Christmas Cheers

Just wanted to wish everyone all the fun of the festive season and continued joy for the New Year.  It has been a busy year for me, the fun (not!) of selling our house, renovating then moving house and my children changing school mid-year.  It's been quite a year but things have settled down now and I am looking forward to words tumbling out.  See you all soon.  

Cheers,

Jacqui

Resonant Words

Jonathon, your poem Male Seeks has more for me with each new reading. It speaks to me in my unheard daughter self and it cries out to me in my can't bare to hear mother self. I would love to see it performed by two people, maybe at the open-mic in May.
I am a great believer in listening for the signs of the Cosmos and after reading your poem for the third time I decided to dip into a book of poetry as I let your words penetrate and the book just opened at a poem I have never read before called

MY MOTHER WOULD BE A FALCONRESS by Robert Duncan

My mother would be a falconress,
And I, her gay falcon treading her wrist,
would fly to bring back
from the blue of the sky to her, bleeding, a prize,
where I dream in my little hood with many bells
jangling when I'd turn my head.

My mother would be a falconress,
and she sends me as far as her will goes.
She lets me ride to the end of her curb
where I fall back in anguish.
I dread that she will cast me away,
for I fall, I mis-take, I fail in her mission.

She would bring down the little birds.
And I would bring down the little birds.
When will she let me bring down the little birds,
pierced from their flight with their necks broken,
their heads like flowers limp from the stem?

I tread my mother's wrist and would draw blood.
Behind the little hood my eyes are hooded.
I have gone back into my hooded silence,
talking to myself and dropping off to sleep.

For she has muffled my dreams in the hood she has made me,
sewn round with bells, jangling when I move.
She rides with her little falcon upon her wrist.
She uses a barb that brings me to cower.

These are only the first five verses, there are ten more, if you are interested I will type the whole thing and email it to you. I have a scanner sitting on my desk beside me but have not yet learnt how to use it, my husband has tried to teach me but I guess I am not yet ready to learn because I can't remember a word he told me. I have come to a time in my life where memory is a sometimes thing.

I look forward to getting to know you better and reading more of your resonant words. Safe journey along the road you are about to travel.

Tricia

welcome to a new voice

Jonathan, if your witty poem "Male Seeks" is an indication of your style , then we are in for some interesting sessions next year! I think that you have a very individual voice, different from anyone else in the group, so maybe you will give us a new perspective on poetry (and life?). I'm looking forward to it!

Thanks for a delightful afternoon Cecilia - it was a sort of "unlaced" Victorian High Tea. The scones and tea and the fine bone china lent a veneer of respectability to the occasion but the I think the green champagne revealed the true agenda.

Have a very happy Xmas everyone

Geoffrey & June

A workshop wish for you on 11.12.07

Sir:

It is always difficult to manage your place of birth

once you have assigned a difference to yourself

you will find new links are forged

but crafted with sensitivity and pure light

this time not chains but delicate threads

that weave from a different loom,

in a spacious room,

and not facing emotional ruin

it can and will happen soon

forget being held out a silver spoon

better yet to fall from a phosperescent moon

so tuck that umbilicial cord

back where it can no longer cut

and begin begin again....

cecilia

I was Gored once
Gore was here flogging his Doco. on Climate Change "An Inconvenient Truth"
An Inconvenient Press Conference It was for me,
As he stepped on my foot on arrival!
I grizzled,
he must weigh a lot but I bet he cant run fast as he talks,
he was gracious, predictable and benign.


A " lame" and uninvited response to Yellowstone found poem-sorry,
Larson's Cartoons also come to mind.

Just an example of how we may respond in any form to each other creating something new
or epanding on something>??
I invite responses to my pieces in any form: text, art, music...
to be continued
Warm regards
Jonathon... ps. am temporarily being semi prolofic due to a quiet day at work!

Male Seeks

Male seeks, Mother seeks beatification
well, Female.

Male, about Forty,
lives with Mum, .............. You should be buying a house
seeks independant Female If you'd bought when I'd told you
Male seeks fellow seekers you'd be rolling in
clover
Male , seeking, ... if you were normal you'd be married by now
grieves.
........ Since my husband died...
.. I'm bloody well grieving and nobody cares
Male, emasculated, . I shld have had four abortions you were all accidents
seeks solace. we'll never get over this, we gave up everything for the kids

Male ,
practicing Zen and the search for the perfect co-parent: ...where did you find her?
passively looking, trusting in a bounteous Universe, why dont you...
sensing lots of fish in the ocean all the while trapped & flapping in a shallow puddle,
seeks fabulous sensualist

Grieving male seeks ...
grooving female

Male seeker grieves for Mother I told you I was ill
We did love you you know, we did

Sir,
sixty, Shit, just as I feared, there's nothing here,
settles for solitude and a shame sandwich nothin...................

My Break
a scary & exciting adventure:, workshops loom,
ancient hurts & unmet needs return, unearthed from warm shallow graves,/closets.
Finances stripped, solitude ensured,
I surrender myself to glory or doom:

11 days locked in, whilst most while away with "holyday"
when traditional man-made manacles descend,
enforced break with kin we choose not,
unlike friend.

11 days to explore, examine , express, feel tectonic soul plates shift ,
deep rumblings, then geysers leading to mini Volcanoes...
until the calm that's bound to come, the cellular biological lift!
having gone where 'cultured' man too rarely goes,
feeling deeply, open, honest, human, raw, down to his toes.

So, dear kith, I seek "inter-subjective response " from any & all, despite being unpolished & a tad cryptic, does this stir a reaction?, any form welcome.Feedback too but also keen to initiate this idea of responding to each other's content & style ,generating connected material.
ps ,am doing some Primal Therapy-just to put it in context>>

Warm Regards
Jonathon

Friday

Fellow coast liners what a lovely high/low tea on Wednesday. Thank you for your contributions which made it sweet and easy for me to host the tea. I didn't have to cook an evening meal. I did have six scones with lashings of jam and cream.

And a special thank you for the wonderful crafted card by June. Her love of flora now a part of my memorabilia and the white Dagwood forever preserved. And to all of you my heart beat that much faster with your words in the card and your generous gift. I have already browsed the bookshop today, but will not rush the purchase. I will wait until after Xmas.

It has been a delight to spend the monthly Wednesdays with you and not just for the poetry but the bon amie and warmth always present. I always left feeling more in touch with life and love, and a glow of having heard your special poems. There were changes in us all, from the first meeting, as we unfolded and became part of a whole. You have made my life so much richer.

What a treat Jonathon you were. Yes, you slipped from stranger to friend in a couple of breaths. Doesn't happen often, but when it does magic. Thank you for taking on all the 'do this and do that'. The mother saga continues as Ian writes copious letters to insurance companies, and mother's case manager is absolutely agog at her taking on a hire car and flying around the suburbs.

Last night's meeting at Brighton library saw a number of Coast Liners present; Tricia, Geoff, Suzanne, Jonathon, Ian pseudo member. Karyn was pleased to see us as numbers were down for the meeting. Another thanks for your involvement.

Our poetry workshop is locked in now for the Saturday 17th May from 2.00 pm till 5.00 pm. I contacted Judith Rodriguez and she agreed. And on the Sunday 18th May from 2.00 pm to 4.00 pm we have open mic and poetry reading,and Jonathon will do something special. Wine and cheese will be provided by the Library for both occasions.. But we do need to charge $15 to attend Judith's workshop. Which is reasonable. I also requested that for both events that we have the venue of the Brighton Library the round area at the front of the library.

So congratulations again. We were the only ones that had a set timetable and event to run.

Tricia did an amazing speedy creative job on getting down to the nitty gritty of naming the competition and the details of how when and what to do. Bravo!

Tricia will be managing the poetry competition. She has titled the competition 'Passion for Poetry'. And her generous husband will provide prize money should a sponsor not be found. At this stage we cannot enter it. However there is also to be a short story competition. This is being worked through by others, but you will be informed.

First meeting in February. Any ideas for a topic, post it on the blog.

Till then I hope I see some of you between now and February for a chat or a coffee, or maybe a swim around here. do have a wonderful Xmas and may the new year be filled with whatever you desire, but most and best of all good health and great relationships.

Cecilia

Thankyou all from Jonathon..

Strangers, just friends I hadn't met yet,
Comrades, soulmates,each unique , vibrant, alive with naive wonder,
a gentle, kind gang,
generous listeners, active listeners,
awake to subltle meaning, craft, feeling.

for the spread, the bonhomie, ...warmth,.... thankyou, thankyou, thankyou.
Jonathon Lee

Slam Poetry & Found Poem

Hi Everyone. Thanks again Cecilia (& Ian, too) for hosting a lovely tea.

Credited as the founder of slam poetry is Marc Kelly Smith. You can learn more at http://www.marckellysmith.com/

Also, if you go to http://www.youtube.com/ you can type slam poetry into the search box & view a variety of people performing slam.

There are many slam competitions around the world & the Australian Poetry Slam 2007 finals are being held Dec 7 in Sydney.

Below is the "found poem" I mentioned yesterday. Kind of makes you wonder how stupid tourists can be. One of the rangers said they take bets on how early in the season it will be when the first tourist gets gored...

Now Entering Yellowstone National Park

Many Visitors Have Been Gored
by Buffalo. They weigh
two thousand pounds. They run
three times faster than you. They look
tame, but are wild
unpredictable and dangerous.

Grizzly Bear Area--
Special Rules Apply.
Do not approach
grizzly bears.
$5000 fine.

Severe Frost Heaves.
Loose Stock.
Game Crossing.
Chains Required.

Exit at Memory Road.