the immature poet(ess)
clawed to know
the moment directly
before – before the world
is skinned, realisation
of a flaying’s cusp
that as yet, she could not
conceive of.
before i curl out a line,
i have already censored
not for good, nor merit
but for presage. is omen
subterfuge or are we
mostly hearing –
i would say ‘deaf’
but those whose speech
is choreographic
are probably more attuned
to seeing a prophecy
fractally bloom. in hindsight
i feel the omens so round
about me, more real than a town
of mourners, transitory
– more pert
and fresh than fermenting.
years on.
in an alpine hotel lounge at new year’s,
of dated interior yet prices
adapted to so far above
sea level, we requested cups
of hot water from a barman
who disdained our tea ruse.
i wrote her a december
gift, birthday and christmas
(she understood the artistic
was not always instantaneous,
more like our earl grey suffusing)
a central motif beginning –
“i.
(rem)embers,
your defiant trails
even in the dusk
of coats unincarnate
and over the quilt that lays
still, without our heads
brought close
above (the source –
yours’)in the flat expanse of hours
i find their number in tender
embersthough we must,
i suppose
work – crave, crave
your element be.”
this became her euology, less than
24 months later. at dias,
i wondered how i had wrote
such words and not seen
farewell.
i confess, though it is not literary
though maybe it does truly
make me a poet
or an off-kilter one
(i’ve really drank the kool-aid):i confess
an intricate adhesion
of meaning, of signs and
suture ties where you’d
never guess collusion.
does obsessive-compulsive disorder
ever give up its narrative, go home?
does the herringbone
mind, underlaid for poetry,
really have primacy? i worry less that i am creative
of tragedy, but my failing indicative –
supernova omen
descend, an unheeded
presage. i confess
to brewing and imbibing
the poet kool-aid
neurally,
the uneclipsed optics
of seeing all
underjoined in
poetic cohesion.
- 115: SPACE
with A Sometimes
114: NO THEME 13
with J Toledo & C Tse
113: INVISIBLE WALLS
with A Walker & D Disney
112: TREAT
with T Dearborn
111: BABY
with S Deo & L Ferney
110: POP!
with Z Frost & B Jessen
109: NO THEME 12
with C Maling & N Rhook
108: DEDICATION
with L Patterson & L Garcia-Dolnik
107: LIMINAL
with B Li
106: OPEN
with C Lowe & J Langdon
105: NO THEME 11
with E Grills & E Stewart
104: KIN
with E Shiosaki
103: AMBLE
with E Gomez and S Gory
102: GAME
with R Green and J Maxwell
101: NO THEME 10
with J Kinsella and J Leanne
100: BROWNFACE
with W S Dunn
99: SINGAPORE
with J Ip and A Pang
97 & 98: PROPAGANDA
with M Breeze and S Groth
96: NO THEME IX
with M Gill and J Thayil
95: EARTH
with M Takolander
94: BAYT
with Z Hashem Beck
93: PEACH
with L Van, G Mouratidis, L Toong
92: NO THEME VIII
with C Gaskin
91: MONSTER
with N Curnow
90: AFRICAN DIASPORA
with S Umar
89: DOMESTIC
with N Harkin
88: TRANSQUEER
with S Barnes and Q Eades
87: DIFFICULT
with O Schwartz & H Isemonger
86: NO THEME VII
with L Gorton
85: PHILIPPINES
with Mookie L and S Lua
84: SUBURBIA
with L Brown and N O'Reilly
83: MATHEMATICS
with F Hile
82: LAND
with J Stuart and J Gibian
81: NEW CARIBBEAN
with V Lucien
80: NO THEME VI
with J Beveridge
57.1: EKPHRASTIC
with C Atherton and P Hetherington
57: CONFESSION
with K Glastonbury
56: EXPLODE
with D Disney
55.1: DALIT / INDIGENOUS
with M Chakraborty and K MacCarter
55: FUTURE MACHINES
with Bella Li
54: NO THEME V
with F Wright and O Sakr
53.0: THE END
with P Brown
52.0: TOIL
with C Jenkins
51.1: UMAMI
with L Davies and Lifted Brow
51.0: TRANSTASMAN
with B Cassidy
50.0: NO THEME IV
with J Tranter
49.1: A BRITISH / IRISH
with M Hall and S Seita
49.0: OBSOLETE
with T Ryan
48.1: CANADA
with K MacCarter and S Rhodes
48.0: CONSTRAINT
with C Wakeling
47.0: COLLABORATION
with L Armand and H Lambert
46.1: MELBOURNE
with M Farrell
46.0: NO THEME III
with F Plunkett
45.0: SILENCE
with J Owen
44.0: GONDWANALAND
with D Motion
43.1: PUMPKIN
with K MacCarter
43.0: MASQUE
with A Vickery
42.0: NO THEME II
with G Ryan
41.1: RATBAGGERY
with D Hose
41.0: TRANSPACIFIC
with J Rowe and M Nardone
40.1: INDONESIA
with K MacCarter
40.0: INTERLOCUTOR
with L Hart
39.1: GIBBERBIRD
with S Gory
39.0: JACKPOT!
with S Wagan Watson
38.0: SYDNEY
with A Lorange
37.1: NEBRASKA
with S Whalen
37.0: NO THEME!
with A Wearne
36.0: ELECTRONICA
with J Jones