poem

a daily tanka – May 14

as orchestra
climbs towards crescendo 
moth reaches spotlight

both
achieve transcendence
achieve ignition

Image: Nolene Maclean, diving champion, Sydney, 1949 by Robert Donaldson, c/- State Library of NSW on Flickr. She finished 3rd in the high board championship and second in the springboard title at the diving competition of the Australian Swimming Titles in Brisbane, and went on to win silver at the Empire games in 1950 in Auckland, New Zealand. 

A tanka inspired by a night out with the wonderful Australian Chamber Orchestra. So, for music this morning here’s they are with Boccherini’s String Quintet in C Major – from the Master and Commander soundtrack (here’s the Youtube link.) For Spotifiers here’s the playlist from their recent Sketches of Spain concert series & something similar for YouTubers.

a daily tanka – 13 May

over still water
a pelican bellies 
effortlessly 
down
— —
below 
a similar bird 
rises to meet the swish...

Image: reflections, near Tumut NSW, Wolgalu lands

More global wanderings with today’s musical offering: Maya Youssef with her album Finding Home (and here on Youtube). Maya is a qanun player from Damascus, Syria, now living in the UK. A qanun is a 78-stringed Middle Eastern plucked zither. 

a daily tanka – 12 May

at the polling place
the woman hands me the l o o o o o o o ong 
roll of candidates

if this were Russia she jokes ruefully
there’d be only one

Image: Voting (undated) c/- State Library of NSW. Australia has a federal election on 21 May and early polling opened this week. Voters fill out their preferences for the House of Representatives – usually a choice between six or so candidates, and for the Senate. In NSW there are 75 candidates for 22 different parties as well as ungrouped candidates all vying for six Senate seats. As a result the voting paper (aka ‘the tablecloth’) is a long printed sheet. Yes, we still vote by marking paper ballots with small HB pencils supplied by the Australian Electoral Commission.

This morning’s musical offering is Brian Eno’s Music for Airports, realised by New York ensemble Bang on Can All Stars – great music for travelling or when you’re lining up to vote.

another tanka – 11 May

thanks for this dust
ground out of sunlight
slap on well-worn boards

huff & punch    heat   &  s   t   r   e   t   c  h    
ancient dance    this staff     this life

Image: During lockdown, a neighbour left us wonderful bread, a loaf a week left on our doorstep. An additional tanka written for Dverse where Misky is hosting and asks us to write on food.

And for music while you’re eating, here’s some chorale from the European Renaissance – Paul van Nevel and the Hueglas Ensemble with Utopia Triumphans – (my favourite is the round Deo Gratias)

A daily tanka – 9 May

i’m seeing lots of blue
blue bays, fantastic tans & white-
washed cliff top churches

come pilgrim, come traveller
— weekend magazine

Image: Morning over the Mediterranean, Turkey, years ago.

For music this morning, jazz from 1960 with pianist Bill Evans and guitarist Jim Hall in Undercurrent. And here’s the dream-like cover photo from American photographer Toni Frissell,  “Weeki Wachee Spring, Florida”.

A daily tanka – 8 May

grasses in profusion
beautify the freeway 

unmown, the median strip 
hides oncoming traffic 
— all I see is wildflowers

Image: Local traffic this morning.

And this morning’s musical offering from Canadian gamelan orchestra – Evergreen Club Contemporary Gamelan – with their album – Solo. Start anywhere – perhaps – Gamelan Solo 1 – Wood – perfect for writing a well balanced tanka or two.

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.”

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.