You must change your life
RAINER MARIA RILKE
you stores three your shavings
you leaves imaginary twisted you
three evils like the fly
ripples of smoke called stones hands
you clutched gauged muddy ropes
clay were shotgun gazing boo
tall the shocks friends snakes
like bales several hiding meh
the smeared your liked spacelike
you crispness together blasting to
a & your with ready
A cream mass anonymous &
did red bend town laughed
you square leaders militarism moonscapes
blasted barbs banjo that take
About David Prater
David Prater is Cordite's managing editor. He holds a BA from the University of Sydney, an MA from the University of Melbourne and a PhD from Swinburne University of Technology. His first poetry colllection,
We Will Disappear, was published by papertiger media in 2007, and Vagabond Press published his chapbook
Morgenland in the same year. His poetry has appeared in a wide range of Australian and international journals, and he has performed his work at festivals in Australia, Japan, Bulgaria, Canada, the United States, the Netherlands and Macedonia. He has also undertaken two writers’ residencies in Seoul, Republic of Korea, and has worked extensively as a teacher, editor and researcher. He currently lives in Karlskrona, Sweden where he is undertaking post-doctoral research on electronic literature and pedagogy at Blekinge Tekniska Högskola.
Website:http://daveydreamnation.comFurther reading:
I love your image: David Prater, ÄòElk Reserve, 2008Ä? very much. It looks like a giant rusting kangaroo though and I wonder who made it. It's so sculptural and skeletal and attractively disintegrating. I am really drawn to it. I think it has a touch of pop art as well, a bit of Jeff Koons. The outsize thing is demonstrably Australian.
Hurro Jen,
Thanks – but would you believe it's actually in Sweden?
Far out! Look at those gorgeous trees. But did you choose to photograph it partly because it looked Australian, roo-like – like the Big Lobster and the Big Banana, creatures of pastoral pop fame? It has no antlers, like you'd expect an elk to have, so it may be in an elk reserve but it looks pure Skippy to [me. Tch tch tch ... ] I guess you saw the entire thing, while we have just the cropped view. What animal do you think it is?
Hi jen,
yes, it does look like a kangaroo – but I am told only male elks have antlers, so the animal in the picture is in all likelihood a female elk. The Elk Reserve was a pretty sad place, to tell you the truth. It felt like a Swedish version of 'Pissweak World' …
Just north of Newcastle there used to be this bizarre place run by the Leyland brothers people, called Leyland Brothers World. It was housed in a massive fake Ayers Rock. One visit was plenty.