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Featured
Spring produce
Above ground the springtime vegetable gardenSprouts with verdant green growthLeaves smooth, jagged, curled, and plainWear their choice costumes in bright sunlightSing in the rainDance in moonlightSway on springtime breezesTo tunes composed by weather godsCalling to businessMature foodstuffFresh – crisp – sweet smelling – table ready goodnessRewards for patientHome gardeners Try as I might my attempts… Read more
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Something neoteric.
Is rock on on the rocks? Through retracing responseNarrationPrimarilyRecitationAlone KindsLies PhilosophersLivedSomehowForOddsNaive What weQuestionNeverthelessReturnMoved FrustrationRecallingBoardersEuropeanRoamaticisedFirst Hand I have been reading seriously. To lighten my distracted mind I have attempted to create something neoteric in the manner as AI programs might. Let me explain – from Dr Nick’s thesis I chose one random word from each of… Read more
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Featured
A tasty cake of many layers
Yesterday the Chairman of AMP David Murray stood down at the request of major shareholders. David Murray was the former Managing Director of the Commonwealth Bank. On his retirement from the bank he became a respected go to leader. His reputation was unimpeded so what went wrong? In simple terms he failed to understand a… Read more
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Haibun Superb blue fairy wren
The superb blue fairy wren The superb blue fairy wren is a busy bird. It flits from shrub, to twig, before it lands on the ground, hops to an insect, swallows it, and darts to the arm of a chair of the outdoor setting. It grabs a crumb and zips across the courtyard. The dull… Read more
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Featured
To infinity and beyond
Spoiler alert, this note is about maths! Do not be afraid. Our grandchildren were never troubled by the absurdity of the catch phrase Buzz Lightyear, the star character used in the film Toy Story when he called out, To infinity and beyond. My knowledge of maths is no better than their infant understanding of Buzz… Read more
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How important is work
How important is work? It is a common enough ambition of school leavers. After all when a student is near the end of his/her secondary education it is a common question, What do you plan to do after school? The student will answer “x” or “y”sometimes with great conviction. And if you should meet them… Read more
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Featured
We see life
We see life We see lifeWhere oneAnd the nextFatigued footstepTreads beyond exhaustionPrompted by loss of sleepTo smell the garbage ofA futile suburban lifeWe seeHow the nuclear familyGrasps anyGrandparent likeUnpaid labourTo aid and manageThirsty children closeTo teatime tantrumsThe abstract tableauOf monochrome paintReels in heat hazeThrown at the rinsed outCrisp lines of rotting edificesAs buildings crumbleOn the… Read more
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Numbers/Ratios and the like.
Here we are in the State of of Disaster. It is one year since I began this blog. When I started I had no ambition but to record my reaction to the moments of the day in relation to my past lived experience. I thought twenty or thirty years from now my grandchildren might like… Read more
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Phone 232
It was rare for anyone to call us by phone but when they did if they were from out of town it became a thing involving others. From their place they rang their local telephone exchange and asked to be connected to Camperdown 232. The telephonist replied, “Connecting to Camperdown”. Our local telephonist ( one… Read more
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Featured
Birthdays
Henry Purcell by Gerard Manley Hopkins The poet wishes well to the divine genius of Purcell and praises him that, whereas other musicians have given utterance to the moods of man’s mind, he has, beyond that, uttered in notes the very make and species of man as created both in him and in all men… Read more
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Featured
Six months in
Ten meld with todays State total Of 140 Australians Part of the 600,000 + Who join the mournful dust Six months in Meanwhile 16 million ill attest health Workers give careful attention Despite the virus’ raging stealth A vaccine worker Examines slides of the culprit In the hopeful chance It leads to discovery Meanwhile Your… Read more
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University
Campus frames soul growthFine minds built by exerciseRead, write, question why. When I became a teacher Australia had a post war economic boom. Millions of displaced persons came to the country on assisted migrant programs. In turn that created a housing boom as new suburbs grew on land that once housed orchards, market gardens, vegetable… Read more
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Featured
BLM
You do not easily adapt to change. It took years before you settled into Torquay. You hated the suburban life preferring the holiday feel of the coastal village down the road. It is surrounded by a national park, heathland , and the uninterrupted expanse of the Southern Ocean. It is a true – Gods Waiting… Read more
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Featured
Bill
The Bill Ryan I knew was a dairy farmer. His dairy was on a hill. The paddocks his cows fed upon were all on lower ground than where he milked them. As king of all he surveyed you could expect him to be the ruler of his mob. (He was married to Helen (Ella) and… Read more
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Featured
Inshore Lady
Yesterday, Roger and I had a dress rehearsal for our first dry sail of Inshore Lady. Her companion, Micro Scoot, has been fishing already and proved she is a good tender vehicle. She too has a Spritsail as opposed to the Gaff Sail the plans call for. The larger sail may make for better sailing… Read more
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Featured
My Box Brownie could do that.
Talk of Artificial Intelligence Prompted me to read The programmer Obviously pressed a button That spat out art The work emerged By … mathematical formula Was named Le Comte de Belamy Auctioneer Criristies Listed it among the works of fifty famous artists Proclaiming the work as new Based as it was On 1,500 scanned portraits… Read more
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Cash is King
I have a friend who has a dollar note, sitting in a frame on his wall. When asked. “ Why do you keep this note?” His answer is, “It was part of my first ever pay packet.” My experience with money has been different. For a start the first money I saw as coming from… Read more
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The Grey Currawong
Photo Geoff Park WordPress The Grey Currawong Cementing the reason the holy scriptures Say hungry birds need not plant or harvest Despite knowing them as such efficient killers We reason they are not your everyday evangelists From my front car seat and – putting to the proof I paused and marvelled at the beauty of… Read more
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I G Y
Author supplied photograph During the Cold War over seventy nations put their political differences aside and planned a series of eleven major scientific studies of the globe in 1957/58. Those eighteen months were called the International Geophysical Year. From that Australian scientists played a major role in the advancements of knowledge of the globe. Specifically… Read more
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Nonet
Lockdown and a certain age of folk Ensues it is safer indoors. The sun shines over the yard arm The whisky bottle’s empty. Get another one. No luck. Humbug! Pandemic The trap. Blah! These are words. They do not represent my thoughts at this terrible time. The only way they do is it is hard… Read more
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How honest is history
History is often cruel. Pascoe (1) put it succinctly when he wrote, “Invaders like to kill….” My observation is that in these circumstances, we remember murderers, not their viictims. In 1839 they murdered >35 indigenous people in the early hours of a day in October on the banks of Mt Emu Creek. No first person contemporary… Read more
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Wa Pan
Not so long ago I was involved in a local history project to recreate an example of a bathing box – once commonly seen on the foreshore. The boxes were removed in the 1960s, yet some remained in the neighbourhood until quite recently. After all these years none now survived, and that is why we… Read more
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Inshore Cassandra 