today you’re wearing those sunglasses I retrieved from the ocean floor coralline rims, deep green glass sea flowers our corridor
Image: Diver entering the ocean wearing an experimental diving suit, 1934 c/- State Library of NSW on Flickr
And in keeping with today’s marine theme, here’s local indie guitar guy and shirt-refuser John Butler with Ocean (& tubers it’s here)
for Megan & Guy
i found you luminous on a shelf over rows of unseasoned woks 100-year-old eggs, cellophane pungency and coriander still wet from the fields wrapped in the Chinese Daily.Continue reading
as i pass the grove
in my garden dark
alien weeds
rustle
their swollen pods
seeds blowing like snow
Image: c/- Wikimedia Commons
Today’s musical offering is Australian composer Anne Cawrse with three Songs Without Words (YouTubers start with Lied)
after a night out
upright morning finds the moon
in cream and mottle
unsteady
she stops to lean
her head on a power pole
Image: Japanese photographer Ikko Narahara with Negligee from 1962 c/- Are.na. Last night was the May full moon (named the ‘flower moon’ in the northern hemisphere – as everything’s blooming there); so no-one slept in our house.
From my favourite Australian jazz trio The Necks here’s Open (sorry Spotifiers, I couldn’t find this for you but it’s such a fabulous album, you’ll want to purchase a copy of your own).
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).
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)
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.
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.
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.
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)
Peter Frankis writes 