Sydney New Year's Eve midnight fireworks

Happy New Year !

 flowers for new year

nature's nuturing way

of healing  sorrow and old wounds

 

 

Handel: Messiah, For unto us a child is born (Sir Colin Davis, Tenebrae,...

MERRY CHRISTMAS

 

Dean Martin - It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

WHIRLIGIG # 402 

 tis written

it's  the time

of carolings 

of open log fires

of mistletoe and egg nog

enjoy the spirit of Christmas

dispense with the cloudy gloom

paint the sharp twigs gold

and decorate the broken gate

invite the frail old neighbours in for a drink

 not too much port 

trembled limbs  on the tiles

not a pretty sight

 

THIS WEEK'S WORDS come from "The Darkling Thrush" by Thomas Hardy: gate, broken, fires, sharp, cloudy, spirit, twigs, frail, gloom, carolings, written, trembled 

 

 

OPEN LINK WEEKEND  #149

Away in a Manger | Carols from King's 2019

I will give my love an apple, Andreas Scholl....Sunday Muse # 240

 I will give my love an apple without e'er a core,

I will give my love a house without e'er a door,

I will give my love a palace wherein she may be,

And she may unlock it without any key.

(Traditional English Folk Song )

 

 

lost his bow

 looks like it will be 

a pizzicato session

with someone

playing the spoons 

Earthweal....Earthcentric Vistas

 

Last month, the massive body of a sperm whale washed ashore in Nova Scotia that had ingested 330 

pounds of trash, which led to its death The Marine Animal Response Society (MARS) recently shared

 the incident, which said the whale's death is a 'stark reminder' about how serious the issue is of human

 trash littering Earth's oceans. 

Beneath the oceans surface lurks nearly 16 million tons of microplastic

 

Every year, up to 20,000 whales die because of lethal collisions with vessels. 

 PROMPT

 If a truly dark period is to come, how can poetry preserve itself? ... To put it succinctly, we’re fucked. 

Unliveable real estate, financial collapse, social unrest, governments failing, power grids going dark — who knows.

My purpose here is not to revel in dystopia or pine for utopia, but rather to ask what kind of poet or \

poetry can sing the middle course, offering an imaginative ground for developing ideas about

 ourselves and how we relate to each other so we can sink sufficient roots for the storm already begun 

and help the Earth survive. I’m not sure we can survive it as a species — or much of the rest of life — 

but while there’s even a tiny possibility of air and juice, it’s our job to lung and liver it as best we can.

Now I wonder what kind of poet (or poetics) it will take to sing it.

 

 this kind of poet

will just whistle a few notes

of a worn out old tune

the dark period is already here

death and destruction is all about us

no point in carving your poetry 

like hieroglyphics on to stone

the pyramids will be reduced to dust

nothing will survive anyway

it's too late

meanwhile

we just toodle along

 ignore the plague

(last year's catastrophe)

keep buying more stuff 

look forward to the black friday 

and boxing day sales

watch more sport

close our eyes

block our ears

to everything unpalatable        

and you can forget Bob

he's no one's

uncle anymore

 

Expression: Bob's Your Uncle - Aussie English

It's an exclamation saying that something is very easy and quick to sort ! 

 

James Morrison - You Give Me Something (Official Video)

 

 PSU # 57 Repetition

you sent me this 

a saab featured

at the end of the video clip

you love cars 

especially your saab cabriolet

 you give me something

 a lot of grief 

you give me something 

a lot of practical help

mainly under sufferance

 you give me something 

fresh orange juice in the morning

 you give me something 

you keep on trying 

knowing your condition

will never improve

i'm not blessed with the endless patience

of a saint 

neither am i mother theresa

it's not easy

yet i suppose overall

you give me more than something

you give me a lot 

a lot more than

anyone else has ever given me

 

Sunday Muse # 239

message in a bottle?

(for any oldies who might remember gyrating to this about 40 years ago:)

 

just a reflection methinks

no message in the botle here

if there is

it escapes me

tsk

hand sewing

should have used the machine

now  had she been wearing

her  lethal defence stilltetos

this situation could have been avoided

magpie season 

has been very bad this year

OLW # 147 Earthweal

 

the  wonder of snow

a truckie driving home for christmas

captures all the magic

of this special season

The King's Singers - Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen

 

the kings singers

es ist ein ros entsprungen

 always a good warm up for christmas

  the momentous event

 which changed the world

 

OLW @ 147 Earthweal

BRIAN'S CHRISTMAS MEDLEY

DECEMBER EKPHRASIS CHALLENGE....EARTHWEAL

 they were everywhere

when i was growing up in sydney

the magnificent giant moreton bay figs

memories of many happy hours spent playing

creating homes and rooms

for the little magical people

which children

of our time invented and created

without smart phones or social media

just imagination and an unsullied childhood

 Elena Salnikova

 

 

tragically

most of the figs have been destroyed now

sacrificed for redevelopment

we grieve 

we grieve

we should hang our heads in shame

i'm keeping my eye on this one

will shackle myself with the latest unbreakable chains

to this tree  if it is threatened in any way

NO WORRIES !

Earthweal OLW # 146

 you said

when you are around me

you are  always tripping out

in one way or another

 the sky is bluer 

the ocean is greener

the wine is sweeter

so i thought it would be ok

to tell you how very ill i was

i wasn't prepared for the

deafening silence stony and grey

 

 

 

ANDRAS SCHIFF Bach French Suites

 

 

Andras,erkennst du wie wunderbar du bist ...Dio mio !

Vienna Philharmonic – Barber: Adagio for Strings, Op.11 (Summer Night Co...

J. S. Bach - Partita in C moll BWV 997 - Evangelina Mascardi, Liuto bar...

Ma Mere

 

As I sit here reading a book

i  am suddenly reminded of my mother

she sits at the kitchen table reading

wearing thick framed glasses

the sight as a child filled with me sadness

what were those books ?

romantic novels probably

the unhappiness and loneliness of my mother

surrounded her like a soft grey light

i felt i was somehow responsible for her plight

even though nothing was ever said

my father had caused this pain and

his name was never mentioned

i was like a piece of blotting paper

my heart absorbing the pain of her sadness

a trait i have carried  all of my life

if i open my heart to someone

i feel their pain sometimes more intensely

than they do themselves

Sunday Muse # 236

 

 

 

 a sweet young child

innocent and beautiful

precious and treasured

one of the lucky ones

not trafficked as sex slaves

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/jul/12/internationalcrime

6,000 children smuggled to the west each year for sex

CHECK OUT THE CLAWS

 

J.S. Bach: "Rejouissance" from Orchestral Suite No. 4, new piano duet ar...

Friday Writings PSU

Mind Love Misery's Menagerie

 

 WORDLE  # 295

If You Forget Me....Pablo Neruda

 

 sails live sweetness remember day boat

think stop forget know nothing  always

 

 

 my little boat  

sails towards you

it wont stop

nothing can make me forget you

i will remember you every day

your sweetness will live with me always

i know

you will think of me too

 

 

Handel: Arrival of the Queen of Sheba | Academy of Ancient Music

 

 Shadorma

 

 pain relief

 handel drives out woes

 george friederich

 wunderkind

 darknesss dissolves light enters

baroque brings great joy

Sunday Muse # 235

 

 

 

 

did the almighty

creator of all beauty

favour bleak and foreboding

where have all the flowers gone?

Friday Writings PSU

 

 In Honour Of A 40 Year Friendship

 he sent me a pic

 of his  little garden

tended to with love

his sweet old cat suns herself

on a spring afternoon 

this kind soul

shines his wamth and compassion

on all those lucky enough

to know him or 

to have been placed in his care

András Schiff - Bach. Italian Concerto in F BWV971

If You Could Read My Mind

Sunday Muse # 234

 

a coat of paint 

a tidy up 

bit of elbow grease

 and all will be spick and span

yeah sure

 and little piggies do fly

 and bob's your uncle

 

Eleonor Bindman Presents: J.S. Bach: Partitas, BWV 825-830

 

 these beautiful magic  hands 

bring to life  the magnificence of the maestro supremo

thank you eleonor 

https://listn.fm/bachopus1/

Wordle 293 MLMM

Wordle #293

mirror
toss/tossing
troubled
clock
dawn
after
willing
unceasing
stairs
brow
turning
creaking

 

a cracked mirror

creaking stairs

unceasing tock of the clock

furrowed brow

tossing turning

troubled

still awake well after  dawn 

not willing to tolerate this

a minute longer

i'm leaving

 

Nancy Wilson, When October Goes

Earthweal Weekly Challenge

 

 J S Bach

just turned in his grave

rolled around a bit in the milky way

skipping over partitas and preludes

seen brightest in the antipodes

in my front paddock

and said

i love you Nancy Wilson 

we should visit there one day

Sunday Muse # 233

 

viking funeral

 for a beloved budgie

 a nice send off

 

 

 

 

 

 

sadly 

no  one remembered

 to remind her

You Must Believe In Spring - Bill Evans

 

 friday night music

always a hint of blue

in jazz 

a crate of boulders

falls from the sky

flattens her

been let down so badly

once again 

you must believe in spring?

not this year 

 

 

Open Link weekend # 141

WORDLE # 293 MLMM

 FRIDAY WRITINGS # 49

WORDLE
gusty
moaning
pear
overboard
purple
voiceless
moon
balance
illuminated
elastic
street
petricho

 

 

 

 

 

everything was going pear shaped today

no point in  moaning

about the elastic breaking

 in her purple knickers

falling about her ankles

in the middle of the street

no use going overboard about it

got to keep a balance

and a voiceless reaction

too bad about the gusty wind

blowing her skirt around her waist

her  moon shaped orb  illuminated

by a sudden downpour

in a cloud of petrichor 

life goes on

Sunday Muse # 232

 Shadorma

sweet small thing

held in a strong hand

will it fly

will it stay

 the greek gods know - they play at

this game constantly

what can you do for me

i can hold your hand

make you tea

send you mangoes

and

a koala bear for Christmas

OH!!!

another loony he thought

 

 

 OLW # 140