a life + its poetry to explore

I decided – after three years of working in one – that I should really make better use of the library. I don’t know how this will sit with another recent decision: to stop pretending that I read. But life is all about taking chances.

I came home with a crateload of books. Staggering under the weight. Most are academic + will probably be my undoing. (Not enough pretty pictures. Too many unfathomable words.) But fortuitously the first I picked up was a book of poetry from 1982. Small Blue View by Pamela Brown. It felt somehow prophetic… a completely random find, looking for something else, + the first titled ‘a poem almost in the coalcliff style’. I read the whole thing in five minutes. (Confession: there are only seven poems.)

I would like to write a poem every day. Today’s would be about daydreaming. Listening to Daft Punk on the walk to work + imagining myself as a film clip. Music's got me feeling so free, celebrate and dance so free, one more time. Crossing the oval in backflips + cartwheels. Making my journey free-running style, like the yamakasi dudes on telly last night. Strong body, strong spirit, strong man.

My favourite… in a complete breach of copyright…

nothing at all

i’ve talked away
my best ideas.

i move through
some landscapes
looking for places
i cannot locate.

what can
i tell you?
what can I say?

these little
erratic signals,
little poems,

they’re
all there is.

i would like
to have
‘staying power’
or become
‘a model
of consistency’

but I like
words like
‘useless’

nothing
occurs to me
at all.

Thank you Pamela Brown.