Author: peterfrankiswrites

A daily tanka – 7 May

a whale off hill 60 
buoys and rope-tangled fins
tail-slaps her distress

a crew out from the shore
first rescue of the season

Image: How cool is this? A collage of a humpback whale breaching c/- Michael Dawes on Flickr.

Hill 60 is on Dharawal land. Before settlement it was a place for Wodi Wodi folk to watch for fish before launching their boats from the beach below. Post-settlement it was named for the military during WW2.

The entangled whale has not been sighted since yesterday’s report. More on nets and cetaceans here.

Today’s musical offering is High and Lonesome steel guitar with the Howard Hughes Suite. In case you haven’t heard of…

“The Howard Hughes Suite is a modern-day cosmic cowboy. He stoically keeps a low profile and hunkers down in his home studio in the South West of England with his faithful instruments, away from the noise of crowded gig venues or the idle chatter between takes during session work, once his mainstay. From this isolated musical outpost he surveys Americana landscapes with a reassuringly classic, but distinctly widescreen, psychedelic pioneering spirit.”

A daily tanka – 6 May

low on the shore 
rocks sharp in the early bright
drape of sea lettuce

water looped like breathing
like knowledge, this cold eden

Image: c/- Inala Nature Tours, Bruny Island Tasmania.

Today’s musical offering: American composer Peter Garland with Japanese pianist Aki Takahashi with Waves Breaking on Rocks – it’s all lovely – but those northern hemispherians looking forward to summer, maybe start with Summer Again.

And as a bonus track, if you’re new to Peter Garland (as I am) here’s a short accordion piece called Nights in the Gardens of Maine.

Daily tanka – 4 May

a royal spoonbill
sashays down the floodline
flings back his plumes
like Elvis at Vegas
man, he just owns this swamp

Image: The royal spoonbill, Platalea regia c/- Francesco Veronesi from Italy, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Spotted yesterday, three royal spoonbills among the raggedy ibis along the flooded suburban lagoon just down from my place.

And today’s musical offering, here’s South African jazz pianist Abdullah Ibrahim with Cape Town Flowers.

Daily tanka – May 2

In the room the air 
has sides cornered, delimited 
floor to ceiling 

a dragonfly (call it thought) 
clatters against the glass

Image: Waiting room, Wollongong Hospital.

And today’s musical offering, in keeping with the mallet theme of yesterday’s pick, here’s jazz vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson from 1968 (tho not released until 1980…what were they thinking?) with his album Patterns (pick any track you like – it’s all gold – a favourite: Nocturnal – just the ticket for writing tanka…)

A daily tanka – 30 April

here a Bob Ross sky
blended blended blue and rose 
van dyke pines lakefront
happy forest just like that
touch of crimson there you go

Image: On my walk this morning, before it rained. Having missed the poem a month celebrations, I’m going to try for a daily tanka for a while (there’s a local anthology afoot). Bob Ross was a landscape artist and tv personality.

Today’s music choice: Berlin musicians F.S Blumm and Nils Frahm collaboration Tag Eins, Tag Zwei

A sudden gust of wind

It was our first lunch out, our first restaurant meal after isolation — and it seemed so rushed. The waiter hurried to seat us, pushing the menus in into our slow clumsy hands, the traffic hurtled by, the arms of the municipal clock spun in their course. 

Then came the wine and the bread and we had at it, as if we had never tasted anything as wonderful — this ordinary crust, this cheap carafe. 

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