Falling

The bulk of my poems, no matter how I try to avoid it, tend to be focused more on the maudlin side: full of melancholy, angst, lovelorn laments and ponderings of existential despair, all of that fun stuff.  But beautiful poetry doesn’t always have to be dark, or so I try to remind myself.  This Valentine’s Day I thought I’d delve into some happy memories and see what diamonds I could find.

So fall all you crazy lovers out there, this one’s for you.

Falling

Falling again,
against my better judgement,
light as a feather
leaden as lead,
into your wide open arms
no thought, no choice, just one word,
‘go.’

 

“A new dawn” From Nina Simone’s Feeling Good

With every New Year we give ourselves an emotional opportunity to begin anew, to bind ourselves with resolutions, aspirations and prognostications of a better, idealised self to live up to throughout the year. Whether the new self becomes inspiration for change and self-improvement or fades as quickly as a New Year’s Day hangover; it remains emblematic of change; as Nina Simone sings, “It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life for me, and I’m feeling good.”

But I’m just not feeling it. After a rather turbulent time the New Year has been less about celebration and much more about finding focus. 2015 was a year tainted by grief and regaining my emotional equilibrium has been a long process. January has been a time of introspection. I have been spring cleaning, not just physically, but mind, body and soul. This poem, inspired from Nina Simone’s song Feeling Good, is about that process.

A New Dawn

Birds fly high into the dusky rose sky,
stars shine down in mournful song—
the sun is dead, is turned to ash—
and my mind’s a confused cog;
don’t know what to expect,
can’t cast aside this old wound
can only learn from what’s been done,
what’s been given was never meant to be;
this old world, this bold world—
this world will eat me alive.

Birds fly high into blissful skies,
my heart weighs me into the ground—
it’s time to clean out the old, comb out the fog.
Birds fly high toward the dawn
their song sings ‘freedom, freedom’
I watch their journey with envious eyes
and wait for the day my sun will be reborn.

Winter Lights

Yesterday (1st of June) marked the official start of winter, a season that has of late sparked many melancholy feelings, possibly because when bad things happen to me they tend to happen in the colder months.  So this time I decided to start the season on a positive note with a little personal celebration.  At federation square in Melbourne they a running an exhibition/public space installation called the Lights in Winter to encourage us Melbournites to venture out into the dreary cold and smile.

This is the poem (Day 336 out of 365) that I wrote while watching the lights from afar over my glass of wine.

Winter lights

The first day of winter,
rain smashing against my window,
a constant stream of sleet
from a sky in shades of grey,
the clouds are crying,
plants dropping with gloom,
all is miserable,
except, just this once, I am not.

Winter, again,
sky stark, bereft of sun—
but night,
the lights, the lights,
hovering high into the sky
at their brightest in this dark,
at their lightest,
light like me
when I forget how
winter always makes me hurt.

 

 

2012

December 21st 2012 marks the end of the long count Mayan calendar, or more specifically the end of the thirteenth baktun cycle.  While this date has cultural and spiritual significance for the Mayan people, it has also been ascribed various different meanings across the globe ranging from a variety of doomsday scenarios, ascension to a higher level of being, consciousness, or even plane of existence, to the beginning of a worldwide spiritual awakening, and of course for many it is just another day.

For myself, while I do not ascribe to any of the doomsday scenarios, I am quite ambivalent as to what meaning, if any, to give to this date.  In some ways it strikes me as just another exploitation of the knowledge and culture of an Indigenous people in keeping with the theme of the ‘noble savage.’  At the same time, the commercialisation and trivialisation of this event make it all too easy to dismiss the whole thing.  With the current state of the environment, the economy and global politics I can see how it could be easy to believe in the end of the world, or conversely, that a better world is coming, but I feel it is important to remember we are responsible for our own actions and inactions, and whatever is in store for our future is going to come about from the choices we make today.

Of course, if the world does somehow end, here is a friendly announcement for anyone embarking on a plane trip this Friday.

Good morning ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking.  We are currently experiencing some delays in landing due to the incoming apocalypse.  Please buckle your seat-belts as we are expecting turbulence ahead.  If you look out the window to your left you will see fires and earthquakes spreading across the airport and in the window to the right you can see the planet Nibiru which we are expecting to enter the earth’s atmosphere at approximately 11:11 am.  The flight attendants will presently be handing out some complimentary champagne, so sit back, have a drink and enjoy the ride.’

Tune in this Thursday for my story, ‘End of days.’