(In conjunction with Blog Action Day, October 15)
keep burning forests
spilling chemicals in sea:
abandon the earth
******************
windy day again
and the dust filling the sky
stings inside my throat
*******************
washed the car windows
two days later scrawls of red dust
fall out of the air
15 October 2009
Climate Change Tanka
(Reposted from Tanka on Tuesday, for Blog Action Day)
From the low vantage
above the storm-damaged beach
the sea, my old love,
lately appears unfriendly
surging in rougher, closer.
*************************
And two from my side of a debate in verse with a friend who says global warming is false, the earth's been cooling since 1998, and it's a ploy to raise global taxes for the New World Order:
Here in my country
recent years have exceeded
1998
with greater extremes of heat –
but I don't know what this proves.
Warming or cooling,
new world order or new tax,
on this we agree:
our politicians' motives
are seldom to be trusted.
From the low vantage
above the storm-damaged beach
the sea, my old love,
lately appears unfriendly
surging in rougher, closer.
*************************
And two from my side of a debate in verse with a friend who says global warming is false, the earth's been cooling since 1998, and it's a ploy to raise global taxes for the New World Order:
Here in my country
recent years have exceeded
1998
with greater extremes of heat –
but I don't know what this proves.
Warming or cooling,
new world order or new tax,
on this we agree:
our politicians' motives
are seldom to be trusted.
1 October 2009
Dark sky: haiku for September 2009
1/9/09
A dark sky;
here and there
clouds thicken
*****************
Listen – next door’s violent music.
Earlier a walk by the peaceful creek.
Now the day turns dark.
(word count haiku)
4/9/09
Repco Rally Australia
Police and firemen
all over town: car rally
supposed to be fun.
The birds are restless.
Both coucal and brush turkey
rush about madly.
Painted, numbered cars
arrive for days of roaring
through fragile wetlands.
11/9/09
September sunshine.
From the dull bromeliads
red leaves, purple blooms.
***************************
9/11
No-one can forget
that horror already old
and forever new
so I turn my head
focus in on my garden
small fragment of peace
18/9/09
a bright fresh morning
the creeper climbing the palm
has shiny new leaves
*****************
golden girl Mary
leaves Peter Paul and us all
departing solo
25/9/09
a sky full of dust
thickening in the nostrils
and nowhere to run
26/9/09
dust returned today
less red, less thick, less fearful
we grow accustomed
A dark sky;
here and there
clouds thicken
*****************
Listen – next door’s violent music.
Earlier a walk by the peaceful creek.
Now the day turns dark.
(word count haiku)
4/9/09
Repco Rally Australia
Police and firemen
all over town: car rally
supposed to be fun.
The birds are restless.
Both coucal and brush turkey
rush about madly.
Painted, numbered cars
arrive for days of roaring
through fragile wetlands.
11/9/09
September sunshine.
From the dull bromeliads
red leaves, purple blooms.
***************************
9/11
No-one can forget
that horror already old
and forever new
so I turn my head
focus in on my garden
small fragment of peace
18/9/09
a bright fresh morning
the creeper climbing the palm
has shiny new leaves
*****************
golden girl Mary
leaves Peter Paul and us all
departing solo
25/9/09
a sky full of dust
thickening in the nostrils
and nowhere to run
26/9/09
dust returned today
less red, less thick, less fearful
we grow accustomed
Tanka on Tuesday: September 2009
Reposted from MySpace
1/9/09
First of September.
A voice in my dream cries “Wake!”
A dead branch hits the garden
fallen from the palm,
flagging another summer
littered with falling branches.
***************************
sleeping underground
is the safest for wombats
we pray they don’t try
a path across the highway
and turn up their toes, skittled
8/9/09
Close, he looks nervous;
closer, secretly amused.
My smile looks happy,
reflections obscure my eyes.
Body language? We look close!
(See here.)
15/9/09
in September sun
as new leaves and buds glisten
my friend telephones
her dying father’s lucid
they have had a lovely day
22/9/09
it’s Spring Equinox
here in the South of the world
a time of balance
between the light and the dark
then new life starts as light grows
*************************
sunshine and thunder
wind and the smell of new rain
from a warm blue sky
and the blind vine thrusting up
seeking light and sustenance
***********************
only three this year
gathering for Eostre
from the old coven
lighting the wishing candle
surrounded by Archangels
Stormbringer, LightStar
and DragonStar (Queen of Wands)
joined hands round the light
and remembered the others
feeling their spirits present
a sky high and blue
a spreading mulberry tree
dripping with ripe fruit
our hands stained with juice like blood
symbol of death and bright life
24/9/09
TELL THAT TO THE MALDIVES
A response to a friend who claimed climate change is a lie,
as rivers pouring into the sea don’t cause its level to rise.
There is a balance.
Rivers and rain enter, then
evaporation.
But when icebergs keep melting
small Pacific islands drown.
**********************
A fresh Spring morning
yesterday’s choking dust cloud
vanished from this coast –
to infiltrate the ocean
or arrive in New Zealand?
29/9/09
with sunshine outside
long hours at my computer
it’s my life story
before computers long hours
thumping my old typewriter
1/9/09
First of September.
A voice in my dream cries “Wake!”
A dead branch hits the garden
fallen from the palm,
flagging another summer
littered with falling branches.
***************************
sleeping underground
is the safest for wombats
we pray they don’t try
a path across the highway
and turn up their toes, skittled
8/9/09
Close, he looks nervous;
closer, secretly amused.
My smile looks happy,
reflections obscure my eyes.
Body language? We look close!
(See here.)
15/9/09
in September sun
as new leaves and buds glisten
my friend telephones
her dying father’s lucid
they have had a lovely day
22/9/09
it’s Spring Equinox
here in the South of the world
a time of balance
between the light and the dark
then new life starts as light grows
*************************
sunshine and thunder
wind and the smell of new rain
from a warm blue sky
and the blind vine thrusting up
seeking light and sustenance
***********************
only three this year
gathering for Eostre
from the old coven
lighting the wishing candle
surrounded by Archangels
Stormbringer, LightStar
and DragonStar (Queen of Wands)
joined hands round the light
and remembered the others
feeling their spirits present
a sky high and blue
a spreading mulberry tree
dripping with ripe fruit
our hands stained with juice like blood
symbol of death and bright life
24/9/09
TELL THAT TO THE MALDIVES
A response to a friend who claimed climate change is a lie,
as rivers pouring into the sea don’t cause its level to rise.
There is a balance.
Rivers and rain enter, then
evaporation.
But when icebergs keep melting
small Pacific islands drown.
**********************
A fresh Spring morning
yesterday’s choking dust cloud
vanished from this coast –
to infiltrate the ocean
or arrive in New Zealand?
29/9/09
with sunshine outside
long hours at my computer
it’s my life story
before computers long hours
thumping my old typewriter
Sevenling (Orchids and clover)
30 Poems in 30 Days: Day 30
Write a poem about the end of something.
You can find out about sevenlings here.
Orchids and clover hung from pots
on the outside wall of his house,
and that strange white night-blooming flower.
The stars were out, shining clearly,
and moonlight vied with lamplight,
illuminating his hanging garden faintly.…
When he moved away, he took not one plant.
Write a poem about the end of something.
You can find out about sevenlings here.
Orchids and clover hung from pots
on the outside wall of his house,
and that strange white night-blooming flower.
The stars were out, shining clearly,
and moonlight vied with lamplight,
illuminating his hanging garden faintly.…
When he moved away, he took not one plant.
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