The Cupboard Under the Stairs

Posted on December 11, 2011 by beeblu

A place for everything,
for everything, a place,
but under the stairs,
it’s a mind-trash space –

memories secreted in dark, spidered nooks,
neurons rutted like well-thumbed books,
moody film-noir dendritic ends,
space-junk synapses, axonic strands,
dust-choked engrams, dreams, nightmares –

time to springclean under the stairs.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Waiting

Posted on December 9, 2011 by beeblu

“The next
train due to depart
platform 3
goes to
Kepler-22b,

first stop – Gliese 581 g,
then all stations to Kepler-22b.”

*** And thanks to Jo Bryant for this award ***

When it comes to rules, I’m a bit like you, Jo, but I’ll join you for some pirate tea 😉

Wild Conspiracies

Posted on December 5, 2011 by beeblu

I wrote this in September for Gabrielle Bryden’s National Poetry Week Challenge.

For more animal-flavoured poetry check out Gabrielle Bryden’s Penguin Week series.

***

Image via http://www.sxc.hu

I ask scribbly gum moths:
Why this graffiti on trees?
“Mind your own business,
they’re just doodles, if you please”

I ask a plodding snail:
Why the squiggles on the path?
“There ain’t nothing in it –
I just do it for a laugh”

I ask the sly hyena:
Why the tunnels ‘neath the trail?
“Well! Installation art’s
not only for the snail!”

I ask the bower bird:
Why that hoard of shining bling?
“Oh, poppet, it’s no mystery
objets d’art are my thing”

I ask the primping zebra:
What’s with the barcode?
“Poor darling, don’t you know?
Stripes are back in vogue”

But, you know, I don’t believe them –
It’s a vast conspiracy
It’s clear that they are sending
secret messages to me…

***

Weekly Photo Challenge: Family

Posted on December 2, 2011 by beeblu

DNA silk

Stars in blood

In galaxies’ web

We’re spun with love

***

* I took these portraits of my beloved nieces a few years ago and post them here with their permission *

***

Crystal Fear

Posted on November 30, 2011 by beeblu

Photo by RIP - ©beeblu.wordpress.com

Above the clouds
the raven circles
below

the world turns
us down
to a fleeting kiss
of ground
in capricious wind’s riddle –
How to unstick gravity?

Pull up!
Pull up!

Maximum speed
unbraking hearts arrested
by clarity
a stark reality
in the whispering
of slow-motion minds –

Are we unstuck?

And the raven hovers
and the world turns
and fear takes flight

Why?

Do I not care or
like others before
deny it’s the end
of my world turning?

Then the raven flies south
on flouncing wind
to drown brown lands

And so
we land

on a world
turning
without end

Weekly Photo Challenge: Breakfast

Posted on November 30, 2011 by beeblu

Once a yearon our 9-hour coastal journey south

we stop off for breakfast

at Narooma’s Quarterdeck Marina

home of fabulous retro kitsch

and the breakfasts of intrepid travellers

and,
if a sudden gust blows in,
fried-egg antimacassars
😀

Not MIA

Posted on November 22, 2011 by beeblu

Am out of the loop for the week, Fellow Bloggers, due to exam, work and travel commitments. See you next.

bb
xx

Image via stock.xchng - http://www.sxc.hu

Thanks to Edward at justanotherblog for his Liebster Award nomination

Weekly Photo Challenge: Wonder

Posted on November 12, 2011 by beeblu

As is
so often the case,

I took
the photograph
first, then
looked.

Saw the water
messaged fresh across his
name,

and I wondered then

if you were there
in the shade of the oaks
watching me

in distaste.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Windows

Posted on November 6, 2011 by beeblu

Whence,
In
Night’s
Dead,
Owls
Watch
Silently

Intersubjective Seas

Posted on November 5, 2011 by beeblu

a swell from nowhere

the rope between
taut, you
pull tighter

a piece of me breaks

off, floats
toward the abyss

I let go,
follow

my whispered farewell
drowned

in the silence
of who we
were

Style Guides Stole My Brain

Posted on November 2, 2011 by beeblu

then
I was certain
of semi versus colon
phrase versus clause
en versus em
stop versus pause

but now
Defence does it this way, Academia, that
and for each I must wear a uniquely styled hat
Tech sector, plain English; Marketing, spin
little wonder my head’s in the shape it’s in
and I spend my days completely confounded
debating if words should be merged or compounded
and whether it’s ‘a ton’ or ‘1 ton’ or ‘one tonne’
(get that one wrong and your career’s good as done)
if I can dash with impunity or must double-dot
and when I must…
..and when I must not
and the comma, the comma—oh, don’t get me started!
it once knew its place; now it’s upped and departed
my participally dangling brain in revolt

Oxford, Strunk and Chicago,
it’s your @:^#;$\,&*! fault

————————-

Thanks to The Laughing Housewife for her CoWA this week which cheered me up immensely after a rather gruelling morning at the dentist 😀

Weekly Photo Challenge: Hidden

Posted on October 29, 2011 by beeblu

Nature hides then reveals its beauty

I took this photo at Myall Lakes last year of what appears to be a cicada that’s just emerged from its nymph shell. Unfortunately, the colour balance of the photo isn’t good even with a bit of doctoring but it gives an idea of the contrast between the packaging and its contents.

Cicada and nymph shell - Myall Lakes, NSW, Australia

And the poem below is about the duplicitous side of human nature – (it’s a re-post of one of my earliest on this blog).

Wicked

How witchlike a creature can I be
when the moth at a swipe digs its claws into me
and the blood in my veins cascades to the ground
and the thoughts in my head make no audible sound.

How witchlike a creature do I feel
when a table for two is a cannibals’ meal
and the eggs in the pantry go rotten inside
and the cow in the meadow eats its own hide.

How witchlike a creature do I seem
when the nightmare you chase is my sacred dream
when the pain in your heart is the pleasure in mine
when the warmth that you drink is a poisonous wine.

Everything is not what it seems
The smile on my face is the end to a means.

Special thanks to Gabrielle Bryden for guest-posting me on her blog this week 😀

Eating words

Posted on October 25, 2011 by beeblu

‘mellifluous’ is yellow,
a mango

‘diabolical’ is red,
a Habanero

‘shimmering’ is gold,
champagne

‘malevolent’ is purple,
indelible liquorice

chocolate is black,
chocolate! What do you think?!

‘patented’ is …

..inedible

Weekly Photo Challenge: Opportunity

Posted on October 24, 2011 by beeblu

You had it

You took it

The darkness has lifted

Congratulations to the Land of the Long White Cloud!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Possibility

Posted on October 17, 2011 by beeblu

Change

is always

a possibility

Apartheid Museum – Johannesburg, South Africa

‘The next thing you think, the next action you take will either create possibility for you or it will repeat the past’
Deepak Chopra

Weekly Photo Challenge: Comfort

Posted on October 13, 2011 by beeblu

Coffee art - Pala Pizza, NYC

I sleep in; you are gone when I wake,
but here in our kitchen,

in the egg in the pan
to be boiled,
the GF bread
already once-toasted,
Vivalto Lungo
in the Nespresso machine (eat your heart out, George),

I find you

It is this that keeps me

these minutiae of love,
all the comfort
I need

Jane Doe (with apologies to dogs, maggots and vampires everywhere)

Posted on October 10, 2011 by beeblu

Bloggers come and bloggers go
and herein lies one Jane Doe
her tombstone says in Goth Shadow:
‘Just another WordPress blog below’

“Anonymity! Oh, freakin’ no!
I do decree that’s not the go!
For your complacency to grow
my power base, ALL I must know!

No faceless, nameless so-and-sos
will be allowed to stem the flow
your ID to the dogs I’ll throw
while I’m here sucking up the dough!”

Bloggers come and bloggers go
and herein lies one Jane Doe
maggot Zuckerberg, her face-off foe,
has sucked her in from head to toe

Sydney Morning Herald – Click, and Facebook revises privacy

Sydney Morning Herald – Facebook’s power should worry us all

Sydney Morning Heraled – Google launches Facebook rival ‘Google+’