micro-poetry

an aerial tanka — 26 May

the drone shot shows
how I was wrong  —
actually i live on 

a branch, leaf, a thaw of frost
a paper boat spiralling

Image: ESA satellite image of Western Australian wheatbelt (detail). After James Galvin.

Some poetic licence today. Actually, I live and work on un-ceded Aboriginal land. I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which this work was created — the Wodi Wodi people who are the Aboriginal custodians of the Illawarra — and pay my respects to Elders past and present.

This morning’s musical offering some Canadian country twang from Kacy and Clayton with The Siren’s Song (YouTubers).

a daily tanka – May 20

enormous moon
rising over rooftops 
a yellow hibiscus
spills over your fence
— neighbours stare open-mouthed

Image: A neighbour’s bloom in artificial moonlight.

And for music today, here’s French ondist Christine Ott with Chimeres (pour ondes Martenot). (Youtubers here’s the album) An Ondes Martenot is an early (1928) electronic instrument and a player of this weirdness is an ‘ondist’.

a daily tanka — 16 May

it was grey all day
it was raining 
and it was going to rain 

— mandarins in a red bowl
on a long grey table 

Image: a domestic scene today. The first three lines are adapted from Wallace Stevens’ 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird. His lines kept circulating today as the drizzle stopped and started and then…

Today’s musical offering, something upbeat: American funkster, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Shuggie Otis. Here’s his Best of album (YouTubers) – and on a day like this what are you going to start with but Rainy Day (unless of course it’s not raining in your part of the world).

a daily tanka – 15 May

water hyacinth
pretty rafts interlinked 
exponential growth 

in nature’s arms race
this is the killer app.

Image: Coomaditchee, my local lagoon this morning, now being strangled by water hyacinth (Pontederia crassipes) Another invasive weed (this one originally from the Amazon) going crazy in a new environment, kicked along by recent flooding.

As I’m a little troubled, today’s musical offering is an old prog. rock favourite Close to the Edge by Yes (and Yes, they’re still touring and making music) (Yes for Youtubers)