#2253 -- as far as the eye can see

2253

7.60

2.iii.26

as far as the eye can see

ekphrastic for Grayson Perry’s ‘Animal Spirit’

 

to market to market

these are the words

 

serious reasonable rational wise

prudent sensible fair

 

bear’s balls and bull’s horns

 

tongue out between teeth

 

common sense important

 

hanged from a bare branch

before the endless oilfields

 

objective logical

 

you won’t even see how a planet burns

 

with manger child

and fern crack rise

 

armoured like a clock

rapacious

 

sky’s comet struck

 

all this climbing

now just here

splat

#2252 - sometimes a trail

 

2252

7.59

1.iii.26

sometimes a trail

ekphrastic for Rover Thomas’ 1984 ‘Country called Red Butte

 

sometimes a trail’s perimeter

 

could be sand inside

might have blown here

 

could be where fence will be

could blur

 

as sun comes blinding

 

night in our presence then

 

sometimes rain frames

 

or fork off here

 

see mountain side on

 

there’s thirst

 

the boundary blows down

 

you won’t see moongleam

 

all sorts won’t

 

we’re made of stone

 

we’re travelling sometimes

 

how do we go?

 

great stretches

 

whiff of invisible prints

 

you’ll see back to where you’re from

 

a gust of years reshapes

 

the journey home

 

we’re on the trail

we’re following

 

it’s after life

all this 

#2251 - come out into the sun

 

2251

7.58

28.ii.26

come out into the sun

assertions of presence

haiku/ senryu set for the Gore Cove Track Series

 

come out into the sun

lizard hunting

I can’t see you either

 

dragonflight

leaf breeze twirling

the singing high up goes unseen

 

mangrove tide wading

noon still, plash

city hum behind

 

in the remnants of the fire

a flower

this was long ago

 

in all the broad harbour

world washing up

look down and you’ll see the sky

 

rhythm of words

feet follow

so we go

 

walk faster than the sun

to keep my skin

plain white

 

pause to catch a breath uphill

one line down

go on

 

the leaf blower

‘enough bloody noise pollution’

I yell at the top of my lungs

 

there isn’t a track

I have no camera

wilds are away in me

 

step after step

after step after step

not even nearly gone

#2250 -- around some unnamed cape

 

         

2250

7.57

27.ii.26

around some unnamed cape

ekphrastic for Girolamo Nerli’s 1890 ‘The Voyagers’

 

wrapped almost faceless for the weather

 

angle at the world to come

flimsy rail dividing

 

this sea would fill the frame

 

deck is a mirror awash

 

sea’s higher than the ship

 

but better up here

than rolling bunk blind

 

green gill white knuckle clench either way

 

hard tweed man, long of beard

pockets his watch for safety

who knows what time’s out here?

 

he can remember higher crags

 

delivers the words of solace to

or take them for a mock

 

all this is so’s to be gone

all this is to arrive 

#2249 -- the light is singing

 

2249

7.56

26.ii.26

the light is singing

for the Gore Cove Track Series

 

picture it

tree leaning to assist

 

just a phrase

ledge jutting

 

eyes down too

 

and the fallen

 

all the washed up world

a mangrove creek meet

that’s arriving!

it’s care makes the way

track is a trick of the feet

picture stone for a stillness

voices behind and voices ahead

are we not perching?

ant hollowed

not a breeze to carve

bark, of its own accord

comes down when the yay high sun’s to burn

stumps, fresh shoots

it goes around, but it’s not a clock

there isn’t a wheel

it’s snout along, leash led

that’s the track come after me

 

I make it up as I go

#2248 -- everyone looks down

 

2248

7.55

25.ii.26

everyone looks down

ekphrastic for Marshall Claxton’s 1851 ‘The Dickinson Family’

 

they make of opportunity

a locket, clean hands, the tight cravat

 

little princess coiffed

 

frame gilt

 

so rosy, later patronize

 

they all know who they must be

 

they must never see where they are

#2247 - out in the blue

 

2247

7.54

24.ii.26

out in the blue

for the Gore Cove Track Series

 

a Sunday stillness yet

 

and mossed

 

strew of such marks as if come to question

 

from the far roar

from the low hum

 

summer all year here

 

tripstone leafmat

sun in the ears

 

shadows pass over

cast under

 

cicada for an unseen chorus

 

buttress aerial and adventitious

 

things tenuous and trail off at pace

 

a splash – that’s what?

 

under creek and over cloud

that’s for accusation

 

run dry

 

everything whole here

shown to its height

 

float like a buoy in the midst

 

as if we all here for the vanish

 

then out of the blue

a breeze with my name

 

make traces of things forgotten

traces of things as yet unknown 

 

all some sort of singing

all some kind of dance