be unknown at home
with a nice hot cuppa tea

settle for a cuddly cat
not the A list literary crowd
bitching switching so it goes
they'll always bring you down

The Mikado - The flowers that bloom in the spring

the flowers that bloom
in the spring tra la
breathe promise of merry sunshine
showering warmth on aging hearts
aglow with spring time love




winter and her woes have gone
violets blue  and scented jasmine
trail across the fence
two  hearts bloom blaze 
push through the thaw and
sing sweet messages to each other

Mid Week Motif PU

Gregor Piatigorsky plays Chopin Sonata

his long tapered fingers
coaxed the beauty
from
her shapely stradivarius form
and
she sang
and sang
and sang
her heart out
until the voice
like
fingernails across a chalk board
catapulted
us back to reality

Imaginary Gardens With Real Toads
Margaret's Artistic Interpretations
The Met's Musical Instruments Exhibit

Fireflies In The Garden

Fireflies in the Garden****
Three Word Wednesday

reading a poem
for your professor dad's colleagues
not quite a cinch
when you plagiarise Frost
and clam it as your own
you end up in a dank garage
punished severely
while the english dept staff
chat,sip liqueurs with coffee
unintentionally enabling your torture


 Fireflies In The Garden****



dreams
the tight rope walk
without a net
Jane Reichhold

mysteries
of family life
exposed

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai 

Happy Monday

he drives her around
the bend as usual
connubial bliss

Haiku Horizons

Smile

you can smile
with words
with a voice
with a touch

the power of a smile
can shine the sun
on a sad dark heart
transforming it
to soaring bird song

everyone needs
a person in their life
the thought of whom
brings a smile
a brief moment of joy
in a murky world

Prompt Nights
with
Saana Rizvi

PEACE

peace on earth
watching the full moon
alone

Jane Reichhold 


Goddess of Peace

Eirene

a misnomer
it has eluded me
my entire life
 

L'ile -des - Pins

Isle of Pines



l'ile - des -pins
french nouvelle caledonie
3 hour flight from sydney

not many know
of our french neighbours
down under

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai

For The Weekend

Jose Feliciano...Light My Fire

the crackle
of a 45
this song
empties my heart
like the clattering
of contents from my purse
upturned on to a glass table

Shadorma

it's too late
been too many years
of heart ache

she did wait
he who hesitates is lost
timing's everything