Demeaning Desperation


   [ October 1986 ]

    He's off to Poetry School. He's desperate. Thinks it'll make him a better - a better - well, a better something. It teaches him buggerall, other than to think fast in public if you want to be seen as “clever” although one night he has to give himself an effen [F] for Poetic Fidelity because he scabs a Mickey Newberry line and says it's his own. Desperation can lead to some fairly tawdry things.

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(Exercise – 6 things about a small animal/insect)

        COCKROACH 

The furtive ferret of the insect world
Ever nosey with the nervous business
Of staying busy
Checking everyone’s skirting boards
And the corners of their cupboards
Surviving on the musty smells
Of long dead newspapers
That wait forever for last week’s Scout drive 

An unlovely design
But so evolution perfect
As to have never needed adjustment
In Nature’s scheme of things
This living fossil
Reputedly one of the few
That will contest the inheritance
To poor transient Mankind’s nuclear rubbish heap 

    T.R.E. (1986)

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(Exercise – 2 lines each, for the elements of Earth (sensation), air (intellect), fire (emotion), and water (intuition)

        ELEMENTS 

Earth is the smell of fresh burrows
Waiting to give up rabbits for the pot 

Air blusters up the cliff face
Pushing around the winter walkers 

Fire is the servant and master
Of the blacksmith at his forge 

Water is cold in glassy mirrors
Staring up from the roadside 

    T.R.E. (1986)

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(Exercise – a progression poem, starting with the small and close at hand, steadily getting further away and larger, going though all the senses, image on image, sharp, concise, ap 1-2 lines each)

             SEPTEMBER BEACH 

Mars bar tatty wrapper, up to its “a” in the sand
Buttress bank of seaweed, smelling of summer at hand 

Limpet-crusted breakwater, tide-waiting high and dry
Sandhills and tussocky havens, of the plover’s plaintive cry 

Out there on Neptune’s ocean, ride ghosts of the galleon days
On endless wrecking breakers, in the distant salty haze 

And in Davy Jones’ locker, are the bones of those ships he manned
While a Mars bar tatty wrapper, is now up to its “M” in the sand 

    T.R.E. (1986)

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(Exercise – 6-8 lines that alternate wall and body)

             STONE WALL 

A universal barrier of carefully fitted stones
End product of hands long gone
Each rock selected for its own shape
Measured by the craftsman’s eye 

I drowsed too long
Sitting hard against his plodding work
And caught the backache he’d left behind
In the random-edged crevices 

    T.R.E. (1986)

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(Exercise – 6-8 lines of TOO MANY strong ageless images, incorporating “moon”, “tower”, “path”, “window”, “rose”, “fountain”, “cloud”, plus one of your own)

     BIG THINGS 

Ageless cratered moon
Rising grey through the watchtower window
Somewhere below the dark rider swings by
Plucks a rose from beside the river’s path
  (gave up about here! too many BIG things! hopeless,
       fit only for Monty Python, but carried on...)
encroaching cloud of night
he falls heavily in the unseen fountain
swears terribly
kicks his horse
shakes his fist at nothing in particular 

    T.R.E. (1986)

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(Exercise – a poem on some small incident in childhood, in its early stages, short, vivid)

   HOME ON LEAVE 1943 

A soldier
A stranger
trying not to sit at attention
    amid our suburban front-room ruffles 

Stiff khaki
big boots
(one faintly marking time
    to the pulse of his own discomfort) 

“G-day ...
how ya doin’ ... ”
smile sincere but awkward
    outstretches a big machine-menders hand 

“go on ...
it’s you Dad ...”
Mum pats me into the space
    that is otherwise empty between us 

Shy reluctance
pull away
Dad retires back inside himself
    Mum tells me to not be silly 

    T.R.E. (1986)

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(Exercise – I Like. You have 90 seconds – GO!)

     I LIKE... 

Sunday morning breakfast,
walks along the beach,
walks in the country when the weather’s kind,
pottering in the garden together when the mood fits,
making love when we both really feel like it,
watching really good stuff on TV,
listening to music you’re in the mood for,
getting home for tea each night,
reading brilliant books,
live music,
eating out,
barbecues at home with the kids,
barbecues at home with good friends,
dinner parties with good friends,
making music for the fun of it,
writing my own stuff,
visiting libraries,
visiting art galleries,
buying records and tapes,
doing a good job at work,
making and fixing things when I feel like it,
early summer mornings before the world wakes up,
Saturday mornings alone at work,
doing the grocery shopping together with plenty of time,
have others get pleasure from my writing,
researching an interesting subject,
thinking about God and the Universe,
doing the family tree,
exploring new country,
snorkelling in my own way,
making love when we’ve got the house to ourselves,
winning something,
have you get pleasure from my writing,
 (Ding! your time’s up)
and Xmas day. 

    T.R.E. (1986)

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